BACOLOD CITY — The news that dominates international press is about financial bailouts.

U.S. President George W. Bush proposed a $700 billion bailout of ailing businesses. The Democrats are putting up dilatory tactics, fearful it would favor the candidacy of Republican John McCain against Democrat Barack Obama. But, they are all agreed it would be granted…after the election by the new president.

The U.S. also is plowing $30 billion into overseas money markets while world leaders are seeking unity to fight the financial crisis. And it’s for no other reason but the economy. Not politics.

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Tragically, we are going in the opposite direction.

I recall, it was in the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos that incentives were made for agriculture with the grant of tax exemptions on agricultural cooperatives. It was to bail out the bruised, battered, beleaguered, and cash strapped sugar industry, among others.

The industry has not yet recovered. The problem even worsened with the nearly doubling of the cost of production and by uncontrolled sugar smuggling which prices have not improved.

When the weather was a bit fine, government gave it an umbrella. Now that the rains came, instead of giving a bigger umbrella BIR took that umbrella away.

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At no time in our history have millions of our people gone abroad to look for jobs, even menial jobs, because life here has been terrible. There is hunger all around. There is no place to work.

Why these? Because there are no investors, foreign or local. Who will invest in a country whose policies on investors are not conducive to getting back the return on one’s investments?

One of these is the sugar industry. Our production has gone down because planters don’t expand their plantation despite the growing demand. Sugar is smuggled in, the government not being able to stop it. And worse, BIR is oppressing them.

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Then Transparency International came out with a survey saying we dropped still lower in the Corruption Perception Index to now ranking 141 out of 180 countries. This means 140 countries are cleaner than we are. We are better only than 39 other backward countries.

The cleanest countries are Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden with Singapore in No. 4. Among our neighbors, Malaysia is at No. 47, Thailand is No. 80, and Indonesia which used to be more corrupt than we were is better at No. 126. We are at No. 141. Vietnam is even better at No. 121.

Our only consolation, East Timor is behind us at No. 145, Laos at No. 151, Cambodia at No. 166, and Myanmar or Burma at No. 178. Iraq is No. 179 and Somalia at No. 180.

Businessmen are complaining. Farmers are complaining. Almost everybody is complaining of a very bad economy. Where is this country going?

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I am always enlivened by the word of wisdom texted me by friends. Early yesterday, my friend Jimmy Golez, more popularly known as the father of Silay City Acting Mayor Mark Golez (Mayor Oti Montelibano is still recovering from a heart bypass) texted me early yesterday. He shares me his words of wisdom.

He said, “When asked whether your glass is half empty or half full, the best answer is, I thank God because I still have the glass.”

We ask BIR, don’t take our glass any more. You have taken the water already. Leave us the glass, the tax exemption that we are entitled to and deserve.

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Poverty makes better poets, writers, and artists.

Peque Gallaga’s Handurawan Community Theater has been promoting, revitalizing arts in Negros among the youth, educators, parents, and patrons as “caring, trusting team to share talent and resources to gain value, grow and be entertained through the arts.”

Handurawan has already staged a play “Si Goldencrantz kag si Guildenstern Patay Na” an Ilonggo translation from Tom Stoppard’s “Resencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.”

The play was staged already Sept. 18-20, one tonight and on Oct. 2-4, at 6:30 p.m. at the Gallaga Theater in La Salle.

I will go on Oct. 2. Let us revive local drama. Radio is doing a good job airing dramas that teach lessons and promote values. I like that drama “Provincial Jail” over Bombo Radyo. It is adapted from a “composo,” of a lament for having been thrown into the provincial jail.

The compose says “Wa’ay pareho kasubo ang akon dinangatan… provincial jail and akon ginsudlan… dalagku nga bato, pader ang magtimbang… salsalon ang bintana pati ang ganha-an…” Pardon the poor memory. I miss the exact words. Then it continues with what is being eaten… “Bugas nga NGA, madamo ans pasi…ang boy matamad mag pili…” then eating “tinuktok nga langka…bisan asin wala…” Sorry I can’t translate them.

The word used is “NGA” which means it was composed during Martial Law. Otherwise it would have been NFA.

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