Malasikick

My Pen Mates,

Yes, my friends, I'm taking it back. Our beloved town, the birthplace of our dreams, the origin of our memories, the cause of our anguish. And with the frustration of a disillusioned owner, I'll start by kicking it senseless.

This "backward improvement" discussion needs to be moderated for it is simply untrue. For if our town were indeed moving backward, then it should be towards restoring it to what it was when we lived in it. And if truly improved, then it should become better than it was! But the town has moved on, it has evolved to this state of disorganization; tangled in a web of functional chaos, trapped in a cycle of political mismanagement, and populated by people who have succumbed to this new stasis. Sadly, perhaps not realizing it, our town mates have been assimilated into the new culture.

This new culture did not emerge overnight. It's a combination of population growth and influx when our citizens marry from both within and without, when commerce is drawn-in to provide for public needs, and agencies are required to regulate social services. And because this growth needs to be managed, social order requires political empowerment. It's never been clean, never without blemish, and always had the cloud of untrustworthiness, but again, that's politics' biggest oxymoron: doubt and ridicule those upon whom you have bestowed public trust. It's the most certain road to morality's downward spiral__politics is__ but such is the path one takes when your cause is to impose rule over human will. But that's topic for another day.

My cause is not to join the vortex for it is much too powerful and better-entrenched than I. But I humbly submit that there is a solution; an industrial solution as opposed to political.

The high road act here has already been taken; education will empower the next generation and help them make informed decisions (read Jevie's AVC Manifesto). However, as I've previously proffered, one needs to fill the stomach to get the mind's attention. You cannot effectively teach a hungry populace because that only gives them skills to take shortcuts and find ways to get filled sooner. You do want to teach them to fish, but you don't want them to go dynamite fishing for expediency (see rationale behind jueteng)!

Following this logic, and consistent with my aversion to political infighting, I present the road back to restoration.

Simply, Poblacion is overcrowded, unkempt, disorganized, and surely mismanaged. Regulation is not working because custom, tradition, and yes, influence takes preeminence over pragmatic solutions to these issues. Current residents and business owners will not readily surrender their central locations if it means dilution or loss of their customer base. As such, people would need to commute to the "baley" to get to these businesses, thus the traffic congestion, pollution and sanitation problems, __disorder. With this comes paternalism, where operators get special favors depending on who pays how much to whom, etc. And so the vortex churns....

But commerce is not conducted in a vacuum. There are consumers and there is produce. Where one is, the other would be, demand is created by the presence of the other. Again the problem: Poblacion is overcrowded. My solution: let us decentralize. Let us conduct trade at a location not other than, but in addition to Poblacion. In industrialized places, it's called urban sprawl. I want to see Poblacion II.

And I submit that this is more a matter of industrial rather than political imposition . Lands abound beyond baley which can be adapted for this plan. It does not need to be in close proximity to Poblacion; it does not even need to be publicly owned. The central question is what criteria will define a location as desirable for decentralization? What artifacts need to be in place such that commerce will occur? And the history of civilization points to the answer.

Long before the ancient Sumerians, there have always been two factors that need to be present for a village/city/kingdom/empire to emerge: water and access. It does not matter if its the Egyptian dessert, the mountain ranges of the Incas, or Long Island New York. Where there is water, there is sustenance and transportation. Where there is road, there is access. And most of the time these two components serve each other's purpose. But we no longer need to live by the river or sea to get water. We can now pump it, and build roads with equipment. It does not take much imagination to envision that an annexed Poblacion can be so planned that it is functionally adapted to serve the needs of merchants and consumers.

So, briefly, what's needed: land, covered venue with plentiful and reliable water and drainage, sanitation/garbage disposal system, and an all weather, easy access road system. Without totally eschewing municipal structure (after all, Town Hall, Church and schools will remain in town proper), like-minded industrialists can put this concept together.

• Mixed-use land can be converted as I don't believe that we have strict zoning laws to prohibit repurposing of available land.


• Establishing potable water pumping stations and storage structures, around which would be a covered business center designed for merchandising market produce.


• Garbage collection and disposal on a disciplined basis to maintain health and sanitation.


• A sane, regulated transportation system.

In closing: There is truth to the saying that one should never meet his/her heroes. Admiring them from afar, noting only their noble qualities and highlighting their moments of glory preserves the aura of their larger than life images. Distance and time serve to magnify the grandiosity of their deeds and motives; nuanced assessment of their noted accomplishments keep them on the pedestal of reverence and admiration. But why are there heroes? What purpose does it serve to admire a person when one can emulate their acts and deeds and still have an indeterminate outcome? It's the idolatry that plants disillusionment because when expectations aren't met, we find fault in the model. So coming face to face with your hero is not a good idea; it reveals their humanity and bursts the bubble of their ethereal influence.

My dear readers, let's stop looking at heroes. Accept this opportunity to be one. Look in the mirror and see what could be if you set out to do this; follow no one except the idea that righteous, admirable deeds can emanate from imperfect people; endure no torment just because the outcome is not self-evident. That you believe in the outcome is enough! This is where the dream is reborn. We are going to take it back. Stand tall and answer the call. And the next time you're asked who's town it is, say Malasikik (without the "c").... It-Is-YOUR-TOWN!

Sincerely yours,
Mon