Two anniversaries, neither worth celebrating

Two anniversaries of note happened last February 25. But neither was worth celebrating. Grieve might even be the more appropriate sentiment but I will not go so far as to suggest that, in deference to the sensitivities of those who feel otherwise. Let me just say that one year of Ukraine and 37 after EDSA leave not much room for inspiration.

Having started the war, Vladimir Putin can no longer get off the tiger without getting devoured by the animal. So he will stay on until he falls off. I actually pity the man, the ravages of war notwithstanding. He is the villain in the prevailing narrative spun by the US and its allies. Nobody gives a damn that he was provoked. The majority is "always right".

With the US and its allies succeeding in projecting themselves up on the pedestal of moral self-righteousness, nobody would want to take up cause with Putin. He is all alone, making him all the more dangerous and harder to subdue. In other words, the world is in for the worse until things can get better in a post-Putin environment.

But do not get your hopes up yet even after the man from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) leaves the scene. The US and its allies still have two enemies already partly surrounded and hopefully to be provoked into doing a Putin: China and North Korea. Of the two, I am less worried about China than North Korea.

China is an economic giant and wealth is always a great hold-back. Being more cool, cunning and calculating than either Putin or Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping is much more capable of engaging the US and its allies in their own game --whatsitcalled, strategic ambiguity? Well, the Chinese have played the game for centuries before George Washington was born.

I am more scared about North Korea not being able to eventually handle the US strategy of surround, squeeze, and subdue. North Korea is very impoverished, unlike China. It also has little to no friends, also unlike China. And unlike China, it has Kim instead of Xi. Kim is unstable, to the point of being irrational. You don't mess around with Kim (sorry, Jim).

And guess what? In this global community of giants, there is the tiny Philippines, my Philippines, trying to make ripples complete with sound effects and theatrics. I love my country, naturally. But I don't know why I am never reassured, especially by such love alone. I am driven nuts by this constant tinkering with EDSA.

Tinkering endlessly with EDSA reminds me of the bra joke I once read in the now-defunct Jingle chordbook magazine. It says that there are three kinds of bra: Dictator's, Democratic, and Politician's. The Dictator's bra suppresses the masses. The Democratic bra uplifts the masses. And the Politician's bra makes mountains out of molehills.

The moral of the story is that for 37 years now we have been tinkering with the bra, mesmerized by its many subliminal meanings that we have forgotten to get to where we ought to be headed, you know, get down to business and unzip what there is to unzip and snap what there is to snap. Time waits for no one. The pearly gates are bored. Move on, 'Pinas!