Yesterday’s headline of the DAILY STAR must have shocked a lot of people in the Eastern Visayas. ‘Mandatory drug tests for 13,000 policemen in the region’? Why? Are there so many violators among our very own law enforcers? And what if some 50 or even just 30 percent of them test positive? Can our peace status in the region not become fearsome, as we think that our own cops, the ones supposed to maintain peace and order, are also breaking the law? What a terrible thing to think about!
***
Anyway, we should be assured that their officials are on to the violations of their own men, and will take drastic action against them. I wish, though, that they would be identified, so people can be on guard. I wonder what penalty will be imposed on lawmen who themselves are lawbreakers – surely it should be more severe than that for ordinary citizens? Their higher-ranking officers who have proposed such testing should be commended, but let us hope some of them are not into the vice, too.
***
However, the biggest item in the news nowadays is the unrelenting fight against the mysterious and novel coronavirus disease that has stumped medical specialists for months now. But hope is coming, that is, if the vaccines that have been produced by some countries do work. A TV report said vaccinations would start in the United Kingdom yesterday, and the world is waiting to know how successful it will be. Seems there are many variations of the vaccine now, but which have been proven to be 100 percent successful? Shouldn’t we wait for the best?
***
Our President is reportedly willing to shell out billions to acquire a vaccine for our people. Naturally, because whom will he preside over if our entire population is annihilated by the COVID? But, I think we still have much to be thankful for, unlike other Asian countries like Japan and Korean who have been very badly hit by this new disease. We in the Western Visayas should be thankful that we are not among the hardest hit. I think one reason for that is that our people are very prayerful and their pleas are being heard.
***
TV reports said that the United States accounted for one million cases in five days, but, mercifully, the death rate was quite low. Knock on wood , but I do believe our own medics are doing a better job than some other countries. Perhaps it is also because our health providers and frontliners are also equipped with TLC, or Tender Loving Care. I have heard that in some foreign countries, hospital personal are rather impersonal, and even harsh with patients. Let’s not name them, though, they might take it out on our countrymen and women there!
***
Hongkong is reportedly also experiencing another wave of the COVID and must be losing a lot in tourism income. Shops and restos close early, and tourists cannot find too many places to go, but, well, that is also true with most other popular vacation or tourist spots. COVID time is surely no time for gallivanting, and, so far, the best remedy, and the least expensive, is the homespun advice to “STAY HOME”. I declare that from experience, having been homebound since March, and writing and editing news stuff at home. Of course I miss the hustle and bustle of office life, but I don’t like to hear doctors saying that older people must stay home.
***
I don’t know if other people have also noticed that nowadays, even on radio and TV, people always answer a “Thank you” with another “Thank you”. During my schooldays, our teachers, mostly the Augustinian nuns, would emphasize to us that a “Thank you” should be countered with “You are welcome”, or, as my father himself would respond, “Don’t mention it”. I very often notice that during TV interviews even with some of our top officials. Was that what their teachers taught them?
***
Ah, we are getting too serious. Suddenly I remembered an anecdote published. I think, in the Reader’s Digest (Is that still coming out?) about an American engineer who was assigned to a distant island. When he finally received his orders to return to the States, he apologized to his houseboy: “Joe, I’m sorry for always shouting at you”. And the houseboy replied, “Sir, I’m also sorry for spitting in your coffee”.*
