From the MSN.com
President Benigno Aquino on Monday fought off accusations that he was partying with starlets as the Philippines was mourning hundreds of people killed by a storm.
The presidential palace said Aquino briefly stopped by the traditional Christmas party of his elite security group at their compound on Sunday to show gratitude for their services.
"The president stayed for a little over 30 minutes. But he did not go up on stage, he did not sing, he did not dance. There was no partying," the head of the presidential security group, Colonel Ramon Dizon, said in a statement.
Tropical storm Washi hit the southern island of Mindanao at the weekend, spawning swollen rivers, flash floods and landslides which left 652 dead with hundreds other missing, according to Philippine Red Cross figures.
Reports of Aquino's alleged partying spread after a local TV actress and show host, Valerie Concepcion, said in her Twitter account that she met Aquino at the party, where she performed for the troops and their families.
Concepcion said Aquino laughed at her jokes and enjoyed her performance, triggering a wave of criticism directed at both.
The 51-year-old bachelor president, who comes from one of the country's richest landowning clans, had previously been linked to female celebrities and was once criticised for buying a Porsche sports car, which he has since sold.
My comments:
1. I told you so.
2. While I am very sympathetic to the unfortunate victims of the disaster, mainstream media foolishly makes it appear that events like this function as the only political priority. They make the public expect of excessive maudlinness or overreaction from officials. Policymaking for them, thus, has mechanically been demonstrated as perpetually attempting to please public sentiment reactively.
That’s why many Filipinos end up chasing their own tail—many, if not most, don’t really know what to expect from politicians except for political melodramatics which ultimately ends up frustrating them.
Understand that politicians will HARDLY deliver us from the terrible toll of natural calamities; to the contrary more interventionism, which have been the key cause, will likely worsen such conditions.
Notes the Inquirer,
The absence of a flood warning, high tide, darkness and a false sense of security proved disastrous for people of northern Mindanao when Tropical Storm “Sendong” came over the weekend.
Add illegal logging, rapid urbanization and mining, and the result was deadly for residents of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, government and Red Cross officials said.
This represents as very naïve ex-post account of what has happened.
This assumes that had been none of the above activities occurred, the current fatalities and damages wouldn’t have happened. This is simplistic and sloppy thinking. In reality, this simply isn’t so.
Unknown to the author is that illegal logging activities globally, for instance, have been mainly caused by poverty and by the tragedy of the commons where effected arbitrary laws in response to such problems, has exacerbated the incidences of these activities and engendered other untoward consequences such as more corruption, organized crimes, human rights abuses and etc….
The application of conventional prohibition laws, which tramples on property rights, represents as typical example of applying a cure which is worst than the disease.
In other words, poverty brought about by excessive regulations, the lack of trade opportunities, and or the politicization of local economics has spawned these “illegal” activities and thereby the ensuing environmental degradation.
Poor people care about their day to day survival and not the environment.
Thus the said effects has flagrantly been misread by media as the cause, and thus dumbing down their gullible audiences.
So if the political reactive response will be to curb on these activities, we eventually end up with more of what we least desire. This would represent as the law of unintended consequences.
Instead, as seen in other countries, economic freedom has vastly mitigated the destructive effects of natural calamities. Wealthier people are likely to undertake protective measures for themselves, their families and the community regardless of government actions.
Bottom line: Keeping people poor and politically dependent is a guaranteed recipe for prospective victims of natural catastrophes.
Next as I have argued before, ALL public officials are HUMAN BEINGS. This means that as humans (and not a quasi-deity whose popular delusions has been promoted by media), their actions will be dictated by personal values and preferences.
Alternatively this exposes the myth about good government. There is no such thing as good government whose employment of organized violence will always be politically motivated benefiting a few at the expense of the rest. Despite all the idealistic blarney by media, politics has not been about serving the public (hahaha!) but of the self-interest of the political leaders and their allies, followers and cronies (insider-outsider dynamics).
Lastly, more “compassionate” overreactions actions by political authorities will extrapolate to more corruption and inefficient use of resources which leads to massive wastage and higher taxes and or inflation in the future.
This subsequently translates to more poverty and the same set of troubles in the future.
Does the politically connected mainstream media ever account for why, after all these years and all the changes in political stewardship, we get the same set of problems?
Good government? Duh!
