The Length Between a Question and an Answer
A regular guest here Mrs. P finds out her homeland is under emergency rule after a coup attempt. It's chilling to see someone wax nostaglic and rosy about a democractic revolution in her home country 20 years ago suddenly amend her blog to say "School and work are cancelled. All permits for scheduled rallies are revoked. Police are now authorized to make warantless arrests."
Thousands of miles away, sitting in Seattle, I'm stunned. A shared moment of terror. Not knowing what to say or do. Unable to move, trying to comprehend. I think of her and her family, and hope for the best. There's nothing else I can do.
I think it has to do with the sudden shock of it all, what was once a relaxing event now laced with a gasp, then a held breath, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I link to Riverbend, who writes with razor clarity about the ongoing apocalypse around her Iraqi home. Riverbend's been stepped in the destruction for nearly three years now, and I'm ashamed to admit it's grown a little too routine for me. You need something big to suddenly get my attention again, say the destruction of a shrine. The ongoing carnage is a bloody white noise I've been lulled by, and reading the short entry from Mrs. P's blog, I realize that it's the squealing tires before the crash, and not the crash itself, that's the most terrifying. It's that split second before the horror comes to full fruition, and the gamblers have that last-second to place their bet, and nature and physics give it one more variant which could make the crash a mere scrape or the unholy grafting of metal and skin. You don't know if this is an annoyance or the end of a life. You are powerless to see the result, and you wait, finding a thread of faith and a lump in your throat as you ponder what comes next.
6 comments:
hi john,
you know what's weird? for such a time like this, there was no media coverage done by the local channels so that when one woke up this morning, there was no way of telling what happened from the time that one fell asleep. i know that all rallies were dispersed last night. considering that the 4 days of EDSA are pretty much celebrated by large gatherings, this is truly scary.
and then, the proclamation 1017 which places us under the state of national emergency gives the president, among other things, power to "temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately owned public utility or business affected with public interest" see: http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=642
as of this morning, many arrests are being made and a newspaper was closed down. see: http://www.quezon.ph/blog/?p=842
otherwise, all is quiet, which makes the situation all the more doubtful....
I'm getting all the news form News.Google, which is better than the American cable news nets.
My more paranoid part of my brain give me chills, wondering if it could happen here.
Let's hope it remains quiet. Why do I get a feeling there could be another people's power movement again, this time against the person who came to power from one (if my memory serves). Strange. At least I hope that's the case. I wonder why the hard fist treatment. Was she in that much of a danger? Does this bring back memories of Marcos?
MM. Again, please be safe. Write when you can.
sure it brings back memories of marcos. but gloria's worse because at least, marcos had a popular mandate in the beginning. gloria, her first term was thru EDSA 2, whos legality is questionable. then the 2004 elections, which is widely believed to be highly rigged. and then she insists that she will finish her term in 2010. she is breaking all rules because to start with, no president is supposed to govern more than the 6-year term, and she started in 2001.
some of the blogging pundits say that she looked really scared when she went on national tv to read proclamation 1017. others think that there must have been already an internal coup where there is a certain shift of power and she is doing according to the agenda of a certain military group, one out of what they say are 2 groups that are trying to grab the power.
oh, i really don't know at this time. i will keep you posted as i find out more.
oh wow. So, she might not really be in power, but being used as a conduit.
Oh damn, that's scary.
Sounds like we have something else in common: questionable governments.
Good luck. Worried about you.
here's hoping that there won't be a crash. i'm not a gloria fan myself, but a post-gloria scenario is equally, if not more, worrisome. if the vice president takes over, i doubt he'll be acceptable to the disparate groups that have come together. what i think will happen if gloria ever gets deposed is that we'll have even more instability. the left and the right will probably literally kill each other to take control. and the center will get caught in between... if they don't get killed.
Ugh. it jsut gets better and beter in Manila, huh.
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