Author Topic: Losing face  (Read 950 times)

kan-ogong

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Losing face
« on: August 26, 2010, 08:30:25 PM »
Less than two months ago, Quirino Grandstand was the site of an occasion of national pride—the inauguration of a president who vowed to bring about real change. Now the place is bitterly remembered for a tragedy.

The Philippines’ reputation was another casualty of Monday’s hostage crisis.

The Manila police, in epic proportions, bungled the rescue operation that resulted in the deaths of eight Chinese tourists. The police also failed to restrict an overzealous media from announcing everything happening on the scene, including the supposed arrest of the hostage taker’s brother. The sight of his brother being dragged and forcibly taken by the police was said to have agitated Police Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza and driven him to take the lives of his hostages—despite early indications that he was willing to negotiate.

The next morning, everybody who was conspicuously missing during the crucial hour of the crisis became visible. The President, who reportedly could not be reached by the Hong Kong Prime Minister the night before, gamely went to “inspect” the scene of the crime. Everybody blamed everybody else and issued calls for resignations and investigations. Amateur tacticians offered ideas on how the matter could have been resolved with zero casualty.

How pointlessly belated all of it was.

Now Filipinos in every part of the world are livid at the bloody ending that could have been prevented. We are also overcome with collective guilt and shame that such a tragedy could happen to foreigners who were merely touring our country.

Advisories against traveling to the Philippines were issued almost instantly. No doubt, the killings will deal a blow to our tourism and investment efforts for a long time. The fear is not just about looneys roaming the streets and committing crimes randomly. The greater fear is that those tasked to enforce the law and protect the people are either crazy terrorists themselves—or fumbling buffoons.

Let us not forget the thousands of Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong. These workers now fear ill treatment from or dismissal by their employers in a kind of national backlash for the tragedy—actor Jackie Chan’s assurances over Twitter notwithstanding.

Hong Kong authorities have arrived in Manila to conduct their own probe. They have all the right to do so, even though this tells us—and resoundingly—that they do not think we can conduct a credible investigation on our own.

We do deserve some jolting. If shame in the international community is what it takes for our institutions to shape up, then let us be hard on ourselves. In other cultures, people kill themselves even with only the perception of committing a shameful deed. Let’s do the figurative equivalent; let’s shed the face of ineptitude and grow a new one that the whole world, and we ourselves, can respect.


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cujo

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Re: Losing face
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2010, 02:05:59 AM »
Everybody can make mistakes.Officials can point fingers at each other whose fault was it to botched up the rescue of the hostages, for all the world to see.Be it lesson to be learned from this tragic mistakes that cost lives of those visitors of our country.The media made it worst by televising every detail of the crucial rescue and from what I understand that also triggers the gunman to do what he did.I could not imagine what those people inside the bus went through those painful hours before they died,.God Bless their souls...

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chicogon

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Re: Losing face
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2010, 02:11:41 AM »
Shame on us, in other words...  :(

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magbalantay

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Re: Losing face
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2010, 02:41:07 AM »
   :-[ :( dugay nang wa na tai nawong. ;D ;D ;D dili na ni new pra sa Pinas!

           ang dakung challenge karon....unsaon nato pagbawi sa atong nawong  ???

                baga na, dili na madutlan!   :( :( :(

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