A lot of noise but no bite

The so-called "Civil Society" can create a lot of noise, a lot of fury, a lot of hype and color, but as shown during the last electoral exercise, it cannot deliver votes in areas where traditional politicians hold sway. The misfortune of the ruling administration coalition is that it badly misread the power and the clout of Civil Society. I relied too much on Civil Society to deliver votes for the senatorial candidates of the People Power Coalition – and the votes were not delivered in crucial areas like Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and even here in Metro Manila.

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Civil Society, too, played a major role in the selection of the PPC candidates for the Senate race. It exerted too much pressure in behalf of its anointed bets, thinking that the sound and fury and hype would result in votes, probably even in far-flung rural areas. Again, it misread the temper of the people, the clout of the traditional politicians, and the realities of the political landscape. Now, the result of the Senate race is not going the way the ruling coalition had hoped it would go. Sayang.

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Recall that some sectors allied with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wanted Noli de Castro to be included in the PPC Senate slate. Noli would have agreed to join the ticket, but Civil Society blocked Noli’s entry. This it also did with other Senate aspirants whom it considered as part of traditional politics.

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Could a 13-0 shutout been possible had other Senate candidates been chosen by the PPC? Probably not, but 10-3 or even 11-2 would have been a distinct possibility. But then, all this is under the bridge, and the PPC would now only pine and hope that the final Senate result will, at worst, be 8-5.

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Dr. Conrad Javier, a practicing Fil-Am doctor in Cleveland, Ohio, passed on to me a study of 678 Catholic nuns conducted by Dr. David A. Snowdon and his colleagues at the University of Kentucky. The nuns were from the convent of Good CounselHill in Minnesota and from convents in six other US states. And the object of the study was to find answers to Alzheimer’s disease.

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The Snowdon research showed that folic acid may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, that small strokes may trigger some dementia, and that early language ability may be linked to lower risk of Alzheimer’s. But a more significant finding is that a positive emotional state in early life may contribute to living longer.

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According to Dr. Snowdon, the nuns live significantly longer than other women. Of the 678 in the study, 295 or 45 percent are still alive and are 85 or older, while seven are over 100 years of age. In his conclusion, Dr. Snowdon states: "You don’t necessarily have to join a convent or a church, but that love of other people , that caring, how people are good to each other, that’s something which all of us can do." Dr. Conrad’s message interprets this to mean that it is actually all about going back to the teachings of Christ and the Golden Rule.

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Business exec Boy Guevara, one of the most active civic leaders from the business community, sent to me an article which I could share with Jaywalker readers. It carries a message that we should not judge others by how they look. And it deals with how the prestigious Stanford University started.

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I hope that the following, as sent to me by Boy Guevara, will be good Monday reading for one and all:

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the president’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backward, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge. She frowned.

"We want to see the president," the man said softly.

"He’ll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.

"We’ll wait," the lady replied.

For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted to do.

"Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they’ll leave," she told him. And he sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.

The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus." The president wasn’t touched; he was shocked.

"Madam," he said gruffly, "we can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery."

"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."

The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building cost? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard." For a moment the lady was silent.

The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now.

The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don’t we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.

Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about!

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PULSEBEAT: Pat Gallardo, a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University and currently working with the Presidential Management Staff, is keeping her fingers crossed that after the NAMFREL finishes its vote count, the election candidates are going to clean up the mess caused by the campaign. Who will clean up the mess near the basketball court at Capitol Hills Drive or Tandang Sora in Quezon City? Who will begin in earnest the job of bringing about a cleaner city? These questions from Pat deserve answers, especially from the winning candidates .... Tony Lapid, an OFW based at the Prince Sultan College in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wrote to say that had the seven million OFWs been able to vote in the May 14 elections, the result would have been different from what is now indicated in the quick vote counts. Lapid suggests that steps be taken to enable OFWs to vote in the 2004 elections.

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