Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Lemons Into Lemonade

We can easily avert an impending power crisis if we could just be creative in our search for alternative sources of energy. First, a lesson in physics. We know that electricity is actually just the flow of electrons. That is why when we speak of electricity, we speak of electrical current. There is actually a current of electrons flowing from the power generation plants, through the transmission cables that rebels are fond of blowing up and some of our nefarious citizens are fond of stealing, through the power lines which so many of our citizens are fond of illegally tapping into, to our homes through the wires and finally into our our various appliances.

So how do you make electrons flow? One way, and this is also how the power plants do it, is to pass a coil of wire repeatedly through a magnetic field. The big power plants just do this in a much bigger scale but the principle is the same. Steam or flowing water (in the case of hydroelectric plants) is used cause a turbine to rotate in a magnetic field.

Second, a lesson in anthropology. In most cultures including ours, we believe whatever we do reflects on our ancestors. In some cases, we do things which our ancestors would have been violently opposed to had they been alive. But since they're not, they're said to spin in their graves. I suppose that the manner in which our ancestors spin in their graves depends in direct proportion to the transgression we commit. The bigger the shame we bring upon our ancestors, the faster our ancestors spin in their graves.

Now, let us put physics and anthropology to work. I am sure that former president Diosdado Macapagal, had he been alive today would be repulsed by what his daughter has been up to recently. Resurgent nationalism, which Macapagal made as his legacy is now but a distant memory. It was the late president who strove for the recognition of June 12 as our Independence Day, and not July 4. Now, our Independence Day is still June 12, as long as it falls on a Monday, thanks to his daughter. It is not just that. There's the agreement with the Chinese for the development of Spratlys' Islands supposedly just for joint exploration. There's also the Northrail and the National Broadband deals, also with China, under unconscionably onerous terms for the Philippine government and ultimately for the Filipino people. And recently, the [fortunately aborted signing of the] Memorandum of Agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (I hate to say MILF because MILF is better known outside the Philippines as a sub-genre of pornography) virtually ceding a substantial territory of the nation to the secessionist movement,

So, let's strap some magnets on Cong Dadong's remains, put coils of wire next to his body and let his daughter's weekly betrayal of the nation power us out of an impending energy crisis.

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