Of Strange Vibes in Paradise

The increase in robbery and murder cases here recently are symptoms of a community going through severe economic hardship. The closure of more than 2000 tourist related businesses has displaced gainfully employed people. Such a condition leads to hopelessness and abject poverty where the next best alternative is negative activities.

This joblessness was the direct result of the protectionist laws approved over the last six to eight years by the legislature which only fueled a deepening economic plunge wrought by the Asian Crisis. This is the legacy of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Legislature. Who was at the helm in the last nine years?

The measure of success isn’t measured by term of office as much as performance to improving the economic lot of the grassroots people. It is performance rating that figures prominently, not term of office. Well, the previous legislative leadership has carved a legacy of failure into an already their dismally poor performance record. It boggles the mind whether leadership has been redefined to mean complacency.
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If you can’t read and analyze situations intelligently, obviously understanding your own inadequacies on substantive issues would be equally futile. I’m often appalled by the number of people who fit the newest and latest category in what was widely known as the three types of people: Those who make things happen, who watch what happens, and didn’t know what happened. Add one more, please?–Those who wish things to happen.

It’s a matter of the lack of proactivity often gift wrapped in what we call complacency as to even brave donning the role of Mr. Nice Guy. Nice try! Who was it that said “Nice Guys Finish Last?” I couldn’t agree more with this maxim in that for years we have simply failed to aggressively articulate the true sentiments of our people.

We thought we did. We didn’t and so we ride the surf of “Those who wish things happen” wearing the boastful hat of “Mr. Nice Guy”. It’s strange vibes when the combined “didn’t know what happen” and “wish things happen” are trumpeted nervously in such defeatist phrases as “let us not be confrontational with Washington”. It must be an admission of having slept with the enemy in the same bed, eh?
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I was tailing a pick-up truck with a license plate declaring “So What”. I was tickled to death thinking of purchasing several plates with a slightly different message “Now What!” But then other ideas flowed into mind such as “Shut Up” and “Wake Up”. I have a list of strange names for these license plates which should be handed to rightful recipients before the heat turns up on the 2001 gubernatorial slug fest.
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Over the years, I’ve steered clear of coming to know certain people intimately for fear of piling up involuntary disappointments upon learning of their sterling immaturity. I mean, these are people whose forte are incongruity, hipocrisy and lack of depth. They leave common sense in their backyard and brave presenting their ill-conceived views in bully fashion.

Then there are those who treat their public posts as a stage for oratorical contest with speeches written by some overworked and underpaid staff member. What’s strange is the attitude that problem solving is best handled with written statements that are far from substantive. I often quiz if the speaker even understood what he or she just delivered. It must be the perpetuation of the high school mentality of aspiring to be taller than, well, Abraham Lincoln.

I’m very difficult to impress with prepared statements and not when it rings a familiar hollow bell in the failure to ensure that the “brain is in gear before engaging the mouth”. Geeessssussss!