News: the compelling realities all around us... that we are at a stage where we have trouble every day, we have bombs every day

One reason why I don't watch the news at TFC is that it simply gets me in a bad mood. The news you'll see could dampen your spirits, surprise you or enrage you; most of the time, I am outraged. The pictures rolling in the news aren't the ones that could make you miss your country very much and want to go back to; they're the ones that invoke the thought "glad I'm not there anymore," which to me is pathetic.

I made a mistake yesterday when I watched another edition of TV Patrol World - not sure why, maybe there are no other decent shows to flip through. The news about unconstitutional detention of members of the House of Representatives simply went trough my right ear and off with the other; I've grown numbed with all the hullabaloos in Philippine politics - it's just plain dirty. I am one of those who agree with my favourite blogger Jay David in his prayer. If all sensible Filipinos say that prayer together, do you think it can happen?

The news about the protests of the street sweepers caught my attention though and got me fuming. These MMDA street sweepers are claiming that they have not received any salary increases for more than three years now, neither do they receive any benefits that are due them, and top it all off, they even have to shoulder the expenses in buying the equipments they need in cleaning the streets. An old woman, who had been working as a street sweeper for thirty years now, even have to borrow shoes from her colleagues, who had already finished their shifts, because it's a mandate that they need to wear the prescribed shoes while working; hers were already wrecked and they have not received their so-called clothing allowances since 2004.

These people are only earning five thousand pesoses in a month (that's US$100 to you old chap). They buy broomsticks worth 15 pesos daily, dustpan for 45 pesos every week, and a piece of sack everyday for 8 pesos (for dirt collection), just so they could do their job properly; they even have to buy the "Clorox" and cleaning powders. This is like asking a programmer to join your company but he has to bring his own computer and pay for his share of electric bills. A government official answered that MMDA no longer has a budget to cover the cleaning materials needed for the year. What kind of budgeting do the people in the Philippine government do? No wonder Metro Manila is still as dirty as the mud-slinging politicians governing our country.