YPS

I suppose everyone knows by now that many parts of Metro Manila and other areas outside the city are not in the best of shape.

The flooding still persists in some areas, right now its 240 dead and probably rising, and I think I’m in some sort of empathetic shock over what happened over the last weekend.

This disaster has really showed us all how this government has wasted so much of our money on useless things, held back money for truly important projects, and how much money government officials have stolen for themselves.

This is the same money that is now not there when we need it. Money that would have provided rescue equipment, relief services, early warning systems, real disaster recovery programs and other facilities. This is the money that is not there so that now the country has to rely largely on its private citizenry to take the brunt of the work. Our government cannot protect its own people and now relies on the country to help itself.

I hope that every govt official; every congressman, every senator ( and yes I mean every senator), every cabinet secretary, every general, every mayor, realizes that there is now blood on his or her hands.

I suppose its easy to be corrupt or, at best, to be blind to corruption ( in the name of political expediency) when you can cover it up by shuffling funds, promises, and blame around the way a magician fools an audience by sleight of hand. But you cant hide behind managed balance sheets, unsubstantiated claims of progress and stability, and window dressed financial reports when one family is stranded on a roof dying of hunger and hypothermia or when another family rides the waves on what’s left of their home , the father putting their two children in a small tub to keep them afloat, hoping for a miracle, only to be smashed to death as it races under a bridge in full view of the cameras and other horrified survivors.

I know I like to make fun of myself, my advocacy ( youth at 40…ok 41…hahaha!), why Im doing what I do here and who Im doing it for. But over this last weekend I think I saw the faces of the people I might be doing it for. And I feel sick to the pit of my stomach.

The hard part is really trying not to turn into an raving lunatic or an angry maniac ( though I think we have a right to be angry).

I think a sober view will be needed as there will be enough people who have the right to be and will be angry in the coming days.

Ive never felt so unexplainably tired.

I need a beer…or two..or twleve.

Ill be sober tomorrow.

Promise.