Accents
The food we throw away
Oakland, California - I threw away the butter that could have fried the egg in my morning breakfast; rather, PAL did.
An otherwise smooth, safe and pleasant PAL flight ended with a ruffle. The crew was in the best Filipino deportment - caring, polite, attentive to every request - making the run-up to Christmas less of a hassle. It was heartening to see Filipinos serving fellow Filipinos, and loving it. And PAL wasn't the acronym we used to jokingly give it, PAL Always Late. It was on time. Where then was the ruffle?
It was disembarkation time at San Francisco airport and Mrs. Juana de la Cruz (";Don't use my real name,") was arranging her carry-on bag that bulged with the excess food served by PAL during the flight.
";Didn't you hear the announcement?" I told her. It was about prohibiting taking out food that was served in the plane, or a fine of $5,000 will be imposed on Juana or any contrary Mary if found out. Juana said she had been bringing with her the excess food in her previous trips.
";So have I," I said but I had to unload the untouched small canisters of butter, strawberry jam, bread, etc. when the announcement was made.";Stay put meanwhile. I'll talk to the Chief Steward or whoever is the official concerned."
And the ruffle started when the lady officer said No. ";We have to abide by the rules." But of course! No quarrel over that. It is said the U.S. of A. does not allow the entry of food products into its shores, which is stretching the rule a bit too far because those unopened tiny canisters of butter, etc. were produced, sealed, imported from America. This environmental activist (hey, it is a pride to be one!) argued to no avail because, well, hard is the law, it is the law. Dura lex, sed lex, as my resident lawyer (the hubby no less) used to say. Nevertheless, to the group of flight attendants who had gathered, I did rattle off the environmentalist's mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle.
What are you people doing for the sake of the environment? Considering the many trips that PAL makes and the many mothers and grandmothers on board who want to take the excess food with them but are prohibited from doing so, do you even think of the waste? Anyway, I'll write about this, and you bet, send CC to PAL management. Let's see what action PAL will take to counter this anti-environment policy.
There are homeless in the streets of San Francisco who beg for food, and their kind do exist in other parts of the U.S. of A. although it is touted as the richest nation in the world. The unequal distribution of wealth comes to mind, yes, just as it is in your country and mine, our beloved Philippines. Prithee (in the magnitude of a Shakespearean plea), Economists of the world, unite and solve this problem, in the face yet of the dwindling resources of Mother Earth.
From the HUNGER website are some facts to ponder: ";One billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. About 24,000 people die everyday from hunger or hunger-related causes... Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five... The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat." A chunk of this statistics belongs to Bayang Magiliw.
Poverty? Hunger solution? It does not help any that we have a President with a doctoral degree in Economics. (Bah, humbug!) If to be recalled, then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sponsored the GATT (General Agreement in Tariff and Trade) that turned out to be an abomination to Third World countries like the Philippines. GATT's co-conspirator is the WTO (World Trade Organization) that was vehemently protested in Hong Kong. (But this is an entirely different story deserving of our condemnation.)
How about this for a New Year's Resolution: Resolve not to throw away food for as long as it is clean and safe, for as long as we can help it. Throwing it away is a crime against the hungry. Rather, shouldn't we see how the same could be channeled to help the needy? And there's always the option to cut off excesses by staying within our needs. Good for the purse and for the health.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)