Wired spaghetti

Netnet Camomot .

CAGAYAN de Oro is finally tired of the unsightly spaghetti wires. And its morning rush-hour traffic along Masterson Avenue has eased, and SM uptown will have a sale again on April 13, 14 and 15 probably to ease the pain of the annual income tax which will be due on the 15th.

Yes, Cagayan de Oro is also having its own spring cleaning, starting with the spaghetti wires.

Why are they called spaghetti wires? Hmmm. Let’s make a wild guess here. Because they look like black spaghetti? Sans squid ink.

When a Pinoy craves for spaghetti, he thinks of Jollibee. Okay, let’s include McDo, KFC, Greenwich, Shakey’s, Pizza Hut. Although there’s that one Pinoy who will order a platter of spaghetti at Chowking and Harbour City.

But my most favorite food for now is the clam chowder at Gringo. Located near the escalators at the second level of SM downtown, it’s also the resto with the best view of, well, the escalators.

A resto’s constant challenge is to maintain the yumminess of its food. Restos in malls are vulnerable to instant comparisons—if a potential patron does not like the menu and prices of the first one, all he has to do is walk a few steps to the next. And if the chef is having a bad day, his resto will be avoided next time, with the disappointed customer choosing not to give it a second chance.

Yes, buti pa ang corrupt politician, may second chance; ang resto, wala.

But with summer as the season to bare all, it’s advisable to avoid restos for now—you know, to keep the abs as tight as the swimsuit that will cling to it like a leech.

Netflix, though, doesn’t choose a particular season for frontal nudity—winter, spring, summer, or fall, if a sex scene calls for it, let it be. This can shock virgins and the “like a virgin touched for the very first time,” but it’s much like the graft and corruption in government—if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. But size does matter: stealing a paper clip from the office’s supply room is not the same as stealing $10 billion from the national treasury. You don’t even have to convert that to pesos if you want to see the big picture. Because $10 billion is already big, and that amount has been attached to a former president who’s alleged to have stolen that much from Pinas.

Sometimes, the Pinoy does stop, look, and listen, to wonder why the barangay exists and what its officials have done for the good of that barangay. If the barangay official or his family can’t follow rules, when they’re supposed to be the epitome of good behavior in their neighborhood, how can he discipline his neighbors then, and impart to them the laws of Pinas?

The neighbors can always tell him: Ikaw gani…

You have to be kind of successful in that field you now believe to be an “expert” on.

There was this politician who always had a solution to every problem. I wonder if he still has that chutzpah, now that someone close to him obviously didn’t follow his advice, that is, if ever he imparted any to that someone.

The wise one will learn to keep his mouth shut, giving no advice at all, and treat life as a spectator sport as he learns from other people’s mistakes. But the wisest will dive into the unknown and emerge alive.

Meanwhile, there’s the wisea**, assured he has others’ secrets locked in his vault, and will use that as weapons of mass destruction against those same people who now have no other choice but to remain beholden to him.

There’s friendship, and then, there’s the business transaction. Be able to tell which is which. Friends can have business deals. But business deals morphing into friendships—that’s tricky. Your so-called relationship started with money. If that money didn’t exist, would you have become friends? Or, how about this—once the money is gone, will you remain friends? What will you talk about once the money is gone. What movies does he like. What was the best thing he did for you that had nothing to do with money.

If a person cannot benefit from you in any way and yet offers to help you against all the odds, against the wishes of his own family, against the advice of his closest friends, then, that’s the most difficult decision he has ever made.

A politician will always have a difficult time, though, in telling who among his supporters are his real friends. The people who surround him are probably there for the perks and connections. Losing in the election can be his most authentic blessing in disguise, with family and true friends as the only ones choosing to remain by his side, as the rest will quickly move forward to the next political wannabe they can victimize.

Was politics involved in removing Cagayan de Oro’s spaghetti wires? Hmmm. But it’s a great involvement that Cagayanons can be most grateful for.