Everything Leaks

For the past three mornings I’ve been roused out from bed because of these army helicopters flying low above our house at exactly nine. They're not after me yet though, I don’t remember doing anything stupid for the army to keep an eye on my house every morning, except maybe because one reader found my blog being too condescending to our national language a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the fuss about these helicopters, you see our city is a natural harbor, we always get a lot of ships passing by this straight right outside our coastline, and there’s this small island guimaras that sits in the middle of the straight. The island's very much undeveloped, full of trees and wildlife and most parts of its shoreline are marine sanctuaries, well except for those facing our city since they catch most of the trash, jetsam and driftwood floating from this side of the island. Anyway a couple of days ago, some passing oil tanker sunk right on the other side of guimaras, right at the doorsteps of those marine sanctuaries, and that oil tanker had grease loaded on board by the tons which it generously shared with everything underwater when it sunk, and those helicopters passing by our house are probably hovering around the straight carrying some high ranking hot shot who wanted to see the oil spill sky high in the morning.

Its not a pretty picture in the news and papers, its like spilling india ink to a beach painting.

The closest I got to this place of the oil spill was six years ago during my last days at the state university. My professor took us to one of the marine reserve run by our school, our teacher rex is a doctor of microbiology, he loved the place because its full of mangrove trees and he took us deep into these mangroves and lecture us about these little fishes, shrimps, squids and tiny micro organisms off his PhD dictionary that live under those mangroves. None of us were paying attention to him anyway, the water was already up to my chest and some other shorter classmate had to hold on to any mangrove branch or somebody else taller and some wisecrack also had to yell “snake” every once in a while and everybody would scamper back to shore while rex would yell “cowards!”. With the oil spill all over the place, I’ll bet rex is kissing all his micro friends at the mangroves goodbye.

It was in this marine sanctuary where I saw my first moray eel, not underwater but happily preserved inside a mayonnaise jar, and what a lucky eel it was having its dead hide in good shape rather than its other cousins still in the waters who are probably tinted and choking in grease by now. But it wasn’t the diversity of marine life that amused me in this reserve but the diversity of entomology and winged bugs that buzzed around me unto the night at base camp.

Grease wasn’t the only thing that leaked from a sunken oil tanker in this country, answers to a board exam also spilled to its exam takers in the open, and that was the examination for the nursing profession, the most sought after job in this country by each and every one because it is one sure ticket to run away from this country and work someplace else.

You know what I think? Answers to any board examinations in this country leaks all the time, everything leaks, its just a matter of getting caught.