I meant to upload a late Father's day ode but I was disturbed by a seemingly inane exchange on a morning show. I just recently reconnected with my boob tube, after a feverish 4-week book marathon where I attempted to re-read everything in my bookshelf (and failed to make a dent on my yet-unread pile).
Anyway. It was the portion of the program where the tough-as-nails commentator is supposed make the guest Government lady weep in shame at her department's ineptitude to foresee the MV Princess of the Sea tragedy. The whole interview was laden with governmentalese and legalese, which translated to layman's term is simply "I-don't-know-who-fucked-up-but-it-sure-ain't-me!". The reporter guy is in his element too, sympathetic to the government lady who flew all the way from London and rabid at the Sulpicio lines lawyer, whose biggest fault in this whole debacle is that he draws his salary from the shipping line. the At the end of the segment came the reporter's time to reconcile both views and insert his objective take in the recent turn of events. In short, moment nya to. I was expecting a plea to enforce sticter maritime restrictions in allowing commercial vessels to transport people during adverse weather conditions, a denouncement of greedy corporations who think nothing beyond profit and compromised human lives by scrimping on security, a call to the rest of the nation to give up a day's worth of text load to give to those who are sheltered in evacuation centers, a prayer even for those whose loved ones are still afloat in the seas. Instead, he attempted levity by starting with "bato-bato sa langit, ang tamaan wag magalit...", while smiling disarmingly at the government lady beside him. I didn't get the rest of his statement. Three words resonated in my coffeed-out mind. GRAB. SOME. BALLS.
He probably meant well, but he is a member of the media for crying out loud. His job is to insert reason when madness ensues, to make sense out of tragedy on behalf of the rest of us who's already desensitized. I probably wouldn't have appreciated the extrapolations of fury and the cries of indignation the Tulfo brothers have cultivated as an artform. As Conrado De Quiros have so succintly put it, emotion should not be an impediment to reason, nor should moral indignation cloud accurate perception.
But then again, what do I know? I should talk about courage. I'm squandering my days feeling indifferent at what I do for a living, yet fulfilling my duties with a passion that sometimes scares the living shit out of me. At least he's doing what he set out to do. But as somebody who still has her press badge stashed away somewhere, I still have hope for the both of us. That someday, we both fulfill what we dreamt to do the first time we saw our words in ink: to change the world.
To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
To illuminate and to fulminate.
Recent Comments