Tales of Unquestionable Interest I

I, my mother, my aunt and my cousin went to the United States a few years ago to visit the rest of the family. It was my aunt and cousin's first time in America so the family decided to take them on a tour of the great state of California. Our first stop would be San Francisco.

It was a very long drive and we arrived well into the evening. All of us were hungry and exhausted. We were supposed to have dinner at some Chinese restaurant owned by a family friend. It was closing time when we finally got there but she generously accommodated us. Stepping out of the car was like walking into a freezer. At least it woke us up right quickly. We hurriedly rushed into the restaurant to escape the biting cold and to get some hot food into our empty bellies.

I don't like Chinese food and this meal was the authentic stuff. There was fish smothered in whatever sauce, wrapped mystery meat and fried things. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it. As usual, I was unsatisfied and had nobody to talk to. I decided to step outside to "get some air"; some cold, frigid air. At least it would fight back the drowsiness and the howling wind was better company.

While I was standing outside the doorway, some strange American man was staggering along the sidewalk. He was white, of average height and wearing an offensively bright pink shirt. He came up to me and asked me if the restaurant was open. I told him no, which was true by the way. He decided to get all up in my business and said, "Are you gonna deny me liquor?" I don't know what this guy's problem was. He wasn't even standing straight and his face looked like he had just gotten out of bed. "I don't even work here.", I said. Suddenly, a car came up and stopped in the middle of the street. The man looked at me, held a finger up to say something, then changed his mind and handed me this box of chocolates he was carrying instead. He stumbled into the car and it drove of.

Weirdo.

It was a box of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. Nuts. Although I like chocolate-covered macadamia nuts (or chocolate-covered anything, really), the plastic cover of the box was already open so I thought better of it and just left the thing in the restaurant. For all I know, it might have been laced with whatever funny juice that guy was clearly on.

Overall, that was the only interesting thing to happen on my second trip to San Francisco. Frankly, I don't like the place. It's cold and full of homeless people and weirdos. We were even harassed by some middle-eastern looking punks on the street. One earthquake clearly wasn't enough.

I wonder if that guy is still alive and not drowned in a puddle of his own vomit.

Counterflow Culture

If you read the newspapers or listen to the radio, you'd learn that the most pressing and most indisputably important issue facing the city of Cebu today is the problem of "counterflowing" drivers. The mayor recently passed an ordinance imposing stricter penalties on drivers caught in the act, including impounding their vehicle for thirty days.

Despite living in a modern city, it is tiring sometimes how public discourse meanders from one minor-but-suddenly-important topic to the next. It's all so very provincial. I digress. 

I've written many times in the past about how government tends to act in an overly oppressive manner whenever it feels the need to look busy. Not so long ago, there was a ban on tall buildings due to the sudden realization that fire exists. Recently, misbehaving youth had the city mull over imposing a  curfew to prevent kids from being recruited by gangs or something, as if they couldn't just recruit at daytime. A few days ago, the intellectuals in government grew eyes and noticed that there was a lot of graffiti on the walls so they started barking about passing measures to regulate the sale of spray-paint. You get the drift.

I admit that I'm being too unfair to the government; the people share a lot of the blame as well. Using the current hubbub about counterflowing drivers as an example, I submit that the people's general lack of discipline and cavalier attitude to law and order is what invites the heavy-handed attitude the government has. It's a chicken or egg thing but they both feed each other.

The price that must be paid to live in an ordered society is the surrender of some of our freedoms. We surrender some of our personal autonomy and agree to live by certain rules in order that our own rights are protected. A lawless state is a horror to behold. I know because I need only open a window. 

The more people act selfishly and ignore the law to the prejudice of others, the more the people clamor for government to step in and knock some heads around. The current measure against counterflowing drivers is quite popular but I don't see this as a good sign. What it means to me is that the higher our desire for order, the more willing we are to accept the government adopting increasingly brutal measures to do so.

It begs the question, "why can't people just obey the law"? That's a question with a thousand unsatisfying answers but the only one worth asking. If people were angels we wouldn't need laws. It's tragic really, how man provides the means of his own undoing. Tyranny is our ultimate destiny. It will come once it's made palatable enough or is it here already?

Perhaps we should focus on making better people rather than "better" laws.