A Charmed Life: Life's a Play!

The sun has just come out with a very lovely beam. The sparrows are chirping.
I put out the clothes to dry.


Last Saturday I was woken up by a text message from a friend inviting to go for a picnic in the mountain. He asked to meet him at 10 AM downtown. I got up and looked through the window to a foggy morning. I told him to postpone the picnic because it looks like it's gonna rain. I went back to sleep some more because it was a cold morning.


After 30 minutes, I was again woken up by another text message from the same friend telling me that the sun is shining and that he's on his way downtown and he's gonna wait for me there. So I met him and we went to the said picnic on a narrow valley between two mountains. I never suspected that just behind a mountain full of houses built on top of each other, there is a valley and a mountain with nothing but pine trees. We reached a half-constructed house and under it are our companions already starting to eat. They are local musicians plus the two South American artists that are sometimes seen busking in the city with their mystical indigenous music from the Andean mountains.


We finished eating and were in the drinking session when it rained. Whilst drinking and story-telling, we waited for the rain to leave. Then as we were climbing the mountain back to civilization, we were met by strong gusts of wind and I told my friends that it felt like the rumored storm has just left. One of them said that as the weather report says we are in signal number two, but since we haven't felt any storm yet, maybe it will arrive in the evening.


Back in the city, I met up with a couple of other friends for coffee. We were chatting when the rain suddenly poured again startling one of my friends who remarked that the sound of the rain is different and that maybe we should go home soon as none of us brought any umbrella. We scoffed at her telling her that it's just normal rain and maybe her different hearing was because of the fiber glass roof of the coffeehouse. The rain stopped and we went home. I slept an ordinary sound sleep that night.




Next day, Sunday, a girlfriend texted me saying that she's downtown and asking if I'm going downtown so we could meet up. I told her I was not going out in that drizzly weather. She texted back saying, the drizzle was nothing compared to what's happening in Manila. Who knows what's happening in Manila, I do not watch TV.


I opened my mail and received a concerned email from a friend who does not really email (the last time she emailed me was back in 2006 asking me if I was not hit by the tsunami!). She said she saw the "news" and had been thinking about me. She asked if I am OK. I wondered what "news" she was talking about. I opened FB and there, through people's posts and videos, I learned about the "news."


Unbelievable...


A manifestation of global warming...

Banana Republic", I heard the term before, I saw it printed in someone else`s shirt, but I didn't really exactly know what it meant. I looked it up in the dictionary and there, my vague notion of it`s meaning is confirmed:

banana republic

n : a small country (especially in Central America) that is politically unstable and whose economy is dominated by foreign companies and depends on one export (such as bananas).


In a Japanese supermarket, I noticed that the Philippine imported bananas' price was reduced from 99 Yen (roughly 50 pesos) to 86Yen, that was, because they are a little over riped this time. Over my several trips to that supermarket, I noticed that the banana price are the cheapest. FOUR PIECES OF FLAWLESS bananas usually cost 99 Yen. And if they are not bought and become over riped, (which is often the case in this grocery where I went) the price was greatly reduced. I bought ONE PIECE of peach, it costs 159 Yen. And ONE SMALL Fuji apple that costs at least 135 Yen. (made in China Fuji apple in the Phils cost 10 to 12 pesos). A SMALL SLICE of water melon was 299 Yen.


I usually bought bananas whenever I went to the supermarket. I buy the bananas not only because they are the cheapest fruit in the supermarket but also because they are from the Philippines. I thought I might be helping the Filipino farmers by buying their products. One time, I saw one whole stack of slightly over-riped bananas in the supermarket sold in half the normal selling price. What would the grocers do to it if nobody buys it? I hope they wont just throw it away.


Yes, the Japs signed to the globalization trade pact, that is why bananas are abundant in Japan. I also saw imported meat from the US, Brazil and as far as Denmark. Some ponkans from the US too. It didn't escape my attention that these imported meat and fruits were very cheap compared to those produced in Japan.


I remember one time at the airport in Manila, after checking in, boarding and undergoing all those screenings, I suddenly felt a bout of thirst that I wanted to buy the first bottled water I could find. I pointed to a small bottled water to the salesman, "65 pesos", he said. "Why so expensive!" I exclaimed... Same sized standard mineral water in the normal grocery store would cost 10 pesos! I would expect that here it would be at most 15 to 20 pesos. Then with a misplaced proud smile he said; "because this one is imported".


I remember, the name of that mineral water was "Evian". So I thought this one is truly special because of its special price. But when I came to Japan, I saw it was one of the cheaper if not the cheapest mineral waters sold in the stores. Perhaps because it is competing fiercely with Japanese tea bottles and Japan produced mineral waters?


I just hope my country will someday cease being a Banana Republic.