silence and the sound

We celebrate Independence Day today. This morning, I padded downstairs and flipped on the television to see what festivities might be going on. The NBN channel was showing a parade of festivals from across the country, with people in brightly colored costumes prancing about and dancing before the people that amassed at Luneta for the Independence Day celebration. I imagine the President to be among those watching. Elsewhere, people are also amassing. Not to celebrate the 108th year of our country's independence, but to point out that as of today, we live in fear. Almost every week, one reads of killings of 'leftists' and 'subversives', gunmen in motorbikes felling activists one after the other. And the government keeps silent. Our country is brandished as the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, with Iraq being the close second. The majority of the 79 reported journalist slayings since 1985 have been committed during the term of our current president. And the government keeps silent.

All I can hear is the gratingly nasal intonations of our president, admonishing her constituents and the people she serves to please let her do her job.