The daily MRT-LRT commute is excellent fodder for angst and weltschmerz, and of course with the Pinoy flair for humor, jokes and hugot.
Something unfortunate happens almost every day, only now more exasperating since the fares were hiked in January. A train is derailed, two coaches collide, a door opens midway, a line stops working.
At the rate things are going, everyone has a story to tell. There should be a competition for the best experiences already. I can imagine some of the categories: most ridiculous (saleslady who crouched and squeezed herself between legs), most cringe-worthy (boss and subordinate mashed upfront against each other), most embarrassing (skirt hiked up and stuck between doors). And ah, how about most poignant (missed chances).
Separately the anecdotes evoke different emotions. But by large I can only think of one universal sentiment. Resignation and timidity not being emotions, correct me if I say that there is no other common feeling but rage. A step ahead of anger, perhaps one degree short of furious. Rage is the absolute opposite of gentle – as Dylan Thomas writes, go not gently – a word liberally found in the rock and metal genres to encapsulate an exceptionally extreme emotion.
Rage, however, boils over in myriad ways. According to the allegory of the carrot, egg, and coffee bean, hot water tells a lot about character. It goes: a carrot, egg, and coffee beans are boiled in the same pot of water. After a while, the carrot wilts, the egg hardens, and the coffee beans - oh well. The coffee beans change the water.
Bring on the metaphors. Are you like the carrot, which starts out stiff and strong, but in the heat droops and softens? Are you like an egg, which starts out self-contained and fragile, but then toughens inside? Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean infuses its flavor and fragrance into the water, cajoled in by the warmth.
I think it’s high time we set aside the diffidence and apathy, the submissive sighing, the patient waiting. Where the heat has become singularly oppressive, we ought to do something about it.
Over the Christmas break, consumer groups, train commuters, and lawyers worked on a formidable petition against the fare hikes. I wrote my part over suman (rice cakes) left over from festivities, with all vigor the new year had brought in. In the morning I would boil tablea (chocolate) balls, attack all the sweets and arguments until the next meal was rolled in.
The petition, Bayan vs. Abaya, primarily contests the powers of the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Light Rail Transit Authority, but interestingly ponders as well the rationale for mass transport.
We asked for an urgent TRO against the train fare hikes that were deviously implemented. The law says that an order of this sort will be valid 15 days after publication. The government applied the hikes on the 15th day instead of the 16th – on a Sunday, when the courts were closed.
That was five months ago. Haven’t heard a peep from the Supreme Court. Am deaf already from the litany of excuses and condescending lies by train authorities on TV every day.
But I’m a coffee bean. If I am dissatisfied, I act accordingly. I get ready for battle. After all, the MRT-LRT challenge has transformed me, as aptly expressed by the meme: Papasok kang estudyante. Lalabas kang mandirigma. (You enter a student. You exit a warrior.)
I know we can get things going when we're all together. Bayan and the RILES Network brought together a wonderful mix of people who were so learned and so involved, and they scrambled my brain over facts and figures. But we need more help. Coffee beans unite!
Krissy Conti is assistant secretary general for campaigns and advocacy of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL). She is part of the legal team for the petitioners against the MRT-LRT fare hikes, but the views here are solely her own.
*Weltschmerz is the German word for “world pain”, connoting world weariness , a perceived mismatch between the ideal image of how the world should be with how it really is.
Something unfortunate happens almost every day, only now more exasperating since the fares were hiked in January. A train is derailed, two coaches collide, a door opens midway, a line stops working.
At the rate things are going, everyone has a story to tell. There should be a competition for the best experiences already. I can imagine some of the categories: most ridiculous (saleslady who crouched and squeezed herself between legs), most cringe-worthy (boss and subordinate mashed upfront against each other), most embarrassing (skirt hiked up and stuck between doors). And ah, how about most poignant (missed chances).
Separately the anecdotes evoke different emotions. But by large I can only think of one universal sentiment. Resignation and timidity not being emotions, correct me if I say that there is no other common feeling but rage. A step ahead of anger, perhaps one degree short of furious. Rage is the absolute opposite of gentle – as Dylan Thomas writes, go not gently – a word liberally found in the rock and metal genres to encapsulate an exceptionally extreme emotion.
Rage, however, boils over in myriad ways. According to the allegory of the carrot, egg, and coffee bean, hot water tells a lot about character. It goes: a carrot, egg, and coffee beans are boiled in the same pot of water. After a while, the carrot wilts, the egg hardens, and the coffee beans - oh well. The coffee beans change the water.
Bring on the metaphors. Are you like the carrot, which starts out stiff and strong, but in the heat droops and softens? Are you like an egg, which starts out self-contained and fragile, but then toughens inside? Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean infuses its flavor and fragrance into the water, cajoled in by the warmth.
I think it’s high time we set aside the diffidence and apathy, the submissive sighing, the patient waiting. Where the heat has become singularly oppressive, we ought to do something about it.
Over the Christmas break, consumer groups, train commuters, and lawyers worked on a formidable petition against the fare hikes. I wrote my part over suman (rice cakes) left over from festivities, with all vigor the new year had brought in. In the morning I would boil tablea (chocolate) balls, attack all the sweets and arguments until the next meal was rolled in.
The petition, Bayan vs. Abaya, primarily contests the powers of the Department of Transportation and Communications and the Light Rail Transit Authority, but interestingly ponders as well the rationale for mass transport.
We asked for an urgent TRO against the train fare hikes that were deviously implemented. The law says that an order of this sort will be valid 15 days after publication. The government applied the hikes on the 15th day instead of the 16th – on a Sunday, when the courts were closed.
That was five months ago. Haven’t heard a peep from the Supreme Court. Am deaf already from the litany of excuses and condescending lies by train authorities on TV every day.
But I’m a coffee bean. If I am dissatisfied, I act accordingly. I get ready for battle. After all, the MRT-LRT challenge has transformed me, as aptly expressed by the meme: Papasok kang estudyante. Lalabas kang mandirigma. (You enter a student. You exit a warrior.)
I know we can get things going when we're all together. Bayan and the RILES Network brought together a wonderful mix of people who were so learned and so involved, and they scrambled my brain over facts and figures. But we need more help. Coffee beans unite!
Krissy Conti is assistant secretary general for campaigns and advocacy of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL). She is part of the legal team for the petitioners against the MRT-LRT fare hikes, but the views here are solely her own.
*Weltschmerz is the German word for “world pain”, connoting world weariness , a perceived mismatch between the ideal image of how the world should be with how it really is.