My monthly period

I just had it. It arrived just as expected — seven days ago on the 27th day of the ninth month. I was hoping it wouldn’t because I had a cocktail reception to attend that evening. But it did and there was no stopping it.

Indeed, it was a red September day for me, but I didn’t mind.

After packing the thickest pads, an extra underwear and an emergency dress, I was ready to go.

I dabbed some cherry red lipstick and pulled out my four inch stiletto. I had a party and a night with friends and I had deadlines to chase before all that. Nothing was going to stop me, not even my ruptured egg.

Cocktail hour came and I was all smiles, greeting colleagues I haven’t seen in a while, chatting with sources, making new friends and bumping into dapper gentlemen in elegant red ties.

I’m sure none of them guessed I had a situation between my legs that night. I, too nearly forgot about it. Of course, not all months are the same. Some are better and some are messier than others. Some are more painful, too.

But to say that you had an outburst in an airport because of your monthly period is just ridiculous.

Indeed, the metaphor is as silly as it is inappropriate but that’s not the issue.

Sickening sense of entitlement

The problem happening around us is really all about a sickening sense of entitlement and a know-it-all attitude among some people in power. Women’s hormones shouldn’t be used to describe such arrogance.

Look around and you’ll see quite a number of lawmakers and government officials moving about with an air of bloated self-importance. It is both appalling and sad.

And this is where our taxes go.

Wang-wangs

Just drive on EDSA at any given day and you’re sure to see one or two convoys with police escorts, honking and weaving their way through the snarl to get ahead of others.

The country’s busiest highway is a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere else in the country.

Rules are bent and lines are blurred for a powerful few while ordinary citizens are stuck in a system that is wreaking with inefficiencies.

As the English historian, politician and writer John Edward Dalberg-Acton famously said “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Philippines is a testament to this. What we have is a society that is deeply divided between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the underprivileged. And the gap is stark and telling. Only a few bag the best government contracts because they are well connected. I reported last week that bidding anomalies for health projects continue because pet bidders are well protected by powerful government agencies.

The entitled ones

Those who feel entitled just shamelessly do what they want.

They cut queues, they drive on Mabuhay lanes, they scramble for deals left and right.

They look down on non-members of posh dining clubs — “you do not belong here!” They name-drop connections to powerful people. They plaster IDs. Why? It’s simply because they don’t want to remove their shoes. They just don’t want to follow rules. It’s too much for the person that they are. They are after all, way above everyone else.

Know-it-alls

When you try complaining to the government about these ills and more, officials will greet you with their know-it-all attitude. When you criticise, you might end up behind bars. Shouldn’t we be able to question authority as long as we raise our hands?

The economy

Just look at the economy. It is now dangerously unraveling and when somebody gives suggestions on how to make things better, he’s told to shut up.

Former senator Mar Roxas’ suggestions on how to solve the rice crisis for instance, make sense.

He said only a massive and immediate additional supply of rice can bring down prices to affordable levels. He suggested removal of the usual “BS” imposed by NFA

to allow the private sector to import rice and to ask food establishments to source their own rice. He gave other suggestions, too.

But the burly court jester in the white palace said Mar should just shut up.

Indeed, there are too many know-it-alls in our midst these days. And there’s too much nastiness going around. The number of those who feel entitled is growing, too.

Party-list Rep. Aniceto Bertiz III is just one. For sure, there are others who would easily lose their temper when they’re not given the special treatment.

Yes, sir, you’re not the only one. But I’m sure nobody else had the audacity to use the “monthly period” as a silly excuse. So the next time it happens again, say something more appropriate. Try mad cow disease.

Iris Gonzales’ e-mail address is eyesgonzales@gmail.com