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The 2008 PGMA SONA

• The SONA: My Sentiments
• Do You Ever Get Tired of SONA’s?
• Post-SONA 2008 Sentiments

I do. It’s so ironic when something that happens only ONCE a year can be so tiring to listen to. Tomorrow’s SONA (State of the Nation Address) to be presented (or read–pun intended) by President Arroyo has not even happened yet but as early as now, I already feel a certain level of “exhaustion”. Maybe that’s because I read a lot of news.

Nevertheless, you may say (yes, I know), if you’re really tired of it, then why write more about it? Well, you may have a point there, but that’s how I am with something I find tiring or sickening — I tend to think about it or talk about it pretty much everyday until my brain’s short term memory passes the buck to my long-term memory.

I’ve read a post by Flowell about a look-back on the previous SONA’s from 2001 to 2007 and I find it an interesting and frustrating read. Interesting because there were good “promises” in those SONA’s and frustrating because most of those didn’t “quite” come true. From that talked-about “Bangkang Papel” theme in 2001 until last year’s theme “Facing Forward, not Facing Off“, much has been said, but sadly, not much has been accomplished.

Apparently, SONA’s have become as (if not more) rhetoric as those speeches given in Congress. Many of us don’t listen to it, much less care about what it contains. Thing is, there’s a certain truth to the “tiredness”. And it has become commonplace that many people actually aren’t even aware of the SONA’s schedule.

What the government, or the President for that matter, do not realize is that we are all fed-up with this crap being thrown at us every year. They probably also don’t realize that we are NOT stupid. We have just become so tolerant to the point of apathy that it seems we don’t give a damn anymore about the country’s economic and political state. But we know better of course. We are not blind to reality, most specially of glaring poverty staring at us in the face. The problems are just so real, you can hardly ignore it for one second. Everyday, I wake up to the stench of this government’s rotting corrupt practices. It’s all over the place. Online or offline, in print or broadcast media — it’s there. Anomalous deals here and there. It gets sicker and sicker everyday.

Political antics and attempt to cover-up transgressions have become as hilarious as comic shows and as dramatic as our telenovelas. Most of the time, watching the news seemed like watching  a circus, only that a circus is far more entertaining. If we wanted jesters, then we should have elected clowns instead or have we already?

Tiring, I tell you. Very tiring. But wait, there’s more! Yes, there’s more where this come from! And there’s another SONA next year. God help us. How much more of this can we take?

I am so tired of SONA’s. Aren’t you?

Suggested Further Reading:

• The SONA: My Sentiments
• Let’s Talk VAT. Again.
• Something to Say: A PGMA Song for The Philippines on the Occasion of Her Last SONA (2009)
• Post-SONA 2008 Sentiments
• Who among the presidentiables will be bad for the economy?