The Construct

I remember back in the days when I was still working in one of my early jobs. It was a rough time for a number of us – young and brilliant who felt overworked and underpaid. Several of us weren’t lucky enough to have been born to well-to-do families and had to dole out part of our pay to help out. Some of us even occasionally went short on the budget and had to ask other co-workers for short-term loans. If someone ever did splurge on something, no one really broadcasted it to the rest of the group for tact’s sake.

Save for this one guy. Now this guy, was really something. Every pay day, while the rest of us were ranting about how our semi-monthly take home pay would be split to paying the bills, family support, and daily expenses, this guy goes out during lunch break and goes back with bags and bags collectible action figures or a new gadget. And that’s where his half-month’s pay went. No worries since he didn’t have anything else to spend on. Living with the folks and not needing to help out.

Some of us would jokingly comment about him being a real dick doing that during a workday especially when he’d spend the rest of the day ogling his loot while the rest of us worked on our Excel sheets budgeting where our money would go. Oh how we really wanted to kick his balls in for that.

Basic politeness and decency have it that you need not flaunt what you have especially in the face of those who don’t. It’s really no wonder why quite a number of people living in a place where tuyo and galunggong are already luxuries took offense when some people dine on steak and caviar.

Only jerks do that.

Tomorrow, Gloria Arroyo will once again deliver her State of the Nation Address. What’s in store for her audience remains to be heard but as always, we can always expect it to be one heck of a day.

Classes have been suspended at all levels but only a few students will be listening with a critical ear. Most of the working population will go about their routines. Some will hear it, some will not. Personally, my TV’s busted to I’ll have to rely on the Internet for updates.

Commonwealth Avenue will again be a circus with usual clash of riot police and militant activists. It has always been a great spectacle but tomorrow, Iglesia ni Kristo will also be celebrating their anniversary so we can all expect the expansive stretch of concrete to be awash with more color.

Unless Arroyo has some big announcement (snap elections, Martial Law, or Con Ass), I can only expect it to be more of the same – a speech from president trying to quantify her successes through numbers and qualify them with anecdotes. Some would say, the real SONA is on the streets – the cold hard facts of life compared to the more than optimistic view of an unpopular president.

Well, I say the true state of the nation is in every Filipino. Your nation is only as good as how your life in it is.

UPDATES:
1. Word Cloud
2. Full Text via Tonyo Cruz