Of Blast Sites and Rugby Boys

Due to my self-imposed exile from the Philippine media (and at times, the rest of the world) and my inability to afford cable subscription, I own a TV but only use it to watch DVD's. I figured, anything that I want to watch I can get from the internet or from my friendly neighborhood pirates. I don't need to get any more disappointed in the industry that I previously wanted to be a part of, and day-to-day exposure to local news and shows kinda does that. Plus, I have this weird tendency to continue staring at the TV even when I hate what I'm watching. So now, I choose to choose what I watch.

But I digress.

Last night (or was it last, last night?) I got a text message from a friend about the local news calling the Glorietta blast site, "Ground Zero" and how annoying it is that they're hyping things up again. Now, I understand that this is big news. I'm also sorry for the loss of the people whose family members have died in this unfortunate event but come on... Ground Zero???

Lemme get this straight, you're actually likening this to an aircraft smashing into a 110-story building killing thousands of people and striking fear and terror in the people of one of the world's superpowers? Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly in love with the US - I get yelled at every night by the dumb racists who live there - but at times like these, is that all that you can do, create a Filipino version of something that's theirs? By doing that you're actually insulting the people who died and were hurt in Glorietta, all the casualties of World Trade, and heck yes, even the suicide bomber in the 9/11 attack. By sensationalizing the news local media has managed to reduce this into a mere copycat of a much larger thing when we should be focusing on how stupid this actually is. Yes this is stupid - it has accomplished nothing. Did the bomber/s hang around long enough for the bomb to actually blast him/them into pieces as well? People like that guy/those guys should realize that this isn't helping. If you're not satisfied with how things are going around here (i.e., the Philippines) and you can't think of anything that actually would help, you just either think harder or shut up and get over it. Otherwise, if you really need to kill someone, kill yourself. No need to include everybody else. At least the 9/11 bomber had enough sense to make it a suicide mission. Ok, ok, kidding. But really, half-meant.

And so now I go into my second blog topic for today: my apparent desensitization. I dunno if there actually is such a word but my friend told me I was "desensitized" and so I transformed it into a noun to describe the process. My friend saw a couple of kid junkies preparing their night's stash of rugby and commented that it was depressing, and I told him I somehow didn't see it that way. Ergo, the description. Am I? I know that at a certain level I might be, but in this situation, I just thought, "Heck, at least they're happy." Of course I know I have no way of knowing if they actually are happy, but I dunno, I just thought they might be. At least after they get the rugby-high they will be.

Maybe I am desensitized.