if you were in their shoes?
Faithful reader Abbygail asks a provocative question:
… if you will be tapped by the govt. to serve in teves’ shoes, what will you do to change the rut we’re in? help the people w/ your ideas. we cannot be blaming each other forever and just sit still. what will you do if given that chance to serve?
I personally do not think that an interactive forum like ours requires its participants to offer specific alternatives (in contrast, for example, to a newspaper editorial). It’s more than enough to express ourselves and discuss issues with others. But I do share Abbygail’s concern about moving forward (note, please, that I did not use that old plea to “move on” — euphemism for forgiving and forgetting).
If we were in a high official’s place, what, specifically, would we do? No need to limit ourselves to Finance Secretary Gary Teves; how about we choose one department (say, DND) or agency (say, Pagcor), and then offer our proposed (specific) solutions?
Should be interesting. But, please, keep it specific. As they say, God (or the devil) is in the details.
December 26th, 2007 at 11:23 am
It okay to be stupid and still dream BIG!
December 26th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Where were Trillanes’ sympathizers?
December 25, 2007 00:22:00
Philippine Daily Inquirer
It is so amazing how some people distort the truth. From the comfort of my flat in Saudi Arabia, I saw how the failed rebellion progressed and how it was eventually crushed. Media coverage was simply too one-sided. The shots were too studied, the replays too selective–all in favor of the rebels. And the media conglomerates still have the temerity to complain?
From the vantage point of my TV set, I saw how the presence of media personalities inside the Peninsula hotel prevented the police from carrying out their planned assault. Why begrudge the police for using their weapons? The rebels deserved to die, for such is risk of rebellion. Had they succeeded, then, they would have been the heroes.
If government, as represented by the police, indeed did not care about civilian lives, it could have easily “pulverized” the rebels’ dugout with its superior fire power and blew to smithereens those rascals disguised as freedom fighters. That one of them was a bishop or a former vice president was not reason enough to save them from punishment. Old men, by their age, are supposed to be already aware that they are responsible for their actions; they should not cry like babies when herded into a police van. You do wrong, you must be mature enough to accept the consequences of the act.
We now read and hear endless litanies of complaints from sympathizers of the rebels. My golly. Where were they when Antonio Trillanes IV et al. were begging for warm bodies in the Peninsula Manila? They shouldn’t be too righteous because the truth is they are no better than the person their ilk wants to remove and replace.
I am glad Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo does not hold her punches when dealing with miscreants. I’d rather have her in government than these pseudo moralists whose only claim to fame is their perennial participation in failed coups, rebellions and what not.
To people who spend all their time plotting the ouster of Arroyo, and even to the biased media, here’s my challenge: Provide the warm bodies immediately at the first minute of a coup instead of pontificating later, after it has failed.
In fact, I want the rebels to succeed so that I can witness how the winning military junta will shut down media facilities, impose curfew indefinitely, and clamp down on rallies and other forms of mass gathering. Then, we will see a new breed of complainants; the same people now romanticizing the idea of extra-constitutionally ousting a president.
–AHMAD CORTES, via e-mail
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No big loss if Gloria Arroyo, Got kick out from her stolen power. After all she only stole her title from the duly elected President Joseph Estrada, And she stole it again from Fernando Poe, Jr. In May 10, 2004. Presidential election. I GUESS YOU RATHER SUPPORT THE LIAR/CORRUPTED GLORIA ARROYO! HAVE MERCY IN YOUR SOUL.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:55 am
i think you are too focused on leadership, and gave too much credit to LKY. the reason singapore is what it is, is because (read panganiban’s column) singapore has a huge intangible capital. this intangible capital includes human capital (the sum of knowledge, skills and know-how of the population).
which was my point about the intellectual giant. we need intellectual giants because we are pygmies. our intangible capital is 1/11th that of singapore and 1/22th of japan’s.
it’s not the leader that makes the nation, it’s the people. look at strongman kim jong il of destitute north korea, then look at blundering bush and the wealthy u.s.
December 25th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I will add Lee Kwan Yew if I become president in my dream. My fear is, what if, when I become president I have the head and left hand of a Lee Kwan Yew and the right hand of a Filipino politician? Meaning….’what the left hand giveth, the right hand taketh’…with +999% interest as surcharge. Such gruesome thoughts at this time of Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
December 24th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL…..