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Hostage tourism and other insanities

In the wake of the hostage taking incident in Manila last August 23 which ended in tragedy, we have noticed things that Filipinos may pass on as humor and others as plain insanity.

First of all are the jokes on what SWAT means. It supposed to mean

Sorry wala akong training
Sugod, wait, atras, takbo

among other meanings

Nonetheless while we Pinoys may use these as a coping mechanism, other cultures may think it's offensive.

None was as offensive as a group of college students taking photos and smiling in front of ill fated bus. And worse the police officers posing for a group shot in front of the same bus! In both instances, they were smiling!

These photos are all over the social media sites. The Philippines is now on the map for hostage tourism!

It is good that there are still sane voices, almost all (or practically all!) of them came from the Chinese side. Take for example HK gigastar Jackie Chan's remarks which came out as the headline in the print edition of the Manila Bulletin. Another sane voice came from the Chinese ambassador. The Hong Kong Chief Executive also expressed a sane 'regret".

The lone Filipino sane voice came from the respected leader and spokesperson of the Chinese Filipino community, Ms Tessie Ang-See. Interviewed on ANC cable channel, Ms Ang-See was  sad and conveyed the proper expression and pain in recounting the tragedy, while staying as objective as possible and without the hysterics we have seen in social media.

Ms Ang-See, a true blue patriotic Pinoy did the best in conveying to the Chinese the quirks of Pinoy culture with respect to the tragedy.

Another insane reaction this time by the Palace is to send a "high level delegation" to explain (presumably the police's shortcomings and the "insane" Pinoy reaction to the tragedy) to the Chinese. Well, the sane Chinese had the right reaction. They haven't given the go signal until the Pinoy insanity dies down.

And this piece of Malacanang insanity takes the cake!

No wonder a growing number of people can't wait for June 30,2016!
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Comments

Jego said…
And if that werent enough, here's another piece of insanity from the same Coloma character as reported by PDI via posterous.
12:18 PM
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