I’ve lost all desire to discuss Philippine politics. Not that I’ve turned to apathy but it’s just that thinking of how putrid politics here is on our shores ruins my day. What new is there to discuss, anyway. I bet MLQIII and Ellen Tordesillas have all the bases covered when it comes to politics from around here. And why dampen my spirits?

Anyway, probably one of the greatest personal tragedies that struck me for the past couple of days is the rapid depreciation of the dollar. The next day after oil hit $100, Xoom’s exchange rate fell below $40. And since I and my other friends receiving money over Xoom, (sorry, I still don’t have the money to open a new account at Union Bank to try that PayPal workaround), that meant another heavy blow to our budgets. And the irritating thing is that prices don’t drop anyway even if the value peso is surging sky high.

It’s these kinds of days when you just try to think about the what-ifs. Earlier this year, the rate was Php 49 to the dollar. Now, you get around Php 9 less for a dollar. Hey, Php 9 is a lot and losing that much per dollar that you earn is like taking a pay cut every day the dollar slips/the peso rises. Very self serving on my part to rant about this, but a lot of OFWs are dollar earners as well, right? If only the prices of commodities drop because of our strong currency, then I wouldn’t be ranting at all.

So let me play something really fun – place the blame on someone else. Who do we blame for it? GMA? Economists? The masses?

Blame George Bush!

Yes, that’s right. Blame someone of a different skin color this time. Blame him for letting the US economy slip so bad that GMA can claim that she’s doing something right. Blame him for looking like a chimp.

Now you get to think, what if Al Gore won back in 2000? Or Kerry in 2004? Or if 9/11 never happened? Or if the US never reacted that way? Then you begin to wish that the next president would be someone great (I’m personally rooting for Barack Obama) who could give the US a turnaround (But I do wish that only happens if I’m still earning green. Hehehe.).

Not that any of these things guarantee that there wouldn’t be a recession in America. I just wanted to blame someone so I blame George Bush for giving Filipino dollar earners with something to be pissed off at the start of the year.

Check out these other posts:

1. Oh yes, I do bother myself with Capitalism
2. Word through the gripevine
3. Torrent and YouTube freaks are to blame if the Net goes down