0184D: How To Cope With The Philippines?


So there's been an announcement that rotating power blackouts are a distinct possibility this weekend due to the scheduled maintenance of Unit 2 of the Ilijan power plant. Of course the government adds insult to injury by asking consumers to practice greater energy conservation in light of this and warns us that energy problems are expected due to other maintenance shutdowns scheduled throughout the rest of the year. And while I support the overall practice of energy efficiency practices, this seems like a reminder that comes a litle too late when we're already facing a problem. If routine maintenance activities alone are enough to bring the system into what they call "yellow alert" then we all know that there's something significant deficient about our so called power "system" in place.

The government has continued to make such public statements in light of a variety of issues affecting public welfare and the like. A few months ago when the MRT was unable to cope with the number of daily riders, we were asked to simply take alternate forms of public transportation instead. On the whole, it seems that whatever problem comes along, the government really can't offer solutions or even solid long-term action plans designed to address the problem. Thus they can only give us really bad tips for coping with the problems we face instead.

It's such mediocre thinking that seems to illustrate just how little the government sees in the potential of this country. Why aspire to become more at par with other nations when we can just wallow in our own filth? Why should we expect better from our country when instead we can just focus on blaming the previous administration for all our current problems instead? It's not productive, but it makes for great sound bites in the media? Or at least that's what the government seems to think based on their statements to the media.

But we shouldn't just cope with problems - we need to solve them! Figuring out who might be to blame will always been of lower priority to solving the on-going issues that we face. And yes, the government isn't soley responsible for fixing the woes of daily life, but they certainly have a huge chunk of responsibility. They don't need to do everything, but they also need to take the lead in providing the rest of us with clear direction as where to go.

But yes, it doesn't seem like they have any clue as to how to go about things either.

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