AS SEEN ON TV
2010 so far
It’s the month of March! It didn’t seem long ago that we said our goodbyes to 2009 as many of us hurriedly put closure to quite an unpleasant year marked by killer floods, massacres, oil hikes and what-have-yous.
Today we’re 3 months into 2010. Yes, the days and weeks flew by like a blur and a colleague cracks an over-beaten joke that it’s Christmas 9 months away. With the velocity of time these days, that joke is not actually funny—- it’s in fact dead serious—- the year may be over before any of us realizes it.
If I had a way, I’d fast forward to December and skip the burdensome first half of the year. I once posted on Facebook, “Is it just me or does anyone feel 2010 is a very busy year from the start?” A lot of my Facebook friends agreed. They are also struggling with a busy start of the new year (whether Gregorian or Chinese), and that post generated a long thread of sympathy complaints.
It turns out most of the people I know are also trying very hard to catch a breath from an avalanche of official and personal pursuits since 2010 began. For the last 2 months stress levels came under fire
especially within my ecosystem—- the media, due to the much-awaited presidential elections.
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As with any election year, we can already expect a busy first six months covering the usual dramatic sorties, some violence here and there, and loads of election intrigue to fill timeslots and tabloids. But this year is all the more challenging because aside from the usual political freak shows and campaign musicals, we are also anticipating an automated election (the country’s first) whose implementation will most likely be eventful.
Failure of election is one such event.
The derailed timelines at the Comelec and its brewing lovers quarrel with Smartmatic TIM due to the delays in the arrival of the PCOS machines and the printing of the ballots; as well as the dismal performance of machine, teacher and pretend voter in the mock polls—-all add to the nationwide pre-election anxiety. Now there are more than just doubts that our country can really pull off a high-tech polls. Now they’re redesigning the ballot boxes for another couple of hundred millions.
It’s not that we’re not tech savvy but with the obstacles hounding the automated elections, it seems that more people in this country want it to fail.
The setbacks almost feel intentional.
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And it is not just politics and Comelec that gave media a field day in the past 2 months. There is unfinished business from 2009 such as the Maguindanao Massacre—- a case whose end is nowhere in sight despite the marathon hearings. Since January, we’ve had sugar crisis, a roller coaster ride with fuel companies hiking and reducing their crude prices using a complex computation that would baffle the world’s accomplished mathematicians.
The country also began struggling with a low rice supply and a power shortage as rivers and water reservoirs dry up from El Niño. The drought has already affected agricultural output in many food producing provinces prompting government agencies like the National Food Authority to import rice from other countries.
This also reminds me of Presidential Aspirant Richard Gordon’s proposal for the country to eat less rice. It makes some— take note—some, sense. If we are not producing enough of this staple, we might as well reduce consumption. Gordon also reinforces that with a health alert that rice is really doing bodies some harm. It is fattening.
But there’s a slight unrealism here.
What are Filipinos going to eat then? Rice is still the cheapest stuffing there is on this side of the planet. Giving up a couple of cups of rice a day may be a small matter to a rich glutton but for the poor who would need their fix of carbs to power up a day’s hard labor?
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Many regions are also suffering from rotating brownouts as power plants either undergo maintenance or could not anymore supply electricity with the growing power demand.
Rotating brownouts have been felt yesterday in Luzon. On the average this part of the country will experience 2 hours of power interruptions again. If the power supply shortage persists until the election, then we really have a problem.
And I won’t be surprised if some big idea guy proposes emergency powers to address the power supply problem, the rice crisis and the El Niño and all its attendant evils.
This is over and above the many task forces created to solve these irritants. It’s funny that we’ve become a nation of task forces, like nothing can be done if we relied on regular government operation.
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Over ANC’s Dateline Philippines Sunday, PAGASA’s Prisco Nilo says the El Niño Phenomenon can actually bring some good things. Alternative crops such as Watermelons (in all varieties), Mongo beans, and Mangoes thrive in warmer, drier conditions. El Niño is also good for the construction and real estate industry, with uninterrupted projects due to sunny weather as concrete dries thoroughly.
And then there’s tourism. El Niño means lots of fun time under the sun, the perfect conditions to go out to the countryside or head for the beaches and cool off.
On this note I am inviting everyone to enjoy summer—— which may be over before you know it.