If Ripley of the famous “Believe it or not” cartoons were still around, he would have found a very salable item by quoting the outgoing president of the United States for telling the officials of Georgia to “find votes” to make him win the election. Did it ever occur to him that his phone call would be recorded? Was he so desperate that he figuratively “threw all caution to the winds” and gave the instructions? Unless he can think up ways to make the American electorate forget that “order”, he could be quoted and re-quoted every time an election comes around.
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If some of us have the idea that our politicians are often tricky and cunning, we only have to remember that Trump order to realize that as far as desperate candidates are concerned, Donald Trump figuratively takes the cake. Now, with the media, not only in the United States gleefully repeating his statement over and over – and even those in other countries, as well – he will always be remembered during elections for that statement. We’ve had some notorious candidates ourselves, but I can’t recall anyone having made such a blatant statement.
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Meanwhile, his victorious opponent, Joe Biden, just keeps on grinning in his photos and TV appearances, but so far, I haven’t caught any comment from him on the harangues of his rival. Well, he should consider that it must be heart-breaking to lose an election. No matter for what position, it would be the greatest upset to be defeated by a challenger, more so ifyou are in power. But there is nobody as admirable as a gracious loser, one who realizes from the start of the campaign that victory cannot be assured, unless the candidate himself is “self-assured”.
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By the way, Jose Biden’s inauguration as the new president of the United States will take place on January 20. The date will ring a bell with Bacolod residents, because it is the feast of St. Sebastian, the patron saint of the city. But of course, Biden has no idea of this, unless some Bacoleños out there is rash enough to shout that out during the rites. Which, of course, is unlikely to happen. Meanwhile, before the feast of our patron saint comes, let us remember to pray and implore him to intercede for our people to be protected from this raging coronavirus, that has been reported to be surging again in some countries.
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First it was in Luzon where floods affected the lives of residents and caused the death of some people. Lately, we hear news that cases of diarrhea were up in Davao. But apparently, it was not an epidemic, but a case of something in their water source that had caused many to suffer from the ailment. I suppose their local government has solved the problem by finding a cleaner source, or finding some specialists in the job of water purification.
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Have you noted that two of the most well-known vaccines against the COVID 19 are called “Sinovac” and “Sinopharm”? By their names one could tell that they are China-based, or produced by some Chinese-owned companies. If you have a malicious mind, you might get to thinking that the virus originally came from China – remember the Wuhan incident? – so they made greater effort to find a vaccine, if not a cure for the malady that came from their country. I heard that our country has made a deal with the producers of the Astrazenecavaccine to be used for our people.
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One wonders, though, if the procurement will be enough for the entire population of our country. Will our Health officials reach out to the remote barangays and sitios to vaccinate the residents? And will they accept, or submit to it? That is something we have to anticipate, but if majority will agree to be vaccinated, then, perhaps, we can lessen the contamination or infection of others. Another thing – will the vaccination be administered for free? If not, then we cannot claim that the problem has been solved.
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By the way, have you noticed that women are getting more prominent in United States politics? Right now they have a woman vice president in Kamala Harris. A senator, Nancy Pelosi, has been elected four times already and their Chief Justice is, I think, also a woman. But they have yet to elect a woman president. In fact, we have beaten them because we already had Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino, widow of the late martyr Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.*
