Leadership by Example

Do you listen to hip-hop music? I can listen to all types of music (except boybands Puhleaaase). Last night I was working late in our laboratory, and I decided to watch the 11 P.M. news and suddenly a co-worker of mine played a track from 50 cent's in da club it goes;

"You can find me in the club
bottles full of bub
look mommy I got what you need
if you need to fill the bars
I'm into having sex
I ain't into making love
so come give me a hug
if you into being rubbed".

Heres another line that caught my attention. and I think it goes something like;

"Mah flow, Mah show, brought me the doh,
that bought me all my fancy things,
Mah Crib, mah cars, Mah pools, Mah jewls,
look nigga i got smart and i aint changed"

That time I was listening to this congressman who was whining about the proposed pork barrel cut. he goes. "Nung eleksyon nangako kami ng mga proyekto, ngayon pano kami babalik sa destrito namin nyan". Wow! spoken like a true gangsta, who wants to show off to his homies in da hood (This is me talking in a ghetto accent). For god's sake its just a cut not an elimination (pork barrel elimination would sound better though). Come on! he can still do his precious projects all he has to do is to be thrifty and do a little fund raising campaign (why not? he did that during the elections). He also added, "bakit naman kami ang pinagdedeskitahan dito?" kami ba may kasalanan ng budget deficit na yan?" According to the investigative report of Mike Enriquez, about 200 million pesos is unliquidated annually from our boys in congress. You know what? Speaking of fund raising here is what Im thinking. Why don't we make a music video for 50 cent's in da club and make these congressmen be on it? Well even add up those bling blings on them to create the illusion. Im sure that will boost ratings for whatever TV station that will air it. If they gonna act like a ghetto pimp, then lets treat them like that.

The funny thing is congress wants to tax the public some more. They want us to help resolve this budget deficit. But are they actually doing their part? In the first place how did we have a budget deficit? Because answer to that question would be the solution. It is estimated that over 50 billion pesos can be collected from these tax evaders. not to mention the other Billions that is being unliquidated, and unnecessary expenditures being spent by our government. It was also reported by LTO that the number of issued luxury vehicles this year TRIPPLED as compared to last year! The Energy department is convincing us to be thrifty in using gasoline, so here is what I propose. Lets do a little leadership by example, If all public officials would surrender or at least limit the use of their four wheel drive luxury vehicles, if all congressmen and senators will be willing to sacrifice a portion or if at all completely their piggy banks....errr... pork barrels, then count me in. You can tax me all you want! After all this scenario happened in South Korea during the Asian financial Crisis sometime during the mid-90s. Government officials sacrificed some of their properties, and the citizens followed by donating even their personal jewelries.

But of course they also have to guarantee us of effective tax collection, and a better means of minimizing corruption. Speaking of which, I also was able to visit the website of TALSIK.


I for one never supported activism, simply because most of them (if not all) delimit the issue to people. Yes we can always eliminate people from office we have the power to keep doing that. But the question is will it minimize corruption? I think not! why? because people are not the problem, the attitude is. I really was looking forward in viewing what TALSIK has achieved so far with their proposed solutions ("Which actually was not clearly stated, other that the plan to keep talking about finding ways to reform the government), sadly I didn't really find much. The real deal here is that the system is the problem. We had many noble statesmen who ended up being corrupted by the system after some years of working with it (Loren Legarda for one). It does not matter who we elect in office, no one will come clean until we all come to be clean. Fact is leaders come from us, believe it or not the most corrupt leaders in this country started to have noble intentions. I guess most of us already have heard the proposition that goes, "in order to change this country what we need to do is kill every single Filipino and spare all the new borns. Ergo the only ultimate solution is if all of us will change for the better. If TALSIK can come up with a proposal on how to change 80 million Filipinos, then I will contribute whatever they want me to. I don't also have a proposal for that, so to answer Chelsea's question, what can we do to help the country aside from talking, here it goes;

Every morning I wake up early, take heavy breakfast, go to work on time, leave work on time, and while Im in this country I pay my taxes to the last cent and obey its laws to the last letter. And on my spare time I sit on this computer and try to reveal the true nature of the system, with the hope that someone may also care enough to realize the problem with what the problem of the system is. And somehow make a contribution to change that system. By that I mean changing him or herself. Im trying to seek change for myself also because I believe that is how we can beat the system. We don't really need to go out in the streets again to create catharsis, or be shot in Luneta to become heroes. In order for this country to change, every people in it must seek change for himself and not only fro the people around him.

Otherwise, when we become statesmen someday, we might find ourselves singing to 50 cent's tune "P.I.M.P" everybody sing with me,

"I dont know what you heard about me, but if you can't
get a dollar out of me
No Cadillac, no perms, you can't see
That I'm a motherf**king P-I-M-P."

-Ahmad.