Makes sense

    

IF Mayor Manuel Collado of Alcala town was quoted correctly as saying he and his townmates have no plans to stage another longest grill and barbecue grill world record quest next year, the good mayor is exhibiting more sense than most of his colleagues in public administration today.    

Speaking candidly from his vantage point as municipal executive and despite having had more than enough financial help from his ever-cooperative overseas kailian (townmates) to turn the town fiesta into one rousing success, Collado is apparently sensitive to the observation about the high cost of staging that once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza in such a less than affluent municipality. In short, he knows that despite the crowning glory, his government may have somehow overspent.     

 

No, we don’t think guilt is behind Collado’s less ebullient view of the event which he had so enthusiastically spearheaded along with the sangguniang bayan and all municipal officials in the runup to their grand homecoming and street party. He has nothing to be guilty of, after having given his townmates the show of their lives, bringing both the rich and poor together, without social discrimination, in one big affair that could put Alcala in the world record map.      

 

What the lawyer-mayor and his council may have felt strongly about – and which made him possibly dismiss organizing a similar grandiose program in the coming year or years —is the word moderation. Difficult times are ahead, with oil prices worldwide rising. Small countries, and by extension, small communities, would be the hardest hit if not sooner then later To spend so much for an affair that clearly appeals only to vanity – and   world records are nothing but that – instead of using the resources to increase wages and support vital services for one’s people  is misprioritizing, plain and simple. Collado and colleagues obviously, and to their credit, want no part of that.     

 

 

To paraphrase the singer Tom Jones, such human proclivity as living for today and forgetting tomorrow is “ x x the wisdom of a fool.