A flu epidemic here, plus, everywhere, another one of ‘infectious greed’

Typhoon Juan has hit southern Luzon and roiled the waters between Bicol and the Visayas, stranding thousands of would-be boat travelers in the area.

PAG-ASA, our weather bureau, has been chirping that this time they’ve given the weather disturbance a male name, instead of the usual female tag. What’s the big deal about that? Did our males demand equal treatment in this thing?

This is truly the typhoon season. In rapid succession came Typhoon Gloria, then Hambalos, and, lately, Inday. But what has bothered me for years is why our PAG-ASA wiseguys keep on insisting on giving typhoons and storms local names, when those weather disturbances and gales are already being tracked far out in the Pacific and other bodies of water by world weather-watchers clearly identified under "international" names. In short, if we only stuck to the internationally-announced name of an approaching typhoon, then everybody could be forewarned and able to prepare for its coming by simply switching on a television set and monitoring what CNN, BBC, and other cable news networks say in their telecasts on weather conditions every half-hour.

Such international "storm warnings" are also broadcast, mind you, on our local TV networks.

Why on earth do we try to "nationalize" typhoons? They’re disasters and threats to life and property. Sus, sometimes they even hold "contests" on the choice of names! Giving those devastasting winds "cute" local tags, mostly girls’ names, is a silly practice that doesn’t do anybody any good.

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If by now you haven’t noticed that there’s a flu epidemic here in rainy Metro Manila and the surrounding provinces, you’re living in dreamworld. The hospitals are full — more so the two leading hospitals, St. Luke’s and the Makati Medical Center. In fact, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City is so crowded with patients suffering from "influenza", pneumonia and other respiratory problems that it had to convert its chapel into a hospital ward.

There’s another worldwide epidemic, on the other hand, which is destroying confidence in corporate enterprise and battering Wall Street, sinking the Dow, the Nasdaq and the US dollar, for instance, owing to what Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan described to US Congress last Tuesday as "an infectious greed (that) seemed to grip much of our business community."

Sanamagan. With no reference to American Ambassador Frank Ricciardone intended, we can only mourn the fact that perceived "corruption" – resulting, for example, in multibillion-dollar auditing and accounting fraud – is driving local and foreign investors away from Corporate America. Greenspan, the Oracle of the Fed, was not trying to expose corruption, of course, and had intended to make hopeful and upbeat comments to US Congress but had to admit that "additional revelations of corporate malfeasance" and more accounting scams could weaken US recovery. Indeed, the hammer-blows of more revelations are doing just that — plunging the Americal dollar to below equity with the European euro.

Europeans cannot snigger on the other hand. Their own bourses and stock exchanges are being adversely affected. In Paris, the once-mighty Vivendi Universal is being investigated by the French financial police in the wake of all its troubles.

In South Korea, the police, for their part, last Thursday sought an arrest warrant for the chairman of S-Oil, that country’s third-largest oil refiner, on alleged share-price manipulation and accounting fraud.

The Korean police alleged that Kim Sun-dong, the firm’s chairman and CEO, and five other officers of the company, were "wanted" in relation to suspected rigging of S-Oil’s share price, falsely inflating profits, and "misusing" 339 billion Won (about US$292 million). Great shades of Enron, WorldCom, et cetera!

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In Germany last Thursday, Chancellor Gerhard Shröder fired his defense minister, Herr Rudolf Scharping, after media reported too close a financial relationship between Scharping and a prominent lobbyist, Moritz Hunzinger, whose list of clients included defense companies.

The reports revealed payments made by Hunzinger’s firm to Minister Scharping, as well as other gifts, including clothing and, gadzooks, ten pairs of socks.

Scharping cried out that he had been the victim of a media campaign — but his goose was cooked. After all, he had been involved in a series of embarrassing episodes, such as allegations that he had utilized government aircraft in jetting between Berlin and his holiday retreat in Mallorca (Spain). What the public found most memorable, it seems, were holiday photographs published on the cover of the big-circulation magazine BUNTE, just last year, showing Defense Minister Scharping frolicking in a swimming pool in Mallorca with his new "girl friend" (inamorata) at the same time German troops were leaving for Afghanistan on their most dangerous foreign mission. The mischievous BUNTE cover was headlined: "Verteidigungsminister Rudolf Scharping und Gräfin Pilati: Total verliebt auf Mallorca."

That really sank poor Rudolf in the public perception. What sank him politically, of course, is the fact that Kanzler Schröder’s ruling party, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is trailing behind in the polls –iop[ with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies, the CSU, slightly ahead. With elections approaching on September 22, Scharping, alas, had to go. I guess that politics is the same, all over the world.

On that note, it’s interesting to recall that when Fed Chairman Greenspan spoke to US Congress this week, he asserted that he didn’t know whether recent stockmarket plunges were "an aberration or natural correction." He said: "I do know what I don’t know."

To which Representative Jim Leach of Iowa replied: "That is what distinguishes you from members of the United States Congress." Also, if I may be permitted to add, from members of Philippine Congress.

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Last Tuesday (July 16), USA TODAY, which calls itself the largest-circulation American daily and announces it is "Available Around the World" (see its masthead) bannered on its front page, "Whom Do You Trust?"

In huge type, the newspaper’s subhead supplied the answer: "Americans have great faith in each other, but their confidence in Big Business, priests, HMOs is in Shambles."

TODAY’s Bruce Horovitz, referring to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken nationally (1,013 people) reported that "trust in Corporate America is in shambles. More than seven in 10 Americans say they distrust CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of large corporations. Nearly eight in 10 believe that top executives of large companies will take ‘improper actions’ to help themselves at the expense of their companies. In the past nine months, the percentage of Americans who see Big Business as an actual threat to the nation’s future has nearly doubled, to 38 percent."

Don’t worry. They’re not the only ones being dunned. In the USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll, more than 500 adults were asked which groups they trusted. "Journalists" were trusted by only 38 percent, but at least rated somewhat higher than "government officials", who got only 26 percent.

"Lawyers" were trusted by a mere 26 percent, just three points above "stockbrokers" who got 23 percent, on a low par with CEOs of large corporations (23 percent). HMO managers were the lowest on the totem pole, rating only 20 percent "trust".

Do you know whom Americans most trust? TEACHERS. In the survey, "teachers" rated 84 percent!

In descending order, "people who run small businesses" (75 percent), "military officers" (73 percent), "police officers" (71 percent), "coaches of youth sports" (68 percent), "Protestant ministers" (66 percent), "doctors" (66), "accountants" (51), "professional athletes" (48), "Catholic priests" (45), "rich people" (43).

Note that "rich people" rated higher than "journalists". Note, too, that 73 percent of Americans trust their military, and 71 percent their policeman!

What about us over here?

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I am all for President Macapagal-Arroyo’s certification to Congress of the passage of a strong Anti-Terrorism Bill. We need a law enabling us to protect ourselves from terrorists, whether homegrown or "smuggled in" fro pm abroad. The lack of such a statute, too often, compels our authorities to release foreign troublemakers, such as those who sneak in from Indonesia.

I wish the President would also call for the amendment or repeal of that stupid law, Republic Act 9163, which made the Reserved Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) a mere "optional" course for all college students. If you’ll recall, this weak-kneed statute had been authored by Senators Ramon "Jun" Magsaysay, Vicente Sotto III (now a Dangerous Drugs Board appointee of GMA), Juan Flavier, and Rene Cayetano.

Last month, Senator "Kompanyero" Cayetano went even further. He called for the abolition of the Cadet Officer Candidate Course (COCC) and Citizens Army Training programs altogether. Cayetano intoned that "once the COCC and CAT are abolished, students could devote their time in studying core subjects to enhance their skills in these subjects and provide them a well-rounded education." What a ridiculous assertion, Rene!

What more important a preparation for civic duty and for adulthood can our high school and university students be provided than the discipline and effort of military training? This is what instills in our youth not merely self-denial, physical endurance, self-respect and a sense of teamwork, to imbue them with leadership skills. It instills in our young people patriotism, a reverence for our flag, and an understanding of the responsibilities of nationhood. And when our nation is threatened: Who will come forward to defend it? A bunch of sissies? A gaggle of softies?

C’mon. A people must learn to defend themselves. Our young must learn to work together, rain or shine. They must be steeled in discipline, not left to fun and games. What will we have if we abolish military training altogether? Just a bunch of speechmakers and party-goers, who never undertook anything difficult in life. Let’s face it. Military training may be "hard", but the hard way is the only enduring way.