BACOLOD CITY — This is a beautiful, if not an interesting world, if only we look at the beautiful and interesting side of life.

There are two very well publicized sick men in the world today. One is the supreme ruler of North Korea Kim Il Sung. The other is the beleaguered, badly battered Bolante, Joc Joc to his friends and media, former agriculture undersecretary.

Kim is a sick man, working very hard to impress people he is healthy. Bolante is a healthy man, working hard to impress people he is sick.

When Bolante arrived in Manila, after being deported from the U.S. he was seen holding on to his chest as though he had heart pains.

When he was examined, he was found to have a normal blood pressure but which the naughty Senators called, 120 over acting.

And he was found, too, not to have a heart problem but an ulcer. Ulcers are in the stomach. But, in the case of Bolante, it was in his heart. So the naughty, sometimes foolish media people said, this is a case of an ulcer in the heart.

Is this not an interesting world?

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When he arrived, every one whose name was believed to have been in the list, called Bolante’s Blue Book, publicly welcomed Joc Joc.

Rep. Cynthia Villar of Parañaque, wife of the Senate President, said her name and that of Makati Rep. Teddy Locsin were in Bolante’s Blue Book. But this is not true she said, because she and Locsin did not receive that amount and told Bolante of it.

She said Parañaque and Makati have no farming areas and they have no farms to fertilize.

Our own Congressman Monico Puentevella can also argue he did not receive because Bacolod, as an urban area, has no farmers who need fertilizers. And it’s not his name there. The spelling is different, he said.

See? It’s a beautiful and interesting life. People don’t have to quarrel over floods, if they only look at the interesting part of life.

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The Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance has a logo with a big letter BAHA and below it the words “Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance” and a left hand in a pose of stopping. It shows the purpose is to stop the flood.

Nobody stops floods. You divert them. You stop a flood? It will carry and sweep you away, drowning you. Especially in hilly areas flood waters travel as fast as 50 to 80 kilometers per hour. To save yourself, stay out of it. Don’t dare stop it. You cannot. No one can.

A flood or a deluge has long been believed to be a supreme punishment by God of the sinners.

The worst flood in history, not counting Biblical times was in China August 1931 when the Yangtze River overflowed and 1.7 million people died of drowning, diseases and starvation.

The second was also in China in 1642 when the rebels destroyed the Kaifeng seawall drowning 300,000 people.

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The story of the Great Deluge in the Bible with God telling Noah to build an ark to save his people, has its many counterparts. That Bible story is because of the flooding in the Nile River.

In Babylon, the flooding of the Tigres Euphrates Rivers resulted in a big deluge that appeared in the 11th tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic but on a higher level of civilization because Utnapishtem, counterpart of Noah, took in his ark craftsmen and treasures.

In India, one legend tells of how Manu was warned by a fish of the approaching flood and the fish towed his vessel to safety.

My Indian friend Manu Gidwani can tell you about this story. There are many other stories of floods as punishment by God.

After an upheaval, a deluge follows the event that changes society, even civilizations. That’s what happened with the French Revolution, the upheaval was followed by a deluge as spoken by Madame de Pompadour.

After the defeat of the French and Austrian Army on Nov. 5, 1757 in the Battle of Rosbach in the hands of Frederick the Great of Germany, Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV was asked by the King. “What now?”

Her answer was classic, in French “Apres nous le deluge.” This means, “After us the deluge.” True the confluence of events led to the downfall and the death by guillotine of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette which toppled the Old Regime through the politicization of the people by powerful writers of the time, Voltaire and especially Jean Jacques Rousseau with his “The Social Contract.”

Yes, this is a beautiful and interesting world if viewed through the prism of history and literature.

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Notes:

British friend, ex-pat Robert Harland texted me announcing he is a father of a 7.1 pound Anglo-Negrense baby boy, his first child at 61. His girl friend Stessie and baby, he added, were doing well. Yes, including the father.

I wish to extend my condolence and share the grief of the bereaved families of Brgy. 10 Captain and former Ceneco President Nono Verba and former Brgy. 32 Captain Rudy Raluto. They just passed away.

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