around 1 this afternoon, i was on my way to school when i witnessed something unusual. i was walking along q. ave, just after the intersection of q.ave and edsa when i saw pedicab drivers rushing towards the gate securing the vacant lot in that area (eton centris). at first, i thought there were just playing but noticing the serious look in their faces plus the fact that they were all looking at a point at my back made me think that that was something else. it took just a few seconds before i noticed an approaching blue truck from my peripheral view. and then it just hit me (not physically though), this is one of those MMDA road/sidewalk clearing operations!
everything happened in less than a minute or so. i just stopped there and watched in surprise from the time the MMDA personnel jumped from the truck to the time they were running after the pedicab drivers who were running with their pedicabs in tow, and chasing the sole sidewalk vendor selling boiled bananas who left her bag which i assume contains some of her goods. that bag didnt go unnoticed and was eventually confiscated. the vendor even attempted to recover her bag from those MMDA guys but of course, her attempts were futile.
seeing her desperate face was like watching those drama movies they play in cinema one. you cant help but think how important that bag is for her. baka madami pa syang paninda dun. ang bigat pala sa dibdib. personally, i agree with bayani fernando's effort to clear the sidewalk from vendors as long as they are provided with alternative places to sell their goods. but seeing that scene with my own two eyes made me cringe. im not really for law enforcement. hanggang plano lang ako. my heart is too weak for those situations. its hard seeing people's faces full of desperation.
i remember one threat of email exchanges we had at the office recently. it started with polar bear's email about the accidental boob exposure of an old lady in wowowee and my expressed disgust at the show which eventually led to talks about porverty, the government and global warming. all of them had the same line of thinking that poverty is a result of one's indolence and that the poor should not blame the president, or the government for that matter, for their shabby state.
desperately, i tried to point out that im not glorifying the poor and they really should not blame everything on the government but some of the social, economic and political structures and the failure of the programs implemented by the government for the alleviation of proverty make the president accountable for the massive poverty in the country. that incident earlier was a testament that sometimes, no matter how hard you work your ass off, you still cant cant out from your current situation because structures prevent you to do so.
in sociology, there's a famous article written by c.w.mills entitled the sociological imagination. i read it when i was in first or second year because its one of basic reading materials that every student is required to read. one of the main points of that article was on distinguishing private troubles from social issues. mills said that for example, in a town with a population of 100, only one person is unemployed, unemployment in that case is a private trouble of that individual. but if a lot of people, say 50, is unemployed, then thats a social issue. same case in the country. if 70% of your people falls below the poverty line, then the poor cant be solely blamed for their condition.
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i wrote this in a scratch paper when i was having lunch at mcdo. i was surprised to learn that a 1-piece chicken meal with large orange juice already costs 94 pesos. grabe...
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