Dead man walking
Before getting into the hot topic of the week, I just want to call the attention of Education Secretary Jesli Lapus who after surviving several life threatening conditions has vowed to give back or help improve lives of Filipinos.
Before embarking on his dreams and aspirations monologue regarding high tech education, Secretary Lapus could do more by having plain and simple dialogues with parents of school children away from principals and teachers to find out what part of public school education is deemed an unnecessary burden.
In my regular trips to far flung villages, I always hear from parents who live below the poverty line how countless school projects imposed by enterprising school teachers have become a CURSE which forces some children to simply drop out because they have no means to buy materials or “kits” for said projects.
This weekend I learned of two more bright kids dropping out because their parents were mere laborers without regular employment who couldn’t keep up with the financial burden. It’s bad enough they have to buy stupid uniforms, shoes, and IDs but the “projects” have become a tool of weeding out the poorest and a means of decongesting the classroom.
Unfortunately, this educational discrimination also dooms those who could climb out of poverty to form the next generation of poor and illiterate Filipinos from where prostitutes, peasants and rebels will rise out.
To hell with the trappings of education such as uniforms and footwear! What use are these stupid projects if students can’t even read and write functionally? What good is a project if a student does not have functional knowledge and use of mathematics or basic accounting to run or operate a sari sari store?!
Who cares about cyber education or video satellite university in a barrio where people don’t have regular electricity? All the technicals are useless if you can’t teach them to read and comprehend. What good is an education if you’ll only end up unemployed? Aside from the basics, why not simply upgrade their skills and knowledge in agricultural productivity. At least that way their parents will appreciate what they’re being taught and won’t look so stupid for their illiteracy. They will at least have some common grounds!
* * *
Stick and stones may break my bones but your words will never hurt me….it will just get you killed!
In the last election, analysts branded any political endorsement from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as a Kiss of Death. This week people are calling the statement “She is Evil” as nothing less than a death sentence for CHED Secretary Romulo Neri.
The statement was attributed to former NEDA Secretary Romulo Neri by his former best friend Jun Lozada who has become the unauthorized biographer of the ZTE Broadband deal as well as the unauthorized and unofficial “spokesman” of Neri who has chosen to stick it out with the Arroyo Administration rather than make a gamble with the opposition.
Whatever good reputation Neri may have built through the years, all that has been squandered by force of circumstance. Pro or anti, Neri’s continued failure to take and make a clear, strong and independent stand on the issue diminishes his good name and good reputation. Instead of strongly denying calling the President as “Evil”, Neri’s “I don’t remember” statement simply buried him waist deep in the pit of lies and avoidance of truth.
Unfortunately for Neri, his colorful language such as “moderate their greed” is at par with the statement “She is Evil”. Given this reputation, no one can blame President Arroyo if she suspects Neri or actually believes Neri did make such a statement. For now Neri is safe but once the “hunters“ have gone past, Neri will be toast. You don’t call someone “Evil” especially the President of the country and expect to get away with it.
Of course, we could also say; what’s the big deal? Evil is just the biblical text for today’s bad or sinful. Many Disney characters are deliciously evil but they sure don’t lose sleep over it. Now if they were branded as “wicked” then that would put them at par with demons and devils. Given biblical comparisons with today’s events, things could slide down the pit with remembrance of notorious women such as Jezebel, Herodias, or Delilah.
Neri’s fatal mistake is that he met and talked with opposition Senators who either know of or are acting as if they already know so much from Neri or about Neri and PGMA. Whether he knows too little or too much it is now too late to play coy. Unless he has plans of leaving the planet or at least the
* * *
Too close for comfort
For once the petroleum companies using the Pandacan district as their refineries and storage area now know what squatters feel when they’re forced out of their hovels.
I don’t mean to mock these companies but the experience of being told to leave a useful, financially profitable and practical location is exactly what many squatter families feel which is why the experience ought to add value to whatever corporate social responsibility projects the oil companies may have.
In relation to the legal order to transfer, even the oil companies can’t deny that their continued stay along the Pasig River and in a densely populated area very near the historical Malacañang area is simply too much of a risk for lives and property.
Yes, there will be a tremendous cost to transferring the plants, but then taken from a CSR point of view the choice of their new sites may contribute to decongesting the present area, benefit and better develop new locations and communities.
The cost may be theirs alone but in the end a catastrophe in Pandacan would be the same and in such a scenario, you won’t score CSR points – you will be counting bodies and paying billions. Turn this trial into a triumph and simply move on.
- Latest
- Trending
