It looks now, or so it seems, the war between Ukraine versus Russia is a just a sideshow. A bloody and long one, to be sure. It is as long as the traffic lights at the corner of Recto and Macarthur highway in the city of angels have not been working, more than a year ,to be exact.
Truth is, both facts and numbers , though important, have become boring. Thanks heavens for diversions. It doesn’t matter anymore who started it or under whose terms the lights went kaput. It’s public works agency or politics. In these parts, politics and politicians reign or rule.Cynicism and que sera, que sera alternate.
Even China’s incursions and provocations in the South China Sea are making people nervous. Why not? Life is getting harder and people are looking for something that will work while their leaders are looking for reasons to blame. Food, fuel and their prices are both rising and in short supply as the world learns that there is such a thing as the law of supply and demand.
The recent conflict between Israel and Gaza is the real show. For how long? For as long as the earth exists. Israel’s enemies don’t want a mere scrap of land; they want Israel erased from the face of the earth. It is written. Those who say something can be done about it are conveniently, grasping at the straws, pointing to the exception that proves the rule. King and presidents don’t really call the shots. Someone bigger and more powerful does.
The world begun where the Nile continues to flows, so the story goes.It will end when it stops flowing, so the story ends. It is written, no matter if others think the Nile is more than just a river. It’s a political euphemism for political cop-out. Myopia is not just a medical condition; it’s also a spiritual illness. It’s one reason, experts say, Israel was suddenly devastated by an unprecedented attack from Gaza. Its leaders should have foreseen it long, long before. Hatred is as old as time and never sleeps.
“What was written in past,” Paul wrote to the Romans, “ was written for our own instruction that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, you might have hope”. And many, even the world,even Israel ignores that poignant reminder. The Goliaths will never go to sleep.
There is hope as we endure. There is that remote possibility that the price of rice will drop to P20 per kilo even as we endure the reality of the law of supply and demand that our leaders keep ignoring, more worried about the sign of the problem than the cause of it. It’s called politics.
So don’t get misdirected by who is winning in the Ukraine-Russian war. It’s a red herring. Don’t be fooled by the rattling of the saber, even the floaters, in the South China Sea. It’s just politics by those who have grown too big for their breaches. It’s an American saying with a Chinese flavor.
It will be sooner or later when the traffic lights will work again. Probably, before the mid-term election when the three-in-one election takes place about two years from now. A former mayor and congressman coined the term after he noted politicians of the same name gave away one kilo of ham for three of them running, or joking, for separate offices.
And there is the reality of Mona Lisas in our politics. Countless cases of graft and corruptions have beed filed against political powers, old and new, and so far, they’ve been likened to Da Vinci’s Mona lisa: they just lie there and they die there. It’s a wonder that the Ombudsman previously thought using SALNs to prove those cases is useless. They’re just being weaponized for political purpose, just as Mona Lisa is used to dispute that Da Vinci had a bad day when he made that classic grin, not smile.
“ Every one is wondering why she’s not smiling”, author Karl Pilkington mused,” referring toMona Lisa ,” if she is depressed or heartbroken.” “ No, she’s just normal”.
Russia doesn’t mind how long the war takes. Its ideology is an end in itself. So does China which Winston Churchill had singled out for patience. Maybe that’s how the saying “ in the long run China will win” evolved. Besides,Napoleon Bonaparte warned that once China awakens, the world will tremble.
Is the world trembling? May be a little nervous. Many countries from the West have aligned against China which is having its own way in the SCS. It doesn’t seem to be bother
ed by the newfound gut of the man in Malacanang who ordered that floaters placed in the SCS be dismantled. There are trolls, from within and without, to make it a murky sea of disinformation. It doesn’t matter the color of the cat so long as it catches mice”, so said their former premier, Deng Shiao Ping once said. Sun Tzu didn’t encourage fighting to win. Chinese reverence for the ancients is evident.
In the modern gamut of distraction and disinformation, war can be considered as such. Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu, who tried to ram his castration of the nation’s judiciary, vowed that the war against their perennial, historical, biblical enemies this will be like no other.
This is the real war. All others are sideshows or misdirections. The old, simple advice is: do not be misled.
