It’s not a matter of color

LOS ANGELES, Ca. – Are the Americans coming to their senses at last? Well, that’s a very biased view, but this column has never made secret its preference for Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate, if not the next president, of the United States. As of this writing, the results of the primaries in Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont and Ohio are in and it looks as if Madame Clinton will make it, that is, will be the one to challenge, the Republican confirmed bet, John McCain. Just between you and me, I really have been praying for Hillary.

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Of course it’s not really a matter of color – after all, as far as Caucasians are concerned, we, too, are “colored”. It’s just that, to me, Barack Obama is still too raw, too full of rhetoric, which obviously hypnotized a lot of Americans of all colors. Here in California, almost all the Fil-Ams I have met are for Hillary, and some of them told me that if Obama gets to be the candidate, they’ll vote for McCain.

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Anyway, I hope Millie Kilayko, an “Obamacan”, is not too devastated. As I write this, a radiant Hillary Clinton is profusely thanking the people of Ohio for ending what had been her losing streak in the past weeks. CNN also keeps emphasizing now the Texas Caucus results of 52-48 in favor of Obama was overturned in the primaries there. Answered prayers?

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Wednesday last week, as I was waiting for my nephew to fetch me from the airport in Manila, I couldn’t help overhearing a fellow PAL passenger talking on his cellphone to someone who was obviously a hotel official in Cebu. All right, I admit it was shamelessly eavesdropping, but how could I help it since we were sitting in the same row of connected seats? Anyway, his story should be interesting, even helpful to people like us who are constantly traveling. One never knows what one may experience while on tour.

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Anyway, his story was very clear, even if I was only listening to his side. He was telling the hotel official that he and his friends are balikbayans from New York and they had checked in at this hotel in Cebu. He said he was so tired that he decided to rest on the bed as soon as they got into their room. Within a few minutes, he said, he started feeling itchy and in seconds the itching spread throughout his body and he started getting rashes. Thinking it was just something he had eaten, he went out for dinner with his two companions. Upon coming back they all went to bed, but within minutes, all of them started itching and getting rashes.

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What disgusted them most, he said, was the fact that the hotel staff was very unconcerned. When they complained, the hotel nurse came and just gave them some Caladryl lotion. One of them had to be hospitalized, still the hotel official they complained to, was unsympathetic, and even seemed to think they got their allergies somewhere else and wanted the hotel to answer for it. Obviously the three had filed charges or reported this case to the authorities because it sounded as if the unseen party on the end of the phone was apologizing for the behavior of a certain “Chito”. The New Yorker was saying “If he had spoken to me as you are doing now, it wouldn’t have gotten to this”.

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At this point, he got up and walked off with his luggage and the lady from Tuguegarao whose flight had been cancelled and also waiting to be fetched, looked at me, and we spoke at the same time. “What hotel was that?” Obviously, she had been listening as avidly as I had. “My husband and I go to Cebu on business sometimes,” she said. “I surely would like to know so we can avoid it,” she added. I wish I knew, too, but unfortunately he never named it.*

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