The issue facing Cebu City today is the looming energy and water crisis. We've been warned many times in the past about the growing demand and decreasing supply of both these resources. Now, it's still an issue even after the election of new officials. In light of this, I'd like to talk about one of my favorite video game series, SimCity. Video games are more than just shooting aliens and smashing heads. Some video games are educational.
In SimCity, you build and manage your own virtual metropolis. It is THE city simulator. It incorporates many principles of urban planning like zoning and transportation. Anyway, the first thing you learn in SimCity is that you need basic utilities. These are: power, water, transportation and waste disposal. Power is the most important and tricky. As your city grows, more of these utilities will be needed. It is important to begin securing your little city's power by building more power plants. Your city will always reach a threshold where it cannot grow anymore and you get shortages and rotating black outs like we do now. A city can only grow as much as its utilities can support or else it will begin to choke. Your city will gasp and cry for more power, more water, more roads, more landfills and etc. All this complexity and I didn't even mention the services mechanic of the game like schools, hospitals and recreation.
Why am I writing about this? Well, my point is that a city is like an organism. It needs energy and water to survive. It is constantly growing and when it's needs aren't met, it leads to misery. Unlike SimCity, there is no "pause" button. There is no wimpy time out or save n' load retries. Cebu is always going to grow and grow and grow and our leaders need to think more about long term plans to improve our infrastructure. Haven't any of you Cebuano readers noticed how congested our streets are becoming or how quickly some areas flood due to poor drainage? Well, Cebu is getting too big for its britches.
I'm not an urban planning major or a politician but I know what the hell is wrong with this city. What's wrong with this city is that it's a big time place with small minded leadership. This power and water crap should have been dealt with long ago. Instead our local government has little to show. What's our plan? How come I never hear our leaders talk about these things? What are our long term plans for our future needs?
Our previous mayor was a moron. He was a semi-competent boob, a bully with a truly pathetic ego. He was a petty man with no vision apart from his own name and political holdings. He was a man who would rather make snide remarks about the Governor than extend a hand in cooperation. He would rather put the screws on his political enemies than think of ALL our welfare. If you would ask him about long-term goals, he'd probably mention the South Reclamation Project. Let me tell you something about the fucking SRP. We still haven't paid the loan for it. It wasn't even his idea, it was his father's. He should be giving him the credit! "The SRP will bring big businesses to Cebu." is what he and his camp says. Oh really!? You think big shots are gonna want to move into a city with blackouts and a salty water table!? Let's admit it. He only wants big business to move in to the SRP so he can tax the hell out of them. He wants to collect. It's much easier to play politics than to make hard choices isn't it? All we have is band aid solutions and still no vision.
Cebu is a great city. I love this city. It can be so great. It can be so much more. Our leaders should play SimCity, they might learn something.
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