Serendipity
Cuckoo Coup
I remember waking up to the loud sound of choppers flying over the UP Diliman campus when I was 17. I was a dormer in Kalayaan (with a name like this, it's ironic that we never had much freedom there... but that's another story), a kid fresh out of high school who was all alone in the City of Man (as in Man[ila], as a friend used to call it). All of us in the girl's wing on the 3rd floor jumped out of our beds and images of Idi Amin and Hitler flashed before my eyes. "Coup d'état!" was heard reverberating through the hallways and although we knew how grave the situation was, we were all thinking of the same thing -- classes were suspended! Yipee! (That was how young and stupid we were – anything to get us out of Math 1.)
Fast forward to 2007, November 29. Trillanes did it again last Thursday. (Do I hear Britney Spears singing, "Oops…" in the background?) I mean, this guy never learns from his past mistakes. To say that I was embarrassed is an understatement. It's days like this when as a Pinoy, you just wish you lived in Iceland (#1 as one of the best places to live on earth according to a recent survey) or in a galaxy far, far, far away.
I'm not a political zealot. I hate to talk about politics, and although I rant about how stupid, corrupt and hopeless this country's government is, I'm also not the type to go out into the streets and rally for change (although I did go through my "Ibagsak ang imperialistang kano" phase in UP when I fancied myself a "tibak" -- as in activist). But when yesterday's fiasco was witnessed by people all over the world (it was in CNN and probably even in Telemundo or some other obscure Spanish cable channel), I just can't help but react.
This coup thing, this just won't work anymore. I can't even keep track of how many coup attempts I've witnessed since that fateful day in Diliman. And all of them never worked! Yes, yes, we know that Gloria Arroyo is immoral, corrupt, and all the other invectives you can think of now will probably describe her perfectly, but overthrowing her government to institute (or is it force?) change is a futile act. Just wait till the 2010 elections and whip her ass, that's how it should be. I mean, the only real damage caused by this act of rebellion was when that poor hotel door crumbled from the onslaught of that mammoth tank. For me, no damage to the government was made, GMA still sits on her queenly throne and Trillanes is once again f**ked.
Gawd, the embarrassment. One man's stupidity is everybody's shame. They're all a bunch of cuckoos if you ask me -- from Trillanes to GMA and her minions. EDSA can never be repeated. Let's leave it at that.