Souls of Mischief - 93 'til Infinity

Little Cebu

Cebu is a great place but sometimes I really feel like it's going nowhere. It's a big town and is still growing but it seems we're still stuck in "small town" mentalities. That's our problem as Filipinos; we don't think big.

Our streets are still 1950's era. Sure, there's been road widening in some odd parts, but on the whole, our streets are too small. We don't have any rail system or mass transit networks. How can we call ourselves a modern city and not have a mass transit system? There's a plan to implement BRT system but it's moving way too slow. To put it in perspective, I was still an undergraduate when they were talking about implementing it. It's also doubtful if it would work as I explained before.

There's no overall plan. Development just happens here and there. Urban sprawl is getting worse and squatters clog our natural waterways. Yes, I call them "squatters". Sometimes I'm not in the mood for the politically correct pieties. It seems that if it rains for just a little while, everything floods. You'd think a people used to living in a tropical climate would have prepared for such a thing but no. Every year it's a ritual. 

The streets are full of garbage. Even now there's an issue with garbage collection. Garbage collection! It's one of the most basic services the government should provide but we're failing at even that. The traffic gets worse and worse as more cars are on the road every year and the streets remain the same. 

People are rude and don't follow the rules. Civic duty is out the window. People get shot in the streets and nobody blinks an eye. It's like that HBO show here, anybody can die. The drug problem persists in our society like a cancer. Anybody who tries to fight it seriously ends up dead. Beggars and thugs roam the streets. Corruption is a constant so why do I even mention it.

I look out the window of the jeepney or taxi and see a city with no dreams. Nobody talks about Cebu and what it could be. If I ask a person on the street where he thinks Cebu will be in a decade or two, I doubt he'll have anything good to say. I don't hear any politician talking about our future. All they care about is holding on to power for just one day more. Ordinary folk don't give a shit and just want to go on with their lives and get home in time to eat fast food dinners and watch their soap operas.

When will this end?

It's A Dog's Life

Our neighbor had a dog named Spring. They took him in one day and I wasn't too keen on the idea. Spring was male but I had two female dogs. I didn't want any more puppies so I managed to have one spayed but I digress.

Spring was a particularly feisty dog. The name suited him. I didn't know where they found him but one thing I noticed was that Spring could stand to be around people but didn't want to be touched or held. He would always recoil from outstretched hands. Perhaps he was a stray used to abusive people but I wasn't sure.

Our neighbors are a small group of security guards. Given their line of work, you couldn't tell exactly who was in the house at any given moment. They clearly worked irregular shifts and the house was just an area to bunk before their jobs. I assumed Spring was taken in as a deterrent against thieves. The house they were occupying was by the gate and outer wall.

One thing that was clear was that Spring wasn't well fed. They fed him scraps at first but it wasn't enough. Spring looked for food elsewhere so it led to him always bringing in garbage from the outside. It got so bad at one point that my mother complained to them personally about the mess. To our surprise, the guard who was there at the time denied that the dog belonged to them. It probably belonged to one of the guards but it wasn't clear who. Again, the house was basically a barracks where whoever could just come in and out. 

Whoever the owner was, he didn't seem to be around anymore or maybe he stopped caring. I suspect that Spring wasn't being fed anymore because the garbage kept piling up and Spring was getting thinner. I felt sorry for him and decided to feed him a little dog food every now and then. Little did I know that this would cause him to bug me to no end. Whenever I arrived, he would jump around and run circles around me until I gave him something. He ate hungrily; almost desperately. My other dogs didn't like it one bit. If dogs could express emotions, envy and indignation were probably it.  "How could I feed a dog that wasn't even mine?" they must have thought.

Spring was annoying but I have to admit he grew on me a little.

One day, Spring didn't come out as usual to beg for food. I found it odd since I was used to it at that point. Then the next day came and still no dog. I thought, somewhat innocently, that they must have taken him somewhere else.

As I came home one night, I asked one of our help about Spring and how I didn't see the dog for days. I didn't think much about the question; it was just small talk. She answered me, rather plainly, that they had Spring killed. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't taken aback by the reply. She tried to tell me the details of how they did it and where they did it and how she couldn't stand to see it but I made it clear I didn't want to hear it. I didn't enjoy my dinner or the rest of the evening.

Why does it bother me so? Spring wasn't my dog after all. A long time ago when our gated area was overrun by stray dogs, we had them taken away. We figured it was a danger to have stray dogs, who were not injected for rabies by the way, running around with all the neighbors having children.I felt a little bad but it had to be done. Did Spring have to die? At worst he was just annoying. The whole affair bothered me a lot. It bothered me so much that I'm writing about this rather insignificant thing when a lot of more important nonsense is happening in our country. After thinking about it a lot, I now know why. 

It just wasn't fair.

All that dog was guilty of was being a dog. It's not his fault why he brought a lot of garbage into the driveway. Maybe if they fed the damn thing, he wouldn't have done so. It just wasn't fair. They brought a dog into their house only to neglect it and then kill it because it was way too much of a bother to buy a sack of dog food every once in a while or maybe tie him up next to a tree.

I don't think any ill of the guards. It was their decision to make. As much as I like the company of dogs, I don't put them on a pedestal like some PETA activist. I felt bad when Jackie died of course, but in the end, a dog is still just a dog. The fact that they have shorter lifespans kind of prepares you for the inevitable and the time after that. Still, I don't know why the fate of some animal could stir such negative feelings in me. That dog was just hungry. It was hungry all the time. Even after you gave him a bowl full of dog food, it was still hungry... for something else maybe.

What a terrible existence.

Tony MacAlpine - Quarter to Midnight (Solo)

The Lame Dove President

First of all, what happened to those SAF officers was barbaric. Those men didn't deserve to go out like that. It goes to show you how depraved and cruel our foes really are and how inept our political leadership has become.

So who's fault was it? Don't bother asking El Presidente. His entire term has been nothing but excuse after excuse after excuse. The only thing he seems to do is point fingers and blame his enemies whether real or imaginary. This is an absentee President totally devoid of any leadership qualities. He has proven once and for all he is incapable of making smart decisions and taking responsibility for his actions. I'm done. I've had it. I don't want to see his face on my TV or on the newspaper, I can't stomach it. I wish PNoy, his airhead sister Kris and his entire stupid entitled family would just fuck off forever from media and politics. It's abundantly clear they're no good; no good at all.

On Peace

I'm sick and tired of all the talk of "peace" making the rounds in the newspapers and media. The administration is hammering away on their talking point that we mustn't let the massacre stop the peace process. The administration has displayed an alarming lack of empathy and understanding. It's as if the lives of those men didn't matter. It's just 44 little speed bumps on the road to peace. How can a people so proud of its spirituality during the papal visit treat life so cheaply?

What irks me the most is this notion that "peace" will be the eventual result of the Bangsamoro swindle. Haven't you noticed? People seem to just assume that we're on a road to peace. I've got some bad news. Don't assume peace will be the definite and inevitable result of all this. That's what everyone thought when the Philippines made a deal with the MNLF long ago. Remember those jokers? Then we had the ARMM, an autonomous region just for the Muslims. Did lasting peace come? No. It's 2015 and we're still dealing with the MILF, a group that uses terror and violence to get their way. Now there's a BIFF group that claims to want a piece of the pie. It seems every time an administration has the hubris of assuming that peace will be achieved through pieces of paper, some alphabet soup organization just comes out of nowhere and ruins everything. What's next? Will we cut a deal with the BIFF too down the road only to have some group like, say, the STFU, to emerge and cause chaos?

Sometimes you have to fight for peace. I'm sorry if that sounds so terrible but it's true. Some people just cannot be reasoned with or have no intention to make nice at all. Just look at how those barbarians butchered the corpses of those officers. Do you want to put them in charge? Does the MILF even speak for the people of Mindanao? Did anyone elect them?

PNoy is hopelessly naive if he thinks this Bangsamoro deal will result in sunshine and rainbows in that godforsaken ass-crack of a region. His peace plan is in serious doubt now. So we've had an incompetent president who accomplished nothing of consequence throughout his entire term and now places all his chips on this gamble with a bunch of 7th Century barbarians. He's not a lame duck president; lame dove is more like it.

What Now? Politics...

If we had a real leader, we would have had an answer for this by now. Instead, we have politics rearing its goddamn ugly head again. You know, I never though I'd see the day that such blatant and shameless politicking would actually get a lot of people fucking killed but it's happened. We've hit rock bottom.

So PNoy and his buddy, suspended Chief of Police, Purisima did this? Again, nobody takes responsibility. The buck stops where? Why was Mar Roxas kept out of the loop? Why were so many people kept out of the loop? Why did nobody send any reinforcements? This whole thing stinks to high heaven. This whole thing stinks all the way to Malacanang.

What the hell is happening to us?