Tuesday, January 26, 2010


POLITICAL AMBASSADORS

SLEEPLESS IN MY SHUTTLE. Just a thought while in transit. The appointment of "political ambassadors" has been a practice by most if not all presidents. This power has been abused by our heads of state to accomodate rich friends and discredited officials to the disgrace of the country and the demoralization of career officers of the diplomatic service. Of course, there are a few exceptions, like the late great diplomat Ambassador JV Cruz and a handful of others.

But in most cases, when political leaders want to boot out unfit or disgraced partymates, the inevitable solution is to send them into "exile" as ambassadors.

Once abroad, these misfits, lacking proper training and preparation, make jackasses of themselves and make the country a laughing stock in diplomatic circles.

As it is, an ambassador could be a person who, having failed to get an appointment from the head of state, is still given one on condition that he leaves the country immediately.
(Image from http://cdn.wn.com/)

Monday, January 25, 2010


DICK AND DICKS

I was bombarded with a few "love letters" in my e-mail from supposedly supporters of president-then-vice-president-very-much-wannabe Bayani Fernando immediately after I had posted this on my Facebook profile, "SI GORDON, 'YAN ANG TUNAY NA BAYANI. SI FERNANDO, 'YAN ANG TUNAY NA DICK," the same day they trumpeted to the whole archipelago their political intentions.

And yes, I have been a constant critic of BF and especially how he displayed his huge photos, sacrificing the true message, all over the metropolis. And how his "urbanidad" program a.k.a. Metro Guwapo simply meant the uglification of Metro Manila. A pinkified metropolis just doesn't appeal to me at all. Perhaps in hospitals and girls' bathrooms, but we're talking here about a major city jungle that is Metro Manila. Green would be more appropos. But that's all in the past now, and Bayani has proven his Mike Velarde and Liberace-like taste for colors.

And now comes the ever-active Richard 'Dick' Gordon. Amazing how he has "nursed" Olongapo City back in good health, right after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, not to mention the good things he has done inside Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA). How I miss him at the SBMA.

Do you remember that Cabanatuan earthquake rescue operations in 1990? When then Olongapo Mayor Dick Gordon, accompanied by his wife and mother, rushed to the stricken city ahead of a rescue team from Olongapo and in coordination with the Subic team called in by his wife. Their presence was resented by some known Corystas in Nueva Ecija. These stupid small-town politicians wanted to know why a Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) official like Gordon was getting high visibility in the rescue operations.

Little did their so-called minds know that Gordon had gone there as a director of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). And so what if he was a KBL out there giving unselfishly trying to help the victims? Is there a place for petty politics and picayune minds in tragic emergencies?

In times of extreme emergencies, the best and the worst in man emerge. The best was when Gordon rushed to help out in Cabanatuan. The worst was when those asinine Novo Ecijano Corystas resented Gordon's presence.

They were behaving like desperate dicks.
(Image from www.salta.tv/)