YOUNG VOICE
New York Hotdogs
How is it that a country that spends no less than Php10 for a meal has a leader that can afford a buffet costing 100,000 times more?
Rodrigo looked at the wall clock for the last time. It was getting late and he had been working past his shift. He had spent the entire day scrubbing toilet bowls and mopping off muddy footprints from the restroom’s floor. If it wasn’t for the lady who tainted the tiled floor with barfed out baked macaroni, Rodrigo could have left earlier. He wiped off sweat from his forehead, laid to rest his mop and brush in the equipment cabinet, and walked towards the department head’s office to get his pay. Rodrigo left the building carrying a patched and sutured backpack his wife herself has untiringly repaired and creasing the Php150 salary in his grip. Rodrigo’s home was of walking distance; he crossed a few blocks and reached a dimly lit street. He stopped over at a carenderia, asked for four cups of
rice, pointed on a kaldero of fish stew and a stick of grilled hotdog. Rodrigo bartered fifty pesos with a plastic bag containing his family’s supper. He continued walking further the dimly lit street, now at a faster pace. His two children must have been waiting long for their half of the grilled hotdog. The Php100 remaining was for tomorrow’s breakfast, lunch and the children’s fare to school.
Rodrigo is one of the millions of Filipinos who struggle to maximize a day’s pay for three meals enough for their family and not to mention the non-food expenses. On the average, a Filipino caught in the net of poverty spends around Php10 each meal, that’s Php30 each day. And, we’re just talking about food. I am simply astounded at how
a family of twelve, living in a house with dripping ceilings, can stick to the available budget without any help from the Hindu guy with the motorcycle. This is the infamous poverty, third-world countries such as the Philippines are known for. They live to survive. The quality of living has been shredded off, erased from these people’s list of concerns. Rodrigo’s children are even fortunate to be able to go to school. Yes, there are indeed people who don’t care about how many pokes they receive in Facebook, they have far more life-threatening businesses to accomplish, such as feeding off their hunger.
What transpired as headlines of many newspapers about the president and her colleagues’ Php1,000,000 dinner at a classy New York restaurant seem to generously oppose the current economic trend of our struggling nation. How is it that a country that spends no less than Php10 for a meal has a leader that can afford a buffet costing 100,000 times more? We all have our freedom to decide what to eat, whether it’ll be turo-turo food or selectively picked fresh vegetables sautéed in olive oil and garnished with the finest oyster sauce. Our president or any of her fellows could very well pay with their “own” finance the bountiful dinner. They were among the fortunate to be included in the country’s higher social strata.
Our president may have cleared out allegations of spending the country’s budget on extravagant dining; she may have found ways to prove that she is legally right. But, not everything that is legal is at the same time moral. If I was in her shoes, aside from being a few inches taller, I wouldn’t have found the drive to savor or even swallow the delectable dishes served, now that my fellow countrymen will be sleeping with empty gurgling stomachs. I heard her
spokesperson saying, “Where do you expect the president to eat, on hotdog stands?” Oh, come on! Hotdogs aren’t that bad. Most people say the best hotdogs are in New York; our dear president could have grabbed the opportunity and ate a weener or two. I am not an anti-Gloria nor pro-Gloria, whatever she does right, I praise; whatever foolish acts she commits, I loathed. The president, the leader of a nation is its voice, its representative. This I believe is
the focal essence of representative democracy. How then, I ask, can a leader represent the nation if what she shows the world is in complete contradiction to the state of her people? Her affect must be dysfunctional, while her country cries, she smiles.
The Php1,000,000 spend on the five-star buffet can simply be transmuted as three complete meals for one day for about 33,333 Filipino people. I do not imply that the president is obliged to buy just a Php30 worth of food to be one with the people. She isn’t caught in the net of poverty. She has the funds. She can choose Parmesan cheese over plain cheddar. My point is, spending Php1,000,000 for herself and a few colleagues is simply too much and too tactless. The world will have a hard time figuring out if the Filipinos are indeed poor. We receive donations every second from well-developed countries, but it seems we spend more than they do.
Rodrigo’s children were excited for their father to arrive with supper. He promised them a piece of grilled hotdog.
I wonder how many New York hotdogs will Php1,000,000 buy?
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Congratulations to Kristine Rose Garcia Romero for passing the Nurse’s Licensure Exam. We are very proud of you. From the Garcia Family.
(Do you know how many hotdogs will 1,000,000 buy? Email me @ reylangarcia@gmail.com or leave me a comment at http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)