Saturday, October 3, 2009

What The Hell?

I've long made a point of not reading the papers because the daily stream of bad news tends to send me tailspinning into depression. However, due to the current calamities we're undergoing, I've been scouring the online papers for news and updates.

Now, I've said before that I've often believed the Philippines is like one of those magical-realist worlds Gabriel Garcia-Marquez novels are made of, but just a morning's sampling of one local broadsheet's Metro stories makes me wonder what sort of black magic permeates this land:

Man Tries To Kill Self By Jumping Over Railing In Glorietta

Businesswoman Jumps To Her Death In Manila

Student Jumps To His Death From 3rd Floor of SM Fairview Mall

Collector Hangs Self After Losing 10T

Woman Trader Allegedly Sets Self On Fire

Passenger Missing After Jumping Off Ship

Man Beats Pregnant Wife To Death, Then Kills Self

Boss Beheaded By Unpaid Worker

But the most heartbreaking of all was this:

Man Loses Mother, Wife, Five Kids In Flood

Now I just remembered why I stopped reading the papers.

They fill you to to the brim...with grim.

10 comments:

  1. random: Dude, wheres my car?
    Dude, you got yourself a tatoo!?
    Dude, what does it say?
    Sweet!

    i try. i try. LOL
    *just trying to make you happy*

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  2. @ Herbs D.: Bored on a storm watch, too, eh? Don't worry, di naman ako na-depress dun sa mga Metro stories. Just...wtf?

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  3. I know. Ive been waiting all night for some good games around the house like tagu-taguan dahil mawawala daw yung kuryente. sigh.

    Not bored, I just woke up :]

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  4. These news, makes you numb. That's why I try to put myself in their shoes.

    So I would remember.

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  5. @ Knox : Siguro nga what distresses me about these items - and others like them - is how easy it is to see ourselves in their shoes.

    But empathy cannot answer what would drive people to take their own lives - and others' - because of heartache, jealousy, or the loss of P10,000.00.

    Which is why I'm left with sympathy. And a hollow sense of detached wonder.

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  6. sadly, this is the kind of news that sells, though second only to juicy details of scandals hounding the rich and the famous.

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  7. @ john stanley: In journalism, I suppose bad news is good news. And in hindsight, had I gone on to that field instead, I'd probably be grousing about being on the "Metro" beat and digging up sordid stories of woe and misery, rather than being assigned to the "big" national and political news beats.

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  8. reading newspapers is depressing, although columnists are better reads than the actual news themselves.

    but i only read the comics and horoscope parts.

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  9. @ engel : For better or worse, the Inquirer remains my rag of choice, because they were the first ones to publish an essay of mine (long, long time ago), and some personalities who write and work there have been in and around my life. So it feels a little like home.

    As for Opinion columns, Conrad de Quiros remains my hero in terms of both style and content.

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  10. Thats why I dont read to must of the new. just enough to be updated. Its to depressing sometimes...

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