While the remodeling of the Insular Bank building is a change for the better, the avowed objective of the fancy, new “lightboard” is suspect. Press reports have it that it will only show good news. Good news?
What constitutes good news? Gas prices coming down 1.5 after increasing more than 20 the past months? The Philippine economy doing better than Burma and Sierra Leone? Leah Salonga in yet another standing ovation? Sulpicio Lines finally getting someone to float the ship without damaging the sea corrals?
Who decides what’s good news anyway? One’s good news is another man’s bad. Paquiao’s victory is what’s-his-name’s and his country’s shame (though let me be clear about this – beating another man black and blue till his eyes nearly pop out and he can’t stand by himself is revolting and certainly no cause for national celebration). Mon Tulfo’s bad news is Mike Arroyo’s cause for rejoicing. Obama’’s victory is Clinton and Bush’s worry (though I am not so sure about the latter basing on some conspiracy blogs. Hey, that 8.1 earthquake was a no-show, but that’s another story).
So who? Let me guess. Nonong Pedero, Alejandro Roces & Sonny Ramirez teaming up to tweak the knobs, to cut and paste, to cook and baste so all who drive through Paseo de Roxas are cheered up with hourly quotes of empowerment (half-hour during rush hour). Dolly Ann Carvajal, Ricky Lo & Boy Abundant dishing out celebrity dirt, on the premise that any celebrity’s dirt helps my linen look cleaner. Or maybe Conrado Banal, Ron Nathan and Victor Agustin throwing us those morsels of self-enrichment that leaves the clerk on his/her way to hop on the crowded bus to Novaliches no choice but to laugh in self-mockery but grieve in his/her soul.
I say, Give us a break! We don’t need good news. We need news, period. Don’t pretend to be Big Brother. Or at least, let us not delude ourselves with the belief that by reading good news often enough, we can put a stop to the bad. Or to put it bluntly, we cannot stop a gangrenous left limb by focusing on the healthy right.
At any rate, I find it interesting that more than a month after i see it installed and in running condition, it remains either dark, or blank (if lit). When dark, but one little light on the lower right corner is aglow – one good news among the deluge of bad ones? Or maybe at this time, there really is no more good news worth reading?
Now that’s good news for the vultures on the lines, but bad news for the rest of us.
At the end of the day, it does make a lot of sense that the company (Insular Life) that earns on our fears of the unexpected, tries to take our minds off what is inevitable.
(As i was posting this, a chanced on a new NYT article saying that granite countertops have considerable levels of radiation, about 10x the norm. Now is that news hot or what? There goes my kitchen remodelling plans). http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/garden/24granite.html
Posted by michaelplim 