Getting sticker shock in Jakarta!

For tonight’s special presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you what you need to know about global warming, how it affects us in the Philippines and what we can as individuals do to help in this global crisis. Am sure that the majority of our readers and viewers have already seen the dire effects of global warming:  The frozen tundra in Siberia is no longer frozen, a large chunk of ice bigger than Luzon and Mindanao combined has broken off in the North Pole while ice sheets are melting in the Antarctic.

These are the realities of today. The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has already considered the problem a global emergency. People in the United States are already finding ways to reduce their “carbon footprint”, while the voters in Australia just booted out their ten-year long Prime Minister John Howard who refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol and ushered in a new Prime Minister in the person of Kevin Rudd who promised to sign this global agreement to drastically reduce toxic emissions into the atmosphere.

With us tonight is Atty. Benjamin Cabrido, an Environmentalist Lawyer who will give us an idea of how we Filipinos can help in our own little way. We do have a good law called the Clean Air Act, but as everyone knows, we’re almost zero in implementing this. Watch this very interesting show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. tonight.

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I just got back from Jakarta, Indonesia for a weeklong workshop on Public-Private Partnership Programs that would look into the management risks when private enterprise invests in huge government projects. This was sponsored by the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Call it a coincidence that I bumped into my good friend Arthur Barrit who was also on the same PAL plane on his way to Jakarta for a meeting with the United Nations.

It was my first time to be in Jakarta. The first shocker to hit me was when I changed my US$100, I got  a whooping 900,000 Rupiahs! That’s their currency in Indonesia. From the airport to the hotel, the 40-minute ride cost Rp118,000. My simple dinner that evening cost Rp58,000. In short, if you have a million bucks in Rupiah, you’re not really in the millionaire’s league. But to us who are not used to holding millions in our wallets, every time we go around, we’d get a sticker shock!

In a foreign country, I always look at their English language newspapers. I got a copy of the Jakarta Post, which only had 24 pages. But there was a unique story. Apparently last Nov.25, the youth of Jakarta celebrated the “Buy Nothing Day”. Jakartan youths went to the front of the malls and the city parks giving out pamphlets or leaflets about the importance of this celebration which is to counter consumerism and promote the concept that sharing was better than buying.

Wait! But isn’t this what St. Paul once said about our Lord Jesus who said, “It is far better to give than to receive.” Indonesia is a Moslem country, yet their youth are promoting something that we Christians preach, but unfortunately do not practice. The 1st Global “Buy Nothing Day” began in Canada in the early 1990’s. While all this was going on, another group had something better than the “Buy Nothing Day” where they sponsored what they dubbed “A Really, Really Free Market” in Sambas Park where from 10AM to 5PM, people gave out free food, free clothing, free T-shirt printing, book reading and even Braille classes. However, I doubt if this practice would be embraced by the new generation.

While in the midst of our workshop, I suddenly got a lot of texts that something was happening at the Manila Peninsula Hotel. Later texts informed me of another ill-fated attempt by Sen. Antonio Trillianes, Gen. Danilo Lim who were joined by former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona and that running priest Fr. Roberto Reyes to call for the resignation of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) and hope that it would trigger another people’s power revolt. How wrong these people are! While we won’t deny that Pres. Arroyo’s popularity is perhaps at its lowest ebb, this doesn’t translate to our accepting a regime change when the next Presidential elections is merely a couple of years in the offing.

While many news reports say that this was a failed coup, in my book it wasn’t even close! There was no coup attempt, it was mere dramatics. At this point, we ought to focus our attention on the slow wheels of Justice happening in this country. It’s been four years since the Oakwood Mutiny and we still have to see those who committed those crimes locked up in jail. Again we remind our judges, about that legal dictum, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied”. If Trillianes et al. were in a permanent prison, he wouldn’t have been able to pull a hotel brouhaha! So let’s get on with that trial for the Oakwood incident so that we can slap another case against Trillianes and company for the huge damage that they have done to the Manila Peninsula Hotel.