A Matter Simple Common Sense, Economics, Math, and Euphemism

Its been a while since I've written my last "angas" essay regarding Philippine Politics and pretty much about the Filipino way of living. Well, Thesis has been a pain in the ass, but if there is one good thing that bad news did for me, it would be the push in the right directions. I'm serious! Instead of pissing myself of watching the 11 P.M. news, or that stupid pro-vat infomercial, I'd rather work my ass off on that thesis. Hmmm should I include that in my acknowledgement? What do you think? OK so here is whats going on in my little dark and twisted mind. I don't know, somebody answer this for me? Why is it that this country likes to do everything backwards. Don't they have a thing called common sense? From the Executive to the legislative even to those guys who repair the pimpled roads of Metro Manila, its all the same. Are we really living up of being a mediocre republic? ugh!

1) I don't get it why our boys from the DPWH et al. start digging up these pimpled roads that we have during the rainy season( June to August). Although its nice to see that they are doing some public service, but come on I'm no engineer but its really all a matter of simple common sense. You dig a hole on the rainy season, rain water fills it, and you won't be able to work there until water subsides! Job takes longer to complete! Moreover the month of June is actually the start of classes, therefore more cars on the street, thereby causing traffic. Why don't they start working on it during the summer season? what's the matter? afraid of sunburn?

2) I don't get it how the government is attempting to save its resources at the expense of public service. 4 day work week? Are they serious? Again its all a matter of common sense! Even if you add two hours to the remaining 4 days to make up for the lost day, its still more productive to have one whole working day than a fraction of it. If regular a regular working schedule for one day is 8 hours, and its takes about 8 hours to complete one task, then one day is really all you need. But if you divide 8 hours into four days, then you would need about 4 days to complete the same task. You do the math! Lets face it, nobody goes to office at 7 A.M., come on! Even schools are having difficulties with such schedule. Besides, surely private offices will not be doing the same this summer, especially banks. If they are really sincere about this "austerity policy", then they should stop issuing expensive SUVs to public officials, Shut down government agencies that are idle, and put a ceiling to the salaries of GOCC presidents.

3)I don't get it why they keep on insisting that the only ones that will be affected by the VAT law are the ones who are capable of paying, and not the minimum wage earners. Sabi pa nila "bato bato sa langit ang tamaan sana ay yung hindi nagbabayad ng buwis." First of all tax evaders are right under this administrations nose! It does not have the political will to go after them. A study shows that if all this evaded taxes are collected, then we will already have enough to fill most of our budget deficit. It won't affect minimum wage earners? Its a simple law of economics, any expense that the producers have to shoulder to create a product, will in one way or the other surely be passed on to the consumers. For example. 1 kilo of Tilapia has no VAT, but if you fry it with cooking oil, its no longer VAT exempted because the Tin can is not. Noodles will not have VAT unless you pack them in plastics..... Do I really need to elaborate more. I also don't get it how this will solve our deficit. Its a cause and effect relationship, we got into this mess because of mas live corruption, misallocation of the national budget, and letting tax evaders loose. If we give them more taxes without solving those causes, then we will be right back where we started. In fact this government does not deserve more taxes, they should prove first that they are capable of handling people's money. Lets put this in another analogy, a bank's main source of income are its depositors. The deposited money are then used as investments in other businesses and loans. But if the management of this bank will not handle its business properly, then it will only be a matter of time before they file for bankruptcy, regardless of how much money they have accumulated from their depositors. So if that be the case, will you entrust your hard money to this kind of bank?

4) I absolutely don't understand why GMA is in soooooo much denial about the true condition of her country? Here she is posing in front of the cameras, bragging that there is still promise for this country. Meanwhile we were just ranked as the second most corrupt government in Asia. Guess what? There are other similar studies that support these, HOOOYAAA! maybe next year we will be first. I also do not get why her administration is taking this sitting down. Let me guess? its Erap and McCoy's fault again. Ugh! If this was Germany, then I think they'd be pointing fingers to Hitler. Moreover, these is a big insult to her presidency, and therefore must never be taken sitting down. Maybe I should put it in language that GMA is most likely to understand. Your country is in Deep Sh!t! Your administration sucks ass big time! so all in all you are seriously F*CKED! There! Do I makemy point clear?!

As you can see its all a matter of simple common sense, math, economics, and euphemism. -Ahmad