The waitress comes to your table. She's holding two buckets of beer, both full of ice, one with six bottles of pale pilsen, the other with six bottles of the light variant. She puts the latter bucket nearest to you. You take one bottle, slowly open it, and take down a few glugs.
Your friends do the same thing, just hands all over the buckets, taking a bottle each. There are ten of you on the table - actually, two tables paired together. There are two more buckets on it, with some melted ice, and definitely no more bottles of beer, or at least unopened ones. There are eight empty bottles and four half-full ones scattered. There are plates of sisig and fried chicken and crispy pata, and plates and dips and silverware. And, on one side, an ashtray. Only three of your friends smoke, but the ashtray has yet to be used.
There's some intermittent conversation, an explosion of laughter once in a while, but the table is generally busy with eating and drinking. The night is young, after all - that is something you won't be caught saying anymore; it's that much of a cliché - and you're just getting started.
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Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll do the very thing I frown upon and complain about the people you voted for.
Nancy Binay. Yes, like everybody else who's blogging about the elections, I'm writing about Nancy Binay.
Sure, I'm with you. I did not vote for Nancy. I just wasn't convinced that she's the person this country needs. Yes, she does not have political experience. Yes, she's running on the strength of her surname. By my criteria alone she wouldn't make it.
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Nancy Binay. Yes, like everybody else who's blogging about the elections, I'm writing about Nancy Binay.
Sure, I'm with you. I did not vote for Nancy. I just wasn't convinced that she's the person this country needs. Yes, she does not have political experience. Yes, she's running on the strength of her surname. By my criteria alone she wouldn't make it.
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"If you don't vote, don't complain," some people say, and it's something I've never agreed with. For one, politicians get their salaries from taxes, and we all pay taxes regardless of voting age, thanks to a 12% VAT on pretty much everything - so when they dip their hands into the national coffers to give their mistress a boob job, we have the right to complain. Also, not a few people decided not to vote out of choice, believing none of the candidates really deserve to be in office. I don't know if there will be some sort of "abstain" option on the ballots come Monday, but I know of some people who will not vote at all. Or some would go to their precincts and shade all circles, rendering their ballots spoiled while making themselves heard. Hello, Carmel.
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Early this week the PSE Index breached the 7,000-point mark. Celebrations all around. The economy is getting better was the consensus, as it was over the past few weeks, when the 6,000-point mark was breached, or a few more weeks back, when the 5,000-point mark was breached.
If you look at the graphs, you'd be amazed, even if you're quite cynical. Over the past fifty-two weeks the lowest the PSE Index was was at the 4,000-point level. Simply said, in those fifty-two weeks, the thirty companies who comprise the index have seen their values increase - those thirty companies being the biggest, or most important, or most hyped-about, ones in the Philippines - leading to the 7,000-point mark being breached this Monday. The economy is getting better was the consensus, and I did not understand why.
Well, yes, it's a barometer, but of what exactly? I was idle that Monday afternoon, so I decided to do some research. And man, was it intimidating. Also a bit boring, depending on how you look at it. Yeah, this is a warning: this blog entry could (would!) bore you to bits.
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If you look at the graphs, you'd be amazed, even if you're quite cynical. Over the past fifty-two weeks the lowest the PSE Index was was at the 4,000-point level. Simply said, in those fifty-two weeks, the thirty companies who comprise the index have seen their values increase - those thirty companies being the biggest, or most important, or most hyped-about, ones in the Philippines - leading to the 7,000-point mark being breached this Monday. The economy is getting better was the consensus, and I did not understand why.
Well, yes, it's a barometer, but of what exactly? I was idle that Monday afternoon, so I decided to do some research. And man, was it intimidating. Also a bit boring, depending on how you look at it. Yeah, this is a warning: this blog entry could (would!) bore you to bits.
Read more »
