Sade, Drops of rain and feelings of invincibility

A nice one, this day is. The sun is shining, neither thunderbolts nor signs of rain. For the past few days, I've been getting myself drenched, my own fault. I should have bought myself an umbrella. Or a hat. Or something to cover my balding head. Don't know what came over me. Is it because sometimes you feel invincible? That a few drops of rain cannot really make me sick?

I can understand how members of Aquino's official family are feeling nowadays. President Noynoy Aquino, their principal, enjoys an 88% popularity rating. Good way to start one's day, isn’t? That you are serving a very popular president. Feeling invincible? Sure.

A popular president enjoys most of the trust of a believing public. The only head of state who maintained such a high trust rating was Ramon Magsaysay. Opps. I don't want Joma to read this. Magsaysay, they say, won thru CIA manipulation (and you know what CIA means right?). Joma once accused the Aquino family of cooperating with some shady characters of the world's biggest spy organization to propel their brother Noynoy to victory. What Joma probably forgot is Noynoy did not need a CIA to win. With Erap and Manny Villar as choices, plus a bubbling Teodoro, who will not choose Noynoy? A newbie versus veteran politicos. In a fight where trust depends on perception, the obvious winner is someone who positions himself as "new" despite being an old timer.


Opps again. I hope Joma does not hear about this. President Aquino "the third" just publicly announced his desire to have a communications structure similar with that of Magsaysay, with a caveat of course. Instead of snail mail, Aquino wants to receive criticisms, suggestions and opinions from the public by way of Tweeter and Face book. The question really is-- will those suggestions reach the eyes and ears of a very busy president?


I hope so, like when rain reaches your rooftops and falls to the ground due to gravity. That precious drop enriches the soil and keeps it moist. The question really and truly is, with so much damage wrought by the previous dispensation, where to start?


How many tweets would it require then to make Aquino listen? That Alvarez appointment is wrong and that he stands to take the heat once Congress opens its mouth, err, its sessions?


How many tweets would it take to make Aquino listen? Those cartels are manipulating food prices and keeping oil prices at prohibitive prices? These tweets and Face book updates are all over but, sadly, no appropriate responses....yet.


Oppss....think I better stay at my HDB. I see trickles of rain at my window pane. I intend to walk to City Hall in a while, search for old books and some paints. I am painting again. The last time I did was several years ago, when, alone in my flat, I sketched myself an image of the Motherland. Easy to draw when you’re all alone, you have the entire universe at your disposal.


When you’re enjoying an 88% rating, chances are, you’ll be isolated and these men around you would simply feed you with wonderful and very optimistic news. Forever 88? I hope so, like when a woman celebrates her thirty, the obvious response whenever she’s asked about her age is a redundant thirty.

Changes are ideals. Ideals are dreams. Dreams are slices of reality. Reality is what you say it is. When you say reality is being optimistic, then, some slices of your dreams are optimistic ones.

"Cherish the day. I won't go astray" croons my favorite singer, Sade. Tell that to Noynoy's men, especially Singson who salivated for the MWSS position, only to be discovered a few days later. I remember seeing a thin, blackened image of a man, on the verge of sitting on a chair made of gold. That gold is water, actually. Water is not a free resource, it is now a commodity. Even rain that hits your window pane, has a value. Thanks to "minister" Singson for transforming God's gift into a product.

That's one of the reasons why, if I ever go back to Philippine reality, I'll buy myself a hectare of Tanay soil near a spring. Spring water is still free, right?

" You are the lover's rock, the rock that I cling to. You're the one the one that I cling to in a storm.." sings Customs chief Alvarez after Noynoy publicly defended him. For Noynoy, there's nothing wrong if you cheated a golf game. If you don't perform, goodbye, says Noy. Well, Alvarez just reneged in his promise of presenting one big fish every week. Is this why you put him there in the first place Noy, to rid Customs of unscrupulous operators? Now, he's not performing at par. What do you do?

I'll not go out of my HDB. No. I will just stay here and listen to Sade. Maybe, I'll get some nuggets of wisdom from her songs.