Storm’s up!

No wonder my daughter who does the spending in the house keeps complaining. No wonder the driver, who gets free housing and free utilities, keeps complaining about the high cost of living. And he has only two kids. Nevermore, he said, would he sire another.

The World Bank, in describing the grains shortage, colorfully described its social and economic impact as "the perfect storm."

Well, storm’s up! It’s here, and I just don’t know how the next one coming, and more coming, will affect the sanity of the Filipino people.

What, I wonder, would happen when the real monsoon season comes, when the prices of fish and vegetables shoot up due to supply and demand factors? When the supply of rice becomes tighter than it presently is? That is, when the current harvest pans out, and the only lifeline is what we bought from Vietnam? It’s going to be a tightrope scene.

I was in Ho Chi Minh the other week, and even there, a mild panic on rice prices happened. When people heard how expensive rice had become elsewhere, as in the Philippines, they too started hoarding rice. Believe it or not – people were stocking up, fearing that in Vietnam too, there might be a shortage. For three days, markets experienced unusually heavy retail buying. Their prime minister was forced to go on television to assure everybody that there would be no shortage, in Vietnam that is. And he declared that he would not allow a single Vietnamese (there’s 80 million of them) to line up for rice, even if he cancels export orders. Ouch! That means us.

And because I guess the Vietnamese know their leader is not a liar, everybody listened. Everybody believed. Ah, the value of credibility!

Dining at the unforgettably excellent Mandarine and other places whose names are so difficult to remember, even if their meals were great, I noticed how small the rice portions were compared to what we have back home. I thought that was because these were fine dining places, until we had a quick lunch at a KFC fast food outlet beside the city’s Diamond Plaza shopping mall. Their rice portion was about three-fourths of the Philippine KFC serving. No wonder the Vietnamese ladies are so svelte. They don’t gorge on carbo-loading. But then again, that must be because protein in Vietnam is affordable, even if they too complain about prices. Here, it’s carbohydrate rice plus carbohydrate instant noodles, day in and day out, and an occasional can of sardines or sliver of salted fish.

Even these "staples" in the masa diet have become unreachable.

Now I dread the coming months. When will hunger break the proverbial patience of the Filipino, and make tamaraws out of carabaos?

***

Perry Diaz of USA-Balita classified this report as "joke of the week":

Arroyo also gave herself a pat on the back for having anticipated the rice price crisis.

"The critical reaction is for exporting countries to husband their own stocks because prices are going up even in the exporting countries," she said.

"We have reached out to Vietnam and Thailand long before the shortage." (Well, Madam, Thailand has announced it ain’t selling to us.)

Arroyo said "traditional relationships are a key element as sellers are forced to choose between hordes of willing buyers."

She said "the buyers who bought early are the only ones with rice. Only those who come to the party early leave with party favors. Thank goodness the Philippines is one of them," Gloria said.

Kidding aside, it makes my suspicious mind wonder. If we "bought early," as the Boss Woman claims, and that is, if some traders (Kishore Hemlani or a certain Mr. Ong) advanced the money of Mr. Gagumal and his silent partner in high places as early as December last year, when rice was yet at $350 or thereabouts per metric ton, and then unloaded these at $720 when we were in panic last March, that’s what you call a killing, right?

And I don’t mean killing the Filipino poor literally, just a killing as stock market lingo goes. In stocks as in rice, prescience means everything.

And former NFA administrator, now congressman Edno Joson speaks of peanuts, as in the "usual" commissions. Think about it, Edno. Alam mo naman ang mga Vietnamese, whether private traders (close to high government officials) or government-to-government, madaling kausapin. Now who are those characters I mentioned, Edno? Dating magte-tela, as in "garments," ngayon, magbi-bigas na, and big time! E di sino ang naka-jackpot?

***

Faithful Malaya reader Noel de la Fuente writes to say his piece on "the cardinal’s religiosity," where I twitted Gaudencio Rosales "smallness" of mind.

"Several months ago, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales said that the killings in Gloria Arroyo’s administration is a mere speck of blood when compared to the killings in Ferdinand Marcos’ time. Implicit in this is that it is okay because the number of killings is small.

Killing a human being is a crime and is against the law of God. The numbers are immaterial. Is this not smack of a belief in the theory of ethical relativism? Pope Benedict XVI is strongly against ethical relativism and has warned us numerous times of its evil.

"I suggested it then and I suggest it now, somebody must lodge a protest against Cardinal Rosales directly to the Pope, copy furnished the Papal Nuncio to the Philippines.

Agree, Noel, most certainly do I agree. As a Catholic, I wince every time the priest exhorts in the prayers of the faithful, that I should pray for "our bishop Gaudencio," and I recoil in disgust each time he exhorts me to pray for you know who, referred to as "our leaders".