Comic relief

It rained on the Red Cross’ Club 200 comic parade. But Frank de Lima was game. Celebrating 30 years of single-handedly closing down various Honolulu nightspots, he was not to be fazed by the advances of Lady Mazu, patron of Li Ma Hong’s pirates in the Philippine open Sea.

Zeus might have presided over Mt. Olympus, arbitrating a quarrel between Poseidon and Aphrodite in balmy Aegean but this was Taka-Okami in the shadows of Mt. Tapochai, so the salty cloudburst was definitely local.

As Frank de Lima ribbed the various ethnic groups of his Oahu neighborhood (playing safe with the Portugee since there are not too many toes to step on in Saipan), to the delight of what was obviously a substantial Filipino following in attendance, Mr. de Lima tried to capture the attention of a diverse and spread out crowd, in the middle of a downpour that proved to be longer than the normal Garapan 15-minute evening routine. For standing up to the less than cooperative crowd, competing against the rain, and forgetting only twice where he was (give him a man’amko card!), Frank should be pinned the Red Cross Medal of Honor for duty beyond the call of courage and sanity. And Frank, the separate sale of the video and the audio “‘cause one can’t enjoy one without the other,” is old and stale, but it still works, so you may keep it in your repertoire.

While trying to protect my wife’s back from the elements, waving at the beverage waiter to serve our far-flung table at the edge of the water, and keeping an eye on the screen to give Mr. de Lima a fair chance at my funny bones, I began to think of the downpour that has descended on the island and will stay a fixture ’til the second week of November. The current charade, the big show in town is, of course, the current campaign for the November elections.

I did not see too many prominent political personae in the Saturday crowd, but I did not look too hard in the rain. The attendance was surely a perfect 2000, plus my wife and I, which made 2002. Throw in Lynn, John and Frank, and we made 2005 warm bodies easy. Which makes it a great vintage year for the Club! Here are some images.

Manong (revered elder brother in Pinoy) Ben, was at the Hyatt lobby when my wife and I walked in. My Chinese wife thinks the House Speaker is very congenial like a Panda bear. One vacillates on approach on whether one should give him a hug or a handshake. In tandem with Tim V., erstwhile of the CUC, who has gone the way of a teddy bear, Better Times, at least, project ‘cute and cuddly,’ the promise of warmth and coziness in the coldness of the economic times.

Singularly the event of the year, I would not be surprised if all the gubernatorial candidates, or, at least, their seconds, showed up at some point during the evening. Did not notice Heinz in the crowd but I have an image of him aggressively going after the Manhoben vote with a team that has reversed the David and Goliath roles. Youthful in demeanor, sharp in discourse, Heinz is everyone’s Junior. Quick-witted and ever critical in the cognitive sense, one might get an unsolicited comment re deficiencies of this or the other, and a clear suggestion on how to deal with it. His team projects the image of change, bravely battling windmills in pursuit of Happier Days!

Lang and his sainted teammate would normally be dear to my party loyalty heart, being a Democrat in national politics. But as many expats on island have shown, national politics hardly influences ideological and party choices at the local level. Since Jesse Borja shelved his party hat, the donkey will remain in my filing cabinet a while. Lang rates high, however, in the nostalgia vote, and if the man’amkos do not forget to vote, he may just have a following in that sector.

The BB team remains one of my students’ best bet. J and D are Just Doing It, making a difference, he claims. Though his Dad might very well be employed in the current administration, his sentiments are not altogether surprising. Nor is it limited. For though the Governor has a reputation of being standoffish on social occasions, and is ever reminded of the virtues of social graces, his sterling work habits and decisiveness, Harry Blalock/John del Rosario/Jesus Camacho, and off-island trips notwithstanding, have garnered him respect among the thinking electorate. Stumble a couple of times a la Gerald Ford and the first B might even gain our sympathy.

The Club 200 event in the lush and wet tropical surroundings of the Hyatt Regency is of the type written about in Condé Nast. In our table were greenhorn members of the Toddler’s Club so the young mothers had to excuse themselves early to send the baby sitters home. But the sight of the 35-years-old-and-above ladies, nursing a cocktail or a glass of wine, getting all assertive to the point of being boisterous, and convivial in their bare feet and wet evening attire, earned my wife’s respect for feminine selfhood liberally displayed and not generally noticeable in mainland Chinese gatherings. So, TY ARC. To the Gub-aspirants, keep up the good show!

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Vergara is a Social Studies 6th grade teacher at San Vicente Elementary School