Teaching Moment 101

Three days ago, my hubby and I along with our little Danielle went to buy our weekly groceries at one of the malls in this city. It would have been another ordinary weekend buying until I lined up at one of the counters to pay for our food. Just in front of me is a boy between 8-10 years old. He was holding a basket with few grocery items. I watched him took out 2 canned goods, 2 little boxes of candies, and few porkchops in a cellophane. I was silently noting that this boy must have one of his parents inside the mall and was erraned to buy a few missed items from their grocery list. He seems to be a confident kid and looks like he comes from a financially well-off family. Then the time came to pay for his items.

He took out his money from his pocket and counted P34.00. The sales clerk gently asked him if he has some more money since the all the items costed a little over P70.00 and if his mother or father is with him. He shook his head to both questions and began to take out the two canned goods- he was still short and took out more items until the total bill was just a little under P30.00. All the while this was happening, I was trying to look for my husband who was waiting for me in the hallway. I could easily pay for the little difference.  But, something stopped me. Not knowing that my husband saw the whole incident, he was about to come to me and tell me to pay for the difference. But he too had the same impression.

On our way home, my husband and I talked only about the little boy. I was telling him if I was wrong and had not acted immediately in helping the boy pay his bills. My husband remarked that while he had the strong urge to help, he had the impression to refrain from helping and allow the boy to learn from the incident. My husband told me that while we badly want to help, there are some times that “not helping” is actually helping. I was silent for some time until we reached home. I looked at my daughter and realized that like the boy, there would be painful lessons ahead of her and if I want to be a wise parent- I would allow her to go through them and yet stay in the background in case she would need my help.

The Heat is On II

With barely 11 days before election, the candidates are pouring in everything in the last leg of the campaign period- money for media advertising, campaign sorties from Aparri to Jolo ( with the latter, not trodden by most if not all for fear of being kidnapped by bandits), announcements of their impressive records, and even slapsticks for their opponents. I wonder if they would have the same vigor in wooing voters as they would in fulfilling their promises. I have my fingers crossed and hope that worthy candidates who would sacrfice personal agenda with what is best for the country win.

 I can only name a handful who doesn’t run for power, selfishness and hidden agenda mainly because the stage for these politicians are overflowing with balimbings and destablizers of the government, and ambitious actors who presume that being a senator, mayor, governer, congressman is the same as “acting” for a play or movie.

How can I vote for a lady senatoriable when at the height of Estrada impeachment, she unabashedly cried when the Senate President ( another balimbing) resigned because the white envelope that would reveal if Estrada was lying or not could not be opened because the senators in favor of Estrada are too many compared to these Lady senatoriable’s comrades. I once idolized this once-senator because I thought she stood for integrity, principle and service with no expectations of something in return. But sadly, that was erased when I saw her running for vice president of the whole nation in the last presidential election under the banner of FPJ- the bestfriend, compare, and confidante of Pres. Estrada.  How could she abandon ship and ride on another that she thinks would have a fare chance in the elections? Her act was synonymous to abandoning her beliefs.

Then there are the actors who are led to believe that they have the qualifications to run for the senate. Can you imagine hiring a CEO of a big company who doesn’t have at least 10 years leadership experience, long-time financial success, great education, an MBA, good interpersonal skills, driven, can work well with people? Why can’t we expect the same achievements for our senators, congressmen, mayors and president? Why,- do we lack these kind of people in our midst? Well, that would be a big fallacy if we claim we don’t have people with these kind of caliber. 

I believe that it would not be difficult to see candidates who have these qualifications. They are there ( the good men and women)- waiting for us, for you and me to vote for them. I hope we can choose honest politicians who would be worthy of our one vote.

The Heat is On

I usually watch the 6:30 evening news on T.V. and I am just amazed by the sheer volume of political ads on TV! Imagine politicians having to spend millions of pesos just to be aired for a few seconds on TV during the campaign period. And for what? For a position that pays not more than 70 thousand pesos- subtract 30% taxes to that and other fees- you just get less than 50,000.00 pesos. How do you equate hundreds of millions spent during the campaign period versus the less than a million salary for a 3 year senate term? True, service to people might be their number one reason on running for the senate- but aren’t you beholden to the businessmen and friends who helped you run for the office? They say that the best and most effective media in propelling candidates to the consciousness of millions of voters is through TV ads. But one cannot stop thinking why they have to spend so much in order to battle hunger, poverty, and lack of educational opportunities, homelessness and the list could go on and on. Cannot one instead channel all these money to directly serve the poor and the needy, help in the nation building without the brouhaha and politicking?

I believe that anything in excess is evil. The wild spending of these senator wannabes just isn’t right. My one vote counts and I would not want to waste it to those who garnered many string attachments on their way to the senate.