Past midnight, I visited the old hospital where I had trained 20 years earlier. Like many things, nothing much had changed, the hospital had only grown older. The floors that had been spanking new 20 years ago were clean albeit worn. That familiar sweet sick smell of sweat and urine and disease continued to hover throughout the general ward and "bantays" (watchers) still ambu-bagged patients for want of a ventilator. I must assume that patients still die from "bantay-failure", when these watchers invariably stopped squeezing the bag from utter exhaustion.

The hospital, which was organized largely through the efforts of Dean Worcester (who arrived with one of those commissions more than a hundred years ago) teemed with patients and relatives. Only the most ill were admitted to this institution and I noticed that all the nurses were young, a reflection of the massive emigration of multiple generations of nurses. This place very well represents the country. Built from scratch with a little money and good intentions. Started out with a lot of promise and continues to care for an unmanageable number of the needy. The people in the hospital try to make the best of their decrepit surroundings and unless they see other hospitals elsewhere in the world think that their current conditions are the most that they can hope for.

Production. Production. Production. We must strive to make ourselves productive. Our leaders need to guide and inspire us to become productive. We need to understand that we can only benefit from whatever we produce. No production means no benefits. Civilizations begin from a single spark. The Philippines is ripe for a rebirth. We need to figure out how to put the pieces together.

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post. As it had a religious slant so will I offer an appropriate allusion. You cannot pour new wine into an old wineskin because such a vessel will be unable to preserve the good wine. Just as the Philippines is tightly wrapped in old and harmful garb is why we are unable to set ourselves free. There is no room for the new.

Whatever has been done is clearly not working. Those who proclaim their expertise and experience have nothing to show. The prophet Amos wrote thousands of years ago: "Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentations."

The situation is grim. When a nation's principal export becomes it's people then you know there is something deeply wrong. And here lies my main grievance against all these entrenched powers. Is this the best that our people can become with all your combined talents and good intentions? Totally unacceptable.

The headline from the Philippine Daily Inquirer reads: "CBCP Shuns Impeachment". The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines stated that the impeachment process would be an "unproductive political exercise". I do not disagree with this assessment but I just think that the Bishops need to come up with bold and new solutions to the super old problems that are particularly killing children and the elderly (through lack of vaccinations, clean water, unsanitary surroundings that breed hordes of mosquitoes that transmit viral illnesses, expensive medications for hypertension and diabetes which make it impossible for the average citizen to comply with a drug regimen....).

If you think about it, the Church has been the only political constant since Legaspi followed Magellan to the Philippines 450 years ago. Governors-general have changed, colonizers have come and gone, Presidents have been deposed and yet we have a clear line of succession from the very first Bishop assigned to Manila.

The current conference counts 124 members and I'd like to think that all of these Bishops mean well and are true servants to their flocks but if there was ever a moment for visionary thinking and revolutionary solutions, this would be the moment.

I have always been an admirer of Theodore Roosevelt. A man of great passions. TR altered the course of Philippine history by actively setting-up Commodore George Dewey to destroy the Spanish Armada in 1898 and he was instrumental in the subsequent deployment for the first time of American troops offshore to the Philippines.

TR reminds us not to default on our political responsibilities by staying in the sidelines. If you have anything good to contribute then by all means step inside the arena. I don't want to continue to listen to all those chronic complainers and whiners who refuse to leave their comfort zones because if they are not willing to face these politicians whom they perceive as clowns then it would be best if they simply kept quiet. We deserve our leaders. TR said:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat

My first post through a dial-up connection. Hope this makes it through. I am continuing my plunge into the rough and tumble world of Philippine politics with daily forays inside the heartland. There is no better way to educate oneself.

Most of the real economic gains during the last 10 years have originated from the millions of Filipino workers overseas. Yet while the Socialists, the women, the farmers, labor have "sectoral representatives" in Congress, there is not a single representative from among the ranks of the overseas Filipino workers, hailed as the "new heroes" by our very own government.

This needs to change soon. We need competent representation that will not only provide benefits for the millions of displaced Filipinos but we also need to have representation that will help determine how these billions of dollars in contributions are accounted for.