Too Much To Ask

Written on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 7:36 am | by cocoy

Jesus! I was having a bacon and egg sandwich by the dinner table when local news was being aired. Apparently, Her Excellency, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Republic, in her wisdom, had ordered that there wouldn’t be any tuition fee increase for State Owned universities and is asking private schools to do the same. Am I the only insane (no typo there) person to see how idiotic that is?

Let us agree for the sake of this discussion that it is the inherent right of every individual to have an education. It is the Right of Every person to be literate. I’m sure we can all agree on that basic premise.

That said, let me ask: how well are Filipinos in the Primary and Secondary level doing? I submit, though valid that question is, it is neither germane to whether or not the President or whoever advised her that this is the right thing to do is not many times an idiot.

This “request” and this “action” by the Government is nothing more than a press release that neither answers the pressing need of this country’s education system, nor does it bolster confidence that the people running the show actually know what they are doing. To put it rather bluntly, this is pure politics.

Gloria does things like this because she thinks this is what people would like to hear. Madam President, you’ve been president for nearly a decade. You’ve been in a leadership position for longer than that. What you’re doing? That’s not leadership. that’s bullshit and you know it!

Would you please apply the balls that you have when dealing with rebels and would be usurpers and your paranoia into something constructive that will do something for the greater good? You are President of this goddamned Republic, would you please act like a leader and cut the bullshit?!

Each year every organ of Government tells Congress what it needs to get the Job done. In their eternal Wisdom, Congress debates the matter. Take the University of the Philippines, for instance. UP-Manila includes the Philippine General Hospital— the premiere place where some, if not most of our best and brightest doctors-to-be get their education/training.

Go visit the Radiology department and you’d find the place not only filled with people being treated for Cancer via Radiation Therapy, but you’d find that the some of the more important and basic equipment like an X-Ray machine is perennially broken and has been for years. Oh, it isn’t the doctors’ or the tech’s fault. It isn’t even the Department of Radiology’s fault. In fact for years they’ve been shoe-strining operations, and finding creative ways to finance their operation.

Here you have a hospital where there are a lot are charity cases. And still, it makes millions of pesos yearly. Where does this money go? Does it go to the usual places— salaries, utilities alone— with equipment and maintenance thereof, nonexistent? Does it go to the University system as a whole, where it gets sucked into a black hole? Does it go back to the national government and when it comes time to reap the rewards a year later, that revenue is used elsewhere and the poor University must beg for funds to keep it alive? Even black holes have Hawking radiation, so what’s the Hawking radiation here?

PGH and UP is a sample of an even larger problem. It is replicated not just in hospitals owned by the government but in state run universities as a whole. I refuse to believe that it is simply a question of not enough money. I believe the problem is the mismanagement of resources. The problem is massively complex that the only answer is to slice it into bite sizes so we can chew on it. The problem is that our leaders use their balls, not for the greater good but in these idiotic, self-centered, what-they-think-we-like-to-hear crap. Lead, why don’t you? I’m old and jaded enough to know that’s too much to ask.

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About The Author: cocoy is a twenty-something neoliberal, Linux & Mac user, technology geek who enjoys a good cup of Coffee and who believes in New Media. He hangs out on twitter as @cocoy and blogs at Big Mango.

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Comments

5 Responses to “Too Much To Ask”

  1. chuck on May 27th, 2008 8:12 am

    Gloria never had a legitimate mandate so she doesn’t have much room to maneuver and make bold or unpopular policy choices, much less ‘lead’. Besides, to convince the public to bite the bullet on tuition fee increases, there has to be some good faith and reciprocity involved between the government and the governed as well as the rich, middle classes and poor. That’s part of the ‘Systems Loss’ that Schumey has talked about.

  2. benign0 on May 27th, 2008 8:17 am

    Exactly.

    It’s addressing symptoms rather than addressing root causes. That old classic low-thinking-applied pwede-na-yan/bahala-na-approach that has come to characterise da Pinoy.

    In fariness to Arroyo though, I must say that these left-wing bozos are guilty of that too. As far back as I can remember, these commie infested LFS (League of Filipino Students) morons have been organising anti-tuition-fee-hike rallies in UP.

    My point is, actions and talk made on top of flacid brainwaves, is an accross-the-board across-the-spectrum affliction in Pinoy society.

    No imagination
    No originality
    NO PROGRESS

  3. JTankers on May 27th, 2008 9:46 am

    “Even black holes have Hawking radiation, so what’s the Hawking radiation here?”

    I realize that you are just adding an off-topic quote, however your quote is misleading…

    Hawking Radiation is a strongly disputed theory, conjecture some would say, that has some very relevant implications related to operation LATER THIS YEAR of the Large Hadron Collider, and what risks some scientists may not want you to know about.

    Visit LHCFacts.org to learn why Dr. Raj Baldev, Director of the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, writes:

    “ … the scientists are fully aware that it is not a project without a grave risk to the life of the Earth.”

  4. cocooy on May 27th, 2008 7:07 pm

    Chuck, it’s bloody free market. There are no charity cases. Heck, even those charity cases at hospital and those scholarships being granted— it may not be the person who is sick or who’s a student paying but someone else is.

    People insist that this isn’t a free market economy, with all this “moratorium” on tuition fees. On the flip side, Government is perverting the free market with this takeover attempt at Meralco. I don’t like the high cost of power but i am more against any government controlling a private enterprise. We pervert systems and Gloria is ever the politician.

    JTankers, LOL. i understand that there hasn’t been any real observation and that Hawking radiation is theoretical at this point. it is why i linked to the wiki so people could weigh it in based on their own judgement. ;)

    in this case, i only meant that the money (being sucked kinda like in a blackhole) in the system (government) exist somewhere and that there should be some trail (Hawking radiation) where it all goes which leads to an explanation as to why things are the way they are. it is quite off-topic as you aptly wrote and it is my own sense of humor.

    As for the LHC, yeah, been aware for sometime about the “controversy” regarding it. Moblogic even did a webisode on it called “Are we still explorers.”

    Hey, if no one wants to pull the trigger, i’m totally here, you know? i’d love to be that guy. What’s science without some risk you know? So what if it could “destroy all life on Earth” and if in the after life, there are such things called “resumes”, i can always put in “destroyer of Earth”. Totally kick-ass, you know? Again, seriously, what’s science without some risk?

  5. cvj on May 27th, 2008 8:32 pm

    Cocoy, there is a reason why we outlaw child labor even if it qualifies as a ‘free market’. Same principle with education. It’s less about charity as it is about building the capabilities of our people so they can hopefully give back to the nation. We have to learn from our neighbors whose government invests in education and not subject their future to the bloody free market.

    Anyway, the point i was trying to make above is that even granting the desirability of a tuition fee increase, Gloria Arroyo lacks the mandate to do so because of the reasons i stated.

    BTW, on the LHC, this might help address concerns. IMHO, reason #6 is the most reassuring.

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