Two powerful women

Two women lashed at two countries separated by thousand of miles and left destruction and losses of lives and properties in their path. The two named Mina and Irene, left their marks on the Philippines, and probably on other Asian countries it may pass by, while Irene, who came with strong winds and floods, cut quite a swath on the Eastern Coast of the United States, affecting such cities as New York, New Jersey, and lately, Wilmington.

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The vagaries of nature that we are experiencing now had been anticipated by scientists, especially those involved in the study of the environment, who said that our abuse of our surroundings will soon exact a toil that mankind is not prepared to pay. Note that we are now experiencing sudden earthquakes, tornados, typhoons, landslides, tsunamis, eruptions and unexpected phenomena, like rain in summer and unusual warmth in the formerly cold months of November to February. If we had not understood what those scientists meant when they kept harping on “climate change”, I think we now know what it means, and what we have done or not done to bring it about.

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And change we are getting in other aspects of our existence, like what is happening in Libya, where a 42-year-old dictatorship has been booted out, or in Japan, where a prime minister who had barely served for a year after his election, had to resign when his country was hit by a calamity, both wrought by nature and by human achievements. In our own country, we are also seeing changes, as in the resignations of newly appointed department secretaries, or vital government agencies as what happened only yesterday at the infamous Bureau of Customs. Will these changes bring improvement or reforms? Time will tell.

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But Japan has shown more changes in leadership than any other country recently. Just imagine, in the span of only five years, it has changed its leaders, the prime minister, especially, five times, with the sixth already chosen as of yesterday. Naoto Kan, who must have felt frustrated over his inability to find a dramatic solutions to the problems brought by the quake, tsunami and explosion of a nuclear plant, gave up last Friday, and now poised to take his place is financier Yoshihiko Noda. And if Barack Obama of the U.S. is not careful, he, too, may find himself replaced in the next election, with so many Americans impatient with the state of their economy under him.

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An interesting as well as amusing item from the reports of those who had entered the quarters of the missing Libyan strongman, Moammar Gadhafi, said that they found notes and albums that had photos of former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on whom he apparently had a big crush. It said he called her “darling” and also referred to her as “Leeza”, whom he admired very much. Now, what has our former first lady, the Imeldific one, has to say to that? She had also visited Gadhafi in his heyday, and had hinted later that he was quite taken with her. So why aren’t there photos of her beautiful face in his albums, or notes to show he even remembered her? Hindi siya type, as the youngsters would say it.

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The announcement of the acquittal of the once notorious Alabang Boys reverberated like a thunderclap all over the country. Everyone thought that their charges for drug involvement would make an airtight case, but it now appears that some clever lawyer had pounced on a technicality that enabled the judge to set them free. Put this case in the same column as the acquittal also of Hubert Webb et al, and you will have reference for cases involving prominent and well-to-do people in this country.

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Senator Pia Cayetano reportedly jumped on an official of the Philippine Sports Commission who condescendingly said that the Dragon Boat team that had been snubbed by the sports magnates of the country won only five gold medals and two silvers when there were 87 events in the competition. Cayetano snapped at the POC official for the “mata pobre” attitude. She probably had not known then that our Dragon paddlers had participated only in seven events – which means they got medals for all of them. Some people are really experts in twisting information for their own purposes. By the way, that is the definition of propaganda used in some journalism schools. That was the one taught us by our professor, the late Armando Malay at the U.P. but I think some people just become good at it instinctively.*

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