Editorial
Search and destroy
THERE is nothing new about the rains. It may have started earlier this year than it normally does, but we are by now accustomed to the erratic variations in weather as attributed to the global phenomenon of climate change. And so preventive measures and solutions to the negative impacts of changing weather conditions should also by now been made part of a system of standard procedures involving local government units with participation from the communities. The surge in dengue cases this year, for example, particularly in four areas among which is Region 1 where Pangasinan belongs, is something that could be addressed with basic sanitation practices and maintenance.
The Department of Interior and Local Government has ordered a clean-up this weekend and next, calling on local government officials from the governors to the barangay heads to lead the campaign. Such a directive should not be necessary if there is a year-round program to look after and ensure that neighbourhoods, especially those prone to flooding and stagnant waters, are kept clean. “Search and destroy operations” of breeding places of dengue-carrying mosquitoes is how DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo called it. LGUs, particularly at the barangay level, cannot take this lightly and must do everything possible to prevent loss of lives, particularly our children.
Interestingly, Balungao seems to be managing its area well – it is the only municipality out of 44 plus four cities in Pangasinan that has no reported dengue case so far this year as well as in 2010. The website of this small, fourth class municipality (www.balungao.org) says that at the “onset of the dengue outbreak, environmental conditions have been controlled to prevent the spread of the deadly disease. All schools, public and private, have been made to clean their surroundings and assisted by the Municipality through fogging.” That sounds like a simple but effective search-and-destroy tactic.
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Sick in the mind
OUR very own F. Sionil Jose, the National Artist for Literature from Rosales town, has said, “The issue isn’t about freedom of expression but about bad artists…”
He uttered those words at the Senate hearing on the controversial installation work at the CCP. Said work had a penis and a condom in the frame dominated by Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, triggering a storm of protests that eventually forced the CCP to abruptly close down the art exhibit. Jose called the self-styled artist “as immature and juvenile,” essentially branding him a “bad artist.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Given that, maybe, the artist does not consider Jesus Christ his God, still, he should refrain from defacing the God of about 80 percent of this country’s population. By his action, that does not even make him a bad artist; he is a non-artist at all. He is sick in the mind and his rightful place is in an asylum, not at the CCP.
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