By: Iris P. Concepcion
I admit to being a whiner for the most part of my life. I howl over bad service, incompetent people, slow processing of anything, from papers to eyebrow plucking.
Before this President was elected, I have already felt a certain "tangible" shake-up from within that had me reversing my previous pronouncements in the past. It is not backsliding. I fathomed that I could not just be gritting my teeth over lapses forever. How to address these concerns merited another look. Cutting the chase, I started writing (and talking) about these "dreams" to people who could and might just listen to the voice of the marginalized via my own warped interviews with them.
It was not done overnight. Cocooned in a habitation of domesticity for the longest period of time, the toilers were doing their own, global work outside just as I had wished it.
Once I stepped outside, I have seen the spectacle of my rather gauche and pseudo State Of The Nation address being hooked realistically----out there in the field.
Slowly, these people had silently used cement, steel and other industrial equipment to places where they should be used and seen. I did not realize they had been dejected oftentimes just because they do not spend much on lobbying.
I think this is my participation: I had nagged them to do more. They had responded with equal vigor and passion. One of these workers termed it beautifully as "we are a bunch of poet-writers, marchers, workers, artists, gays, lesbians, businessmen who found a common ground." Very Ian McEwan in description.
Thus, in my daily interactions with these people, budget is a non-issue. I started revelling on the qualities of this new movement. I even encourage skeptics to explore them without biases this time around. I had been known to gloat over films. It felt weird gloating over things as traditionally staid as public edifices.
I was knocking my head off before how to term this desire of mine in a huger scale.
Now I found the gist.
I merely wanted those who are less fortunate to gain access to mall-like amenities without paying horrible club-like entrance fees. Or if they do pay, they are at least affordable. Hence, I welcome this palengke in Bicol having an elevator and an escalator. I read that people there (millions) had their first visual delight in years. Who would have thought, really. It is spreading happiness to more people rather than be constricted with clubhouse mentalities meant only for the select few.
I was moreover astounded by the fact that they really do not cost much; or that they could really be built. I mean, at least I saw a park with Spielberg-like reproductions of dinosaurs but that is, clearly, an imagination working. You see, public service need not be crappy, unexciting and substandard. In fact, they should be the best. After all, government is the hugest conglomerate of source funding in this universe, wherever you may be.
If I see a striking of balance between the private sector and public sector's offers of services, I am just simply, wholeheartedly, gleefully thankful that the public sector is no longer lagging behind in terms of creative output. It could construct comfort rooms like what is seen in hotels; it could build structures like a topnotch architect had built it; it could make passport processing a breeze; it could have vision statements that are offbeat, funny but direct. For all of Imelda Marcos' flaws, at least she had been crazy enough to maintain the whole CCP complex in aesthetic majesty.
Public officials, let us see more of those parks and wildlife, unchaotic roads. Invest on discipline and well, patriotism.
It is cool to be watching this republic into a Warhol burst of excitement. Doubly exciting for me as these people never hog the limelight. Just as I like it.