ONE friend, a really sarcastic case told me last week: Have we got a triple treat (or threat) on our hands these days. We’ve got Delta and the variants, Jose Maria Chan in September until Christmas and finally, the Senseless Election Mouthfuls of 2022! Had they been good bands playing gigs, that would have been alright, but the thing is, all three have been playing us and preying at our ears then continuously dulling our senses, so no deal!
When one looks at it, his observations could not be too far from the truth. For one, the Delta variant of Covid-19 are eerily so much like the real-life Delta special forces. With victims falling left and right and all around to contagion, they might as well be falling to deadly sniper fire. Then of course, there’s the meme of old man Christmas coming in whenever September comes sneaking in. So, Jose Marie Chan’s trending every year and that by far, is so “only in the Philippines”. On second thought, judging from what we have all endured so far, this is not a bad tradition really, as other pinoy traditions go. After all, we deserve an early celebration, especially with all these pandemic blues evenly spread around us like allergy-causing peanut butter, right?
Then, the last one, where a flurry of pathetic wannabes come out of the woodwork to woo the people with election promises in preparation for next year’s electoral process, is as irritating as mosquitos. As usual, the mix includes the predictable cast of actors, sportsmen, not to mention con men who throw their gloves in the ring, with only popularity as gleam in order to rein us in.
We also are only too aware of the traditional politicians or trapos, for short (which translates as a piece of dirt rag to wipe with in the local dialect). Aside from them having a luggage-full of short-term promises that miraculously disappear or are forgotten once they get elected, their propensity for putting down opponents non-stop is almost always their best defense. Also, never fail to include their talent at claiming the accomplishments of others.
So, in the end we dare ask, will there at least be the promise of a more favorable outlook in the months ahead? Just recently, I read about a local politician from Mindanao who had filed a complaint about two (fake) news outfits that had claimed he supported a former movie actor. At once, I realized that my friend had missed including a fourth player, the proponents of disinformation and misinformation, that had joined in muddying our already muddied waters. Along with trapos, wannabes and the coronavirus, this fab four will make up our reality in the coming year.
To review, we’ve got covid, liars, comedic politicians and Jo Marie in the year’s playlist. The gladiators in all of us ask, are we not entertained?
