SONA reactions

While I would much rather be watching Cha's anniversary gift, Gotham Knight, I find myself watching and feeling the need to react to the SONA. In fact, I have grown weary of it all. There was a time when this was important to me, when I felt that I had a responsibility to be aware and active in politics. Sadly, as I've grown older, and the need to make a living, and the general feeling that you can't change things has sunk in, I have turned my back on it all, thinking that my purchasing power has defined my politics. Still, here I am, tapping away at the keyboard while watching the pre-SONA coverage and I'll be reacting as I listen to the SONA itself. Oh, just for the purposes of clarity, I will say that I am watching the ABS-CBN coverage. as friends know, I have no antenna, but I can get that channel in grainy quality without the antenna.

1. It's very irritating that there's a feature on SONA fashion. Someone has likened the SONA to the Oscars. Would the Americans liken their State of the Union address to the Oscars? probably not, but I suppose with the fashion sense and the proliferation of showbiz personalities in government then perhaps it's not an unfair comparison.

2. Ang barok ng Senate president mag-call to order.

3. Legistlators' prayer? Why Why? If there were a god, then most of these people would be rightly punished. Sorry boys, you ain't prayin' to no one. And if there were one prayer, it would be, I pray that you fools would stop stealing the money I pay for taxes. I never tire of saying that the government took P70,000 of my money last year. Can I pray that they give it back? Or that I benefit from it somehow? The minimum expectation of a society is safety, that you are freed from the brutish, nasty, and short nature of life without society. How come I'm afraid to walk down the street at night, I'm paying so much to belong to this society?

4. GMA has such a terrible voice.

5. Why is it that when you give a speech, you have to say all these people's names before getting on with it? blah blah blah

6. GMA's code switching a lot. That means that she wouldn't get in if she applied to teach in the english department.

7. GMA says that world markets are erasing progress in local markets. True enough there are problems abroad, but then what tangible progress can she refer to locally before the failures abroad? Her 1 million jobs include MMDA and street sweepers, not gainful employment for the well-educated. Haha. how much am i earning these days?

8. "The global crisis did not catch is unprepared," You could have fooled me. Damn, costs so much to buy a good piece of meat these days. And gas has been killing me. Who is the we she keeps talking about? "For footing the bill I thank the tax payers," goddamn, i didn't want to do that.

9. GMA is now saying that she is willing to be unpopular so that she can get us through the economic crisis. Hmmm. is this a dark knight kind of thing going? I'm not believing it. There's a clear reason why she's unpopular. Things could be done better, there is a lack of transparency...She is going on now about the people she cares about, among them schoolteachers. If we really cared about school teachers they would be making more money, and they would receive ongoing training.

10. She's going to present her suggestions for easing price challenges . Sufficiency, energy independence, self-reliance, long term reforms. These sound like things that are obvious to anyone, but moves should have been made for these years ago. Let's see how this breaks down.

11. She's justifying VAT by giving a list of what it's for. Sadly, our VAT soars at 12% and we know that a lot of this is going into pockets. "Take VAT away...and you and I... pull the rug out from under progress...," sounds like a fallacy to me. Take away VAT and we strip the people of...riding out the energy crisis." "It is about doing what is necessary however hard." "The government has persevered." Then she says something to the effect of VAT will go to helping people now and investing in the future. It all sounds good, but they sound more like motherhood statements more than actual tangible explanations for things. V for Vendetta and Big Brother similarities anyone?

12. "Texting is a way of life." GMA has brought the price of texting down to p0.50. wow. everyone claps. should i be happy?

13. If we could replace all lights with fluorescent lights, then we could save 2 billion pesos. Um, ok. I don't know, but these things are very small scale. Now she mentions the amount of money released for typhoon victims. Do we really need to clap that we gave aid?

14. 32 peso commercial rice now. We shall see if it stays that way. I feel like there's so much disbelief in my tone. Can't help it.

15. Prices will remain high. But we can work to ease the pain while investing in long term solutions. That seems to be the recurring theme of the SONA.

16. People are clapping for irrigation systems. I don't know, might just be me, but when I play civilization, irrigation is a pretty basic thing. Not sure why irrigation should be a clap-worthy thing in the information age. It should have been there ages ago.

17. "Providing seeds at subsidized prices." This seems like something, like irrigation ,that should be expected. I'm looking for something more than this.

18. Promoting natural family planning. she's trying to get the religious congregations behind her on this one. One has to ask the question, because she refers to a drop in the birth rate, the demographics behind it. Is it the middle class and upper class that are having less kids? Which is expected as women focus on their careers, or is it the poor, who are the ones who really need to be educated about birth control?

19. Self-reliant, self-sufficient, independent. It's a doctrine that was adopted by the Japanese and Singaporeans which led to their successes in the past. The question is, in this global economy, can this be done? How effectively?

20 GMA is quoting figures for agricultural production. Again, irrigation and vegetable planting are mentioned. Damn, what year is it again? Oh right, it's 2008. Just checked wikipedia, signs of irrigation have been recorded as early as the 6th millennium BCE. damn

21. Agrarian reform and giving the farmers the ability to sustain their land and production. This is an initiative close to my heart, as I worked on some projects with DAR.

22. At this point my mind is drifting, as GMA talks about the place where justice and progress converge. I am thinking how she lacks charisma. No charisma, no inspiring ability. I'm not inspired in any case.

23. Something about the RORO helping the economy.

24. GMA's talking about vocational graduates and she's having them stand up in the hall to show I suppose that these people do exist, that it's happening. but come on, we're clapping for the welders of the world? well and good for them, but what about everyone else? No mention of the OSYs and initiatives for them, nor career tracks for these other people. I just can't stop thinking about the lack of intellectual progress and the absence of funding for it.

25. Microfinancing. very good. Another project I have worked on which I think is very beneficial.

26. GMA's giving more names, this time of farmers. It's a PR thing, showing the people who are benefitting from it. I think it can be effective, although we've had the Mang Pandoys and the bangkang papel so I'm not buying it anymore. Damn, i didn't realize that she's given so many SONAs. Been president for far too long.

27. Mindanao peace process. I'm actually writing a movie that plays on the whole idea. I've been reading about the peace process since I was a freshman. That's a long time. But it's been going on for far longer than that.

28. She's talking about the Pope. I'm zoned out. I'm standing by the need for a secular morality. Let's help people not because there's a god, there's help people because we're all people.

29. SSS and GSIS are reacting to inflation, etc. Good news. Ditto Pag-Ibig. GMA asks SSS to give bigger house loans. Could be a good thing, more homes bought, better economy with the money going round, government makes money from interest.

30. School-building program. Let's see. again, disbelief. The building may be built, but what about resources, teachers, etc, etc. Sometimes we only build what will be counted, the hard stuff, but the soft infrastructure is often overlooked. and the soft stuff is just as important.

31. Promotion of natural gas and bio-fuel. Let's see if this can help bring down gas and electricity costs. Renewable energy bill passed; again let's see how this changes the game. I'm looking for us making a shift to hybrid vehicles. What will happen with all the jeepneys in the next ten years? How will public transportation respond to the problem of renewable fuels?

32. Investments to strengthen institutions and fight corruptions. "I will continue to fight these battles everyday." Hmm, shall I say no comment when GMA says this? Ombudsman's conviction rate increased 500 percent. Question: How many of these officials were congressmen, senators? High ranking secretaries, Usecs?

33. 3 billion pesos for anti-graft fund. That's a lot of money. 4 billion for UP. hmm that doesn't seem right for UP, now does it if we place such a high premium on education?

34. GMA asks for a consumer bill of rights. Again something we should have had long ago. But better late than never.

35. GMA says she cares too much for our nation to let anyone stand in the way of our progress. Hmm, that sounds like some pretty strong rhetoric. Man oh man, am i thinking big brother and V for vendetta rhetoric here.