Roots
Back to the grind
By Marifi Jara
QUELIMANE, Mozambique–How do you cook up a scam?
You will need evil intent, conspiracy, then top it off with a lax chief and voila! – there goes a feast that is usually enjoyed by one or a few, resulting in the suffering of many. That is the recipe for what happened in San Carlos with the missing P9 million public fund, and possibly several millions more from earlier illegal transactions.
We leave the suspects as they enjoy their right to a day in court. But still, I just couldn’t help but feel outraged over this news. Imagine how significant and how far in terms of public service — education, medicine, livelihood capital, infrastructure — that stolen amount can go! Making the culprits accountable should not simply mean that they lose their jobs and serve their time in jail. Justice will only be truly served to the people of San Carlos if the money is returned and spent well for the benefit of the community.
Now, a deep breath, and try to enjoy the weather.
It’s winter time hereabouts (but nope, not the snowing sort of winter) and the cool temperature has been quite a relief after a sweltering summer spent back in the Philippines.
It is good to settle back in, and that even includes returning to the weekly work grind and having to deal with the negative emotions that arise from bad news such as that San Carlos theft case – feeling frustrated sometimes is a nuisance of the job in as much as smiles prompted by good news are a priceless perk.
Before coming back here, we went on a two-week road trip to South Africa, the country — the first in the African continent — that will be hosting the FIFA World Cup at about this time next year. While us Filipinos will (with my most fervent of hopes) be looking forward to a the first State of the Nation address of a new president at the beginning of July 2010, football fans from around the world will be mostly glued to the World Cup games. Fans who have the means and the courage (yes, the crime rate is a big issue too just like in Pangasinan now) will be crowding South Africa then. But I think it won’t be quite the same SA that we have experienced.
It was a wonderful drive through the country’s southern coast, beginning in Nelspruit and ending in Capetown. As in many a family holiday, we only brush the surface of the sadness and inequalities that we come across in a strange land. We are, after all, there to enjoy. As tourists, we choose more to see what is great about the place where we do not have nor plan to grow roots in. And I don’t think that is a bad thing. In seeing South Africa’s natural beauty, the elegance of its newer towns, the old-world charm of its more ancients parts, and all the development (related to the World Cup hosting mostly), I felt renewed hope – for the Philippines, for Mozambique, and the world in general. It was rejuvenating looking out of the window and ahead on the road for hours, trying not to think too much except about goodness and dreams and promises.
We did see glimpses of the so-called townships, where clusters of half-finished homes are such an extreme opposite of many well-developed town centers and the holiday towns where many modern houses and posh buildings are unpeopled as they serve as summer vacation homes for the wealthy and the foreigners. And hitchhikers, waving papers indicating their destination or rand bills as a come-on – were everywhere, proof of a desperate need to improve the country’s public transport system. But overall, our tourist’s view from the impressive road network of South Africa was often breathtaking and rejuvenating. The soul needs that inspiration so that even with stories of public fund scams, we can continue to believe in the future and humanity.
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