Photoshop Politics

(I wrote this article in 2008 when I couldn’t contain my ire with the Arroyo regime.)

When I delivered a commencement speech to a batch of graduating sixth-graders a year ago, I emphasized the fact that there are more shakers than movers in this country. We barely grow as a nation because, as I said in Filipino, “maraming bumabatikos habang kakaunti ang kumikilos.”

Now I can’t help but to rant and rave as the inefficiencies and fiscal irresponsibility of the government become more apparent than ever. We had the controversial NBN ZTE, overpriced Macapagal Boulevard, fertilizer scam, Glorietta 2 bombing, Manila Peninsula siege, Oakwood mutiny and everything else that could not fit within broadsheet pages. Our children seem to have seen more bombs than books.

The rich and the poor are not equidistant from resources, opportunities, and the power to influence. The lack of insight resulted to severely congested roads, overcrowded trains, Band-Aid assistance to the poor through short-term subsidies, and economic growth we could not be proud of.

The government is busy with peace talks and in advocating Charter Change while the Filipinos just want to seek a safe home and to fill their grumbling stomach.

Photo by Oscar Chan on Pexels.com

Our current situation is very reminiscent of the movie “Tears of the Sun.” No wonder we’re winning international film competitions — our daily existence is movie-quality in Hollywood.

Image editing softwares have gone through impressive innovations that their features are now a powerful tool in politics. Scams are being masked, public service is being cropped, government’s transparency is doubtful, decisions on controversies are rotated and political allies are favored like lasso selection. And for anything else that cannot be explained, there is the magic wand — in one blink of an eye, the witnesses are gone. I wonder if there will soon be a healing brush.

In the world of MacBooks and WiMax, the government’s performance is comparable to Commodore 64 with 56k modem. Unfortunately, the people’s memory about lessons from politics are just like RAMs — easily erased at the slightest power outage.

We had enough of Photoshop politics and Dreamweaver democracy. Don’t we deserve the Philippines Version 2.0?

Some of us cannot see the future of the Filipinos. I can. Despite redundant editing, it is still blurred. And no amount of digital editing can fake it. We need a new programmer.