Intermission number

One wonders at what is in the minds of the powers-that-be.

With Trump and Israel’s instant war upon Iran, this country has been thrust into the midst of a crisis not of its making. And naturally, our leaders have to respond to this crisis. What’s another crisis to add to the many we’re already facing, anyway?

Decisive action is needed. Oil and other supplies are delayed, or maybe not even coming. Passengers need to be transported to their jobs. Employers need their employees. Humans need affordable food on their table. Farmers need their fertilizers. The list goes on.

Our dependable revenues from our overseas workers are drying up. Our human exports are being re-imported, fleeing from a conflict zone. The population dividend isn’t delivering the dividends. Yet more problems are there to be solved.

And what does our administration do?

First and foremost, ban all shirtless men from the streets. From now on, every specimen of the male specie has to avoid flexing their abs and navels and flabs in public. No bare chests. No baby fat jelly roll. Or else, thou shalt be arrested.

Second, ban kids from the streets after 10 P.M. Our law enforcers will henceforth go around and accost teens gallivanting at night. No 24/7 gyms for you. No Internet cafes. No loitering. We shall deploy the precious hours of these important local public servants, and utilize them onto enforcing this important policy.

Third, no drinking of alcohol on the streets. And yes, you smart alecks, that includes the sidewalks. This is the New Republic of Presentability. Everything that makes us third world, aside from shirtless men roaming the streets and idle kids, shall be banned from visibility.

See how thoughtful our leaders are? They are laser-focused on solving societal ills. These pro-active civil society measures will surely ease the economic burdens that the unholy alliance between Trump and Netanyahu have sprung upon us.

Definitely more important than calibrating transportation fares so that public vehicles can keep plying their routes, or managing the prices of basic necessities, or clamping down on unnecessary expenditures from useless government offices. All those can wait.

What could this administration have foreseen to resort to these irritants? Three years of running this country, and suddenly, without anything pre-empting it, we are thrust back into this strict-parent governance model. Are they afraid of civic unrest, that people will start protesting and rallying, and so these street-clearing measures have been pro-actively activated? Faster apprehension of troublemakers, if things go south and we enter the famine zone? Are they that pessimistic?

And why would they choose, as the face of this campaign, Secretary Jonvic Remulla? As the bearer of bad news, televised and streamed on all available channels, public perception would be horrendous for him. Does that mean the previous speculations that either he or his brother were gunning for the presidency are unfounded? It’s almost the kiss of death to a national electoral position.

We are in the middle of a two-week breathing room, where a fragile ceasefire holds. Anything can still happen with the madman in the White House. The orange top can still be impeached or removed, or not. And hellfire can still rain down on Iran and friends, and Iran can still tighten its grip on the artery of Hormuz. Even worse things can happen, if we are to rely on the tweets of a madman.

Perhaps, we are just being saved from ourselves, and we just don’t know it yet.