Among the viral posts I received at the start of the year was an article with a self-explanatory title—“I’m Tired of Living in Manila and I’m Tired of Hoping for Change.” Written apparently by a millennial, it speaks of the daily grind that she has to go through in Metro Manila and her desire to move somewhere else, virtually giving up on seeing things getting better in the nation’s capital. Maybe it was a case of holiday hangover, but her article apparently struck a chord given the number of shares and people citing it, in informal discussions during the last vestiges of holiday gatherings over the weekend. And going through the comments section of her article, she gets both praise and criticism, but not one disagreeing that indeed life in Metro Manila is getting better.
Life in our beloved metropolis is indeed a commitment. You really need to love it here for you to stay. Otherwise, there will be an excess of reasons for one to leave and not all of it financial. Or maybe, as they say, we are like that frog that swims in a pot of soon to be boiling water, ignoring the difficulties sinceå we are right in the middle of the zone.
No matter, the article is a discourse that may do well for our public servants to seriously take to heart as we begin the year. No doubt that much has been done in terms of policies and infrastructure compared to previous years. And the promise for a better future is further concretized with the good year-end report our economic managers have forwarded to us, giving a glimpse of a Philippines reaching respectable economic rankings within the next decade or so.
But for the ordinary Metro Manila resident, the ordeal from point A to point B appears to be more or less the same. Waking up early and going home late; the persistent long lines we see during peak hours and the traffic jams we are now so used to reflect the silent struggle and, as the millennial writer wrote, the tiredness one feels in pursuing his or her dreams in the metropolis. People are impatient and though it may not be the fault of this administration, we can, and should, understand this feeling of tiredness that Metro Manilans are now feeling.
Maybe government, aside from asking us to be more understanding and look at the bigger picture, needs to refocus some of its attention to the “small steps and the low-hanging fruits” that are there, right under our noses, but which may be disregarded precisely because of its seeming insignificance.
As they say, you will likely miss out the trees when looking at the forest.
And that is why we take note of government officials, many of them fairly new in their positions, like our young Metro Manila Mayors Isko Moreno and Francis Zamora, or Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, who do the taken-for-granted initiatives. Taking out pedicabs and tricycles off main thoroughfares, taking out roadside parking to ease traffic at the expense of city revenues, or castigating vendors and citizens alike who leave holiday trash—these are, at their very core, actions that are expected of government to implement and enforce. Nothing new, nothing fancy. Nothing out of the box. Just items that need to be acted on immediately because they will do well for the common good. These are actions that should be norms more than exceptions. These steps do matter and are not small at all. They will definitely make the daily ordeal of the ordinary Metro Manilan more bearable. And less tiring.
It may be that we, as private citizens, are asking too much. And it is also true that we, as private citizens, need to do our fair share of the work to make this happen. But it would help if empowerment is given a push by the people to whom we entrusted our vote, especially if we see and feel this in our daily grind in Metro Manila.
Thomas “Tim” Orbos was former DOTr undersecretary for roads and general manager of the MMDA. He is currently undertaking further studies at the McCourt School of Public Policy of Georgetown University. He can be reached via e-mail at thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu
1 comment
Iwan Hindi ako fluent English never understand you’re talking in the moon