Flood victims

We continue to be what the survey says: The happiest people on earth. We can joke and laugh amid the storm.

* * *

A lot of flood victims in Metro Manila were seen almost totally submerged in neck-deep flood water but could still wave and smile at the tv camera.

* * *

Somewhere in Marikina a woman fell off an improvised raft but still managed to make the "L" sign with the floodwater reaching her neck.

* * *

The jail inmates of Cebu have responded quite well to the call for them to help solve the oil spill problem in Cordova. Many of the men donated their hair which, experts says, could help stop the spread of oil spillage from M/V St. Thomas Aquinas.

* * *

Even some women inmates had their long hair cut and have the cut strands donated for the same reason. One woman inmate said: "Mao ra ning matampo ko sa kaayuhan sa taga Cordova."

* * *

One government official was heard calling some lawmakers money-grabbers. Someone describes a money-grabber as one who grabs more money than his accuser.

* * *

A parish priest I know says organizers of dubious or fake NGOs are the top money-grabbers of all. They're so thick-faced that even if you ridicule them they would only say: "So what? It's only money."

* * *

Have you noticed that the newspapers today talk about money in the billions, not anymore in the thousands or even millions? The grafters no longer talk peanuts they talk sums that stagger the imagination.

* * *

Millions and billions are talked about in high places. It makes one's heart bleed to hear a 10-year-old homeless boy in Manila tell a tvdocumentarist that he struggles to earn P25 for a single meal for his family of five. This single meal consists of porridge or "linugaw".

* * *

OVERHEARD. Fish vendors in all public markets in Cebu City are complaining about their poor sales because of the oil spill and the still unrecovered missing ship passengers on whom some fish might have feasted. One vendor said: "Bisan ang isda ko gikan pa sa Negros wa gihapoy mamalit." Another vendor: "Saon man nga imo ra man nang pasangil." First vendor: "Ako na lang ning lutoon para sa among iro ug iring." Second vendor: "Ako na lang na bi. Kaanugon ipakaon mo lang sa iro."