IMAGINE, if you will, Xi Ping, China’s president for life and President Duterte’s good friend apparently, in a selfie biting off a Mcdo hamburger along with some french fries on the side?
It’s in the realm of the possibility, future or past tense. You’ll never know: there might be one already kept under wraps somewhere. Ping, not the Lacson, at one time being caricaturized as Winnie the Pooh, might turn out to be the secret poster boy for capitalism.
Karl Marx, who had this futuristic notion of a classless society that has, become, for while, a part of the popular lexicon, would probably turn in his grave.
He’s wrong on two counts: After a century, more or less, no Communist country is classless or planning to — not in Russia, not in rival China or anywhere. In the future, more like cashless. And it’s not true that religion is opium for the people. Priests and pastors love the BigMac as much as the part of the Scriptures where Somedy Special fed multitudes with five loaves of bread and two fish on the beach of Galilee. It must have been a party like no other.
Mcdo has debunked both ideas as mere intellectual bonkum. Hamburger has replaced religion. In China, there’s no distinct religion but there is a Mcdo store in Beijing. I had been in the Chinese capital and I found that not only were Chinese polite and kind, but they seemed to enjoy the ambiance in the Mcdo store as much as local media practioners in this neck of the woods do.
One thing is clear this far and this far out from Marx’s time: China’s government is Communist but the Chinese people are capitalists. The proof of the eating is in the pudding. There are, to date by last count, more billionaires in China than there have ever been before — and counting. Ni hao? It’s the econony, stupid.
Credit should be given to the late Deng Xiao Ping who started it all and understood very well that the shortest distance between two points is the straight line, that the shortest and best route to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Also, it didn’t matter to him the color of the cat as long as it caught mice
And there’s a well researched study that established that the sprouting of Mcdo stores, especially in the less developed countries of the world— wallowing in poverty, dirt poor, that is— has stopped revolutions, communism-inspired or otherwise — on their tracks. Ergo, more Mcdo stores mean more peace.
Someday, a Mcdo stores will rise in the Spratly’s and other reclaimed territories in the South China Sea. The feud is still ongoing as to who owns what or which. A memorandum of agreement between or among the claimants can be forged , in the meantime, to allow Mcdo to serve multilateral customers who navigate the sea. Imagine a drive thru in that busy sea lane. A hamburger should not violate anybody’s Constitution. Duterte may even own one, instead of a jet ski.
How many Mcdo stores does the Netherlands have? We don’t know right off the bat. But, wonder for a while why Joma Sison is having a grand time in his so-called self-exile? Blondes and BicMacs make good company, I guess.
Hence, the non-negotiable stance of the AFP top brass egging Duterte not to declare a truce with the Communist in the country needs some revision based on realistic assessment, factoring in the Mcdo experience. Chill, officers and gentlemen. A picture of Sison having a ball with a Mcdo in hand with his familiar grin from ear to ear will be a perfect propaganda for the government. It will also save the Philippine government money from its insurgency fund which some senators would like to reduce given the existential crisis of our time.
A simple cost-benefit analysis can help. Which is costlier and more graft foolproof, a hamburger or a bullet? No rocket scientist needed, just true and unadulterated understanding of human nature.
The rise of a Mcdo store in the City of Giant Lanterns as the biggest in the Philippines does confirm, ex cathedra, that revolution is already passe in the city, even if some of its erstwhile leaders used to be hiding in plain sight as dyed-in-wool Marx fans. There was a time when one was rumored to own even a Mcdo competitor, although serving the same menu: capitalism. Once upon a time, a tragic incident took place where the new, biggest Mcdo rose in the clash between ideologies. But Mcdo is making history past tense, faster.
As a social laboratory, CSF is a neat and nurtured example of how it has been successful in showing that what people need is a car in every garage and a chicken, even the Mcdo nuggets kind, in every plate. It has its origin in an American political propaganda a long time ago that elected a US president, Herbert Hoover. Donald Trump wanted to revive the spirt of the slogan through his Making American Great Again. Tough luck, the virus beat the Apprentice.
Reforms eliminate the possibility of revolution, a poet once wrote. Given Mdco’ impact on society, here’s to more Mcdo stores in the coming years then, COVID or no COVID. A Nobel Peace Prize may be a long shot, but who knows?
