Road rage, again

It only takes a good round of cursing at traffic to get rid of even the nastiest of stomach bugs. And getting stuck in the middle of the 3 p.m. traffic on Bonifacio Drive from Rizal Park to our office in Port Area was enough to get rid of the cramps and gnawing pain of the stomach flu I had been battling most of last week.

We have sort of learned to live with and around the ever-changing truck ban hours and route that those container vans are supposed to take to get in and out of the pier. But lo and behold – in the midst of the already chaotic state of traffic here, someone decides to dig up a perfectly good stretch of Bonifacio Drive, northbound in front of the Department of Public Works and Highways (who are probably the ones doing the digging), which they had worked on just a year or so ago. We know, because we endured the months of monster traffic when that was being done. And now they have again taken up half of the road, leaving the remaining portion to be shared by those humongous trucks, hordes of chaotic motorcycles and harassed taxpayers like me. If my tax money really needs to be spent on infrastructure, I think there should be any number of farm-to-market roads, bridges perhaps, that are needed more urgently than concreting this stretch of newly asphalted road. Am I mad? Let’s just say that I wish some of those characters would fall into that trench that used to be a road.

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A prominent member of an A-list fraternity who is now with government issues politically correct statements that fraternity hazing should be stopped, that the Anti-Hazing Law (RA 8049, signed in 1995 by then President Fidel Ramos) should be strictly enforced, that violent practices like beating have no place in initiation rites and civilized society and those responsible for such violence must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law.

Privately though, at a recent social gathering, he admitted that he had undergone – willingly – violent hazing, including being quite severely beaten up (and having survived, do I detect an underlying sense of pride in his admission?). He adds though, almost apologetically, “Pero alam mo, sa aming mga frat, ‘pag hindi ka na hazing parang hindi ka (you know, among us frat men, if you don’t undergo hazing, you’re not considered a) full-fledged member.”

I’m sure that sentiment is shared by many frat men, young and old, although few if any will admit it – at least not in public or on the record. It seems even neophytes share that sentiment, since they undergo hazing willingly and apparently with full knowledge – or at least with a pretty good idea – of what is in store for them when they are brought, often blindfolded, to some secret location. With this mindset prevailing, even the strictest, most severe anti-hazing law will not, unfortunately, stop the practice.