Saturday, July 29, 2006

SONA lang naman

Well, SONA has been the usual triathlon—hurdles of glittering generalities, skillful twists to reality, and athletic dodging of relevant issues. It’s nice that Manny Pacquiao was around; at least he’s a frigging novelty for this year’s circus (wait, is he?).

This year’s SONA, Gloria’s sixth, is nothing new. We’ve heard it all before (let’s all join hands and be friends). The statistics give us jaded people a lot to hope for. Now, you and I know that both of us weren’t better off than we were last year. On the contrary, it seems much worse. So this is the deal: either Gloria’s stats are not credible, or they are. Gloria is not stupid. If she were, she wouldn’t be wearing a Carmine red saya with a smug look on her face about two hours ago. She will not give ‘facts’ unverifiable by the wolfish media. Therefore, the statistics she relied on for her SONA is credible, to a certain extent with which credibility can be measured.

However, statistics are just that: numbers. Numbers are impersonal. The squiggles of an 8 or the straightness of a 1 cannot really tell us how the unprivileged stomach does a marching drill every four hours. The citing of statistics is, for me, just a formality. It does not encompass reality.
The only thing that sickened me was the applause. Exactly 166 in all in a span of 60 minutes and one second. I assume that our congressmen and women are educated. They’re not teens cheering on their favorite rock band, for chrissakes. Not to say that cheering teens are uneducated, but I think it’s understandable why they lose their heads over, say, Champ. But Gloria? You’d think our politicians at least know when to clap. Every pause and their hands start working. Are they being sarcastic? Have they suddenly developed a sense of the paradoxical, of the ironic, of the antithetic? Really. Gloria stops a sec to catch her breath. Applause. Gloria farts. Applause. Gloria says she’s taking over as dictator of the Philippine Islands, will you please all resign now, thank you. Applause.

4 Comments:

Blogger elizabeth, queen of her universe said...

methinks they applauded whenever their names were mentioned. XD

i didn't watch the entire SONA (there were dire consequences for this, since ramota gave us a quiz and made us write an essay about it,) because there was something about Gloria's grin that eerily reminded me of sioco

8:06 PM  
Blogger Ferretti shoes said...

oo nga no? put that way...nakapangingilabot! ako'y nanghihilakbot! what could it mean? alam mo ba, cavitena si sioco? hala! gloria=sioco=lizette! were connected! the theory has been proven! (dont worry if i dont make sense. you know me, dear)

7:02 PM  
Blogger elizabeth, queen of her universe said...

*gasps*

three levels connected ka na kay gloria! sosyal! Xb

lizette, nababakla na naman ako. >.<

11:57 AM  
Blogger Ferretti shoes said...

hindi kagulat-gulat. ayos lang yan.

9:24 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home