‘Kiss of death’

By Alex P. Vidal

“A healthy democracy requires a decent society; it requires that we are honorable, generous, tolerant and respectful.”—Charles W. Pickering

IF the angry emperor continues to tolerate graft and corruption in his administration, kill or order the police to commit murder in the name of law enforcement, curse and bully people he doesn’t like, including women, his endorsement of the administration candidates would be a “kiss of death.”

No candidate would be blessed in his political career if he was endorsed by a leader who didn’t even spare God from his embarrassing, unprovoked and dangerous curses.

It’s a malas or dimalas (a bad luck).

Basta bastos baba, bastos utok (he who is ill-mannered in his words is ill-mannered in his mind), the late former senator Roding Ganzon once remarked.

Even his own daughter is hesitant to run for the highest office because she must’ve realized that her father is “heavy baggage” or liability during the campaign.

He caused the destruction of a once-splendid political party with his interference and power play that pitted party mates against each other in a squalid skirmish.

He “placed” a bunch of incompetent and suspected clowns in the upper and lower chambers of the legislature and made the Lower House a stamping pad by making the speaker kowtow to his dictatorial wishes.

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In six years, he became known worldwide for sending fears to the hearts of the people with his unconventional iron-fist style that victimized mostly ordinary characters wearing shorts and slippers.

He corrosively badmouthed enemies and weaklings left and right and received resounding accolades from his fanatics who seemed couldn’t distinguish what is right and wrong, what is legal and illegal, what is presidential and unpresidential behavior.

To compound the matter, he appeared to have tolerated graft and corruption and defended the thieves and rascals who made billions of pesos at the expense of the taxpayers in various “sweetheart” deals while the people are losing their hopes and their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Filipinos aren’t stupid to endure and tolerate a bad leader for an extended period of time.

Everything has its limits. Every bad behavior will not only be repudiated but should be dealt with accordingly.

The right time is on election day.

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THE TUNNEL I FEAR MOST. Untappedcities has just released a feature about Untapped New York, which revealed the 10 secrets of the Lincoln Tunnel, the tunnel connecting New York City and New Jersey.

This is the same tunnel I mentioned in my past articles that gave me real goosebumps or the tunnel in the United States that I am so scared to cross since 2015, but, which I couldn’t avoid when I traveled from one state to another.

The article mentioned that the “opening to traffic for the first time in 1937, the Lincoln Tunnel connecting Weehawken, New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan was hailed as the next great engineering triumph.”

The New Deal’s Public Works Administration reportedly provided funds for its construction in 1934, fresh off the success of the northern Holland Tunnel, the first mechanically ventilated underwater automobile tunnel to be built under the Hudson River.

“A second tube was built shortly after the Lincoln Tunnel’s first, with a third requested due to increasing traffic built in the late ’50s.

To this day, the three tunnels service hundreds of thousands of cars and buses coming in and out of New York City,” it explained. “Many commuters today write it off as a nuisance, but like many old things in the city, the Lincoln Tunnel has its share of secrets.”

Untapped New York Insiders were invited to a special virtual talk at 12 p.m. on November 23, 2021 with Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers as he drives them through the secrets and marvels of NYC’s infamous pieces of infrastructure.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)