Needless to say, the testing officer wasn’t amused. The bang of the rubber stamp marking the words “Immediate Fail” in red on my application echoes in my head to this day.

As I was shipping out on another out-of-town assignement the following week, I faced another seven days of anxiety before my next shot at the test.

When we examine Pinoy “rage”, specifically how it is expressed and (mis)channeled, we gain further insight into the profound underpinnings of Pinoy-style dysfunction that remain beyond the reach of the minds of some of our renowned “experts” on Pinoy society. Rage can either focus the mind or see it unravel. In the days leading up to the most recent ocho-ocho “rally” last Friday, there was a lot of “rage” being expressed.

There was the quiet focused rage that drove non-self-serving and noble undertakings involving things like “organizing Pinoys [over] in Singapore for that final push to drive Gloria out of the palace”.

And then there was that kind of seething rage that given a bit of prodding with a few child-like queries gets expressed in a spectacular meltdown such as the way a prominent and well-regarded “political” blogger was driven to an anti-climactic fuck you moment.

Interestingly enough, the Inquirer.net‘s Op Ed for today jumps off from Mar Roxas’s own tang ina mo moment (at least that prominent blogger I cited is in good company). The editorial goes on to juxtapose this little factoid against some of history’s most elegant and classy comebacks spoken by some of humanity’s greatest statesmen.

Of Roxas, on the other hand (arguably the best “statesman” that a country of 90 million could produce), the Inquirer editor only had this to say:

The use of an expletive by the normally decorous Roxas drew mixed reactions. Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said, “We are saddened that he stooped so low in his tirade. We don’t think his crass language will help in his desperate drive to catch up with the popularity ratings of other leading ‘presidentiables.’” The public’s reaction was largely negative. But others, like Naga City Vice Mayor Gabriel Bordado, said Roxas might have been exasperated over the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s repeated attempts to push through with Charter change.

When it comes down to it, our most illustrious statesmen and most learned “experts” are no better at handling exasperation and frustration than the Average Pinoy Schmoe. The very people who call for “decent” leadership find it quite a monumental personal challenge to exhibit it themselves. Never mind that the utter impropriety of officers of the Philippine government and agents of The System spending taxpayer-funded time walking with raised fists amongst such a rabble escapes our Pinoy-class thinking faculties. This lame attempt to grab media exposure points, low as it was, was out-plumbed by such a poignant display of flaccid indignation.

I hit on the idea that it is this unravelling of the composure of the pompous and the superficially-dignified that makes Pinoy politics the source of shallow amusement that it is. Apparently even the esteemed Dean Jorge Bocobo wasn’t above exhibiting his own version of that tililing rampage made famous by another “renowned” blogger:

Benigs,
All your umbrage against “experts” reveals a basically anti-intellectual stance, typical of lower management and the petit bourgeoisie. You think the grand solutions lie in org charts and trite slogans. Paradoxically, you berate experts while peddling yourself off as a power pointie operations managment expert. Expert at flow charts, vibrating clip art, and droll solipsisms. You are as crisp as a fresh ream of bond paper, and just as empty. You are full of plans and projects and folders and documents. But you are also on the other side of the world. In more ways than the physical.

There! Now I can go Christmas shopping with a light heart!

[The last in a series of four "comments" that started here.]

At the end of the day, the only thing the esteemed “expert” on Pinoy politics achieved after that rampage was to prove that Yours Truly can’t spell — which so efficiently highlights the point of this blog entry…

Rage does not translate to results any more than a million-odd kilojoules of energy released in an uncontrolled nuclear reaction in one instance of foolishness is useful to humanity.

… which in essence is not too different from the message I hammered into Abe‘s head a few days ago…

Excuse me professor, but last I checked, we “ordinary citizens or non-leaders” do have the ability to have “control over [our] leaders”. All you need to do is to refer to The Constitution.

We just need to GROW A BRAIN so that we use these abilities WISELY.

You suggest that the system adjust — no, dumb itself down — so that it becomes “compatible” with the level of this “ability”.

And I’ve been accused of insulting Pinoys’ intelligence.

I SAY something a bit more real:

Ordinary Pinoys and non-leaders should STEP UP and elevate the savviness by which we apply that ability to “have control over [our] leaders”.

If our idea of what it means to savvily wield our democratic “power” cannot go beyond that half-brained measure of effectiveness embodied in how Conrado de Quiros apologises about last Friday’s flaccid numbers and instead highlights an anger…

[...] made all the more thunderous and luminous for being expressed in the wondrous colors of Christmas, in the vibrant tones of song and dance, in the barbed-wired words of parody and satire. Some of those who spoke there expressed their anger as well completely literally, in the language of curse and expostulation [...]

… then maybe it really IS time to explore a different approach to governing ourselves.

Then again, that in itself would be a monumental challenge given our society’s sorry track record of thinking outside the square. Apparently there is no university course that trains people to be non-experts. :D

———————-
EPILOGUE:

As I mentioned earlier, I hit a homerun on my third swing at the licensing office. I was $90 poorer but happy (I no longer needed to carry around my then Philippine passport as proof of identity as well).

Working the system didn’t give me instant results and cost me a bundle. But the results were sustainable.

Only when we learn to focus rage and passion on what is important rather than follow the lead of “experts” whose formal training imprisons their thinking causing them to go down deep and narrow into progressively trivial detail resulting in a chronic habit of comprehensively missing The Point due to an addiction to pompous verbosity, can we realise an unlocking of the vast potential that a country of 90 million truly deserves.

Like the jeepney that had proliferated in vast undifferentiated numbers as to devalue, we need to re-think our beholdenness to the Pinoy blogosphere’s equivalent of the jeepney. Ingenious at first, but now just part of the problem.

Problems cannot be solved using the same thinking that created them. – Albert Einstein

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But this is not a sports post but rather a note about how the PacMan’s homecoming from Las Vegas may be shamelessly exploited to dilute the impact of this week’s anti charter change Inter Faith rally.

The mobilization for December 12 now includes students from Metro Manila’s Catholic schools and the El Shaddai flock, the Jesus Is Lord ministry, and the Ayala-led Makati Business Club.

I think Manny Pacquiao who is oozing with self-confidence and moolah after proving beyond dispute to be a certified star is in a better position to be immune from “exploitation” compared to the “flock” of El Shaddai, Jesus-is-Lord Ministry, and other Ministri-de-Cacao followers who will be marching lemming-like to this next so-called “Intefaith” (that’s Pinoy originality for you!) Rally.

Kung baga Ding, my man, you are quick to cry sensational “exploitation” in the way you expertly “explore” and — horrors! — analyse possible outcomes arising from how the Pacman may choose to conduct his travel affairs. Granting that amazing leap of causal relationship engineering, it is quite funny that you’d conveniently FAIL to interpret the act of leading a flock of believers into a POLITICAL rally as being, itself (more BLATANTLY, as a matter of fact), an act of exploitation.

Even in your previous post, you literally announce the circus like a true ring leader and spruiker that you are turning out to be in the rather revealing way that you title that piece: “Now Showing: The Congressional Cha-Cha Zarzuela”.

If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck…

I couldn’t help commenting (my quotes from your piece in italics) on some of the Gulong ng Palad reminiscent poetry you wax there:

Nasaan na ang Lupang Hinirang?

It’s there, Ding, right under your nose.

You just have to look in the right direction

In your own words lie the answer…

We are witnessing a classic smoke and mirrors show.

… an answer that I deliver to you in the form of a question:

So why give that “show” the time of day then?

The Philippines is NOT Malacanang, nor is it Congress, folks. It is a society with cultural issues ingrained at its very fabric that will not be laundered out by simply kicking politicians’ arses.

While you point out how all these politicos are producing “smoke and mirrors” shows (which, to be fair, sells a lot of tickets), it seems you are not above producing some pretty big whoppers yourself (with even bigger stars). That post of yours so effectively and efficiently epitomises more than 20 years of Pinoy-class thinking in the Philippine Media.

Congratulations dude. You are a true beacon of enlightenment.

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