It was just stupidity

Here we go again. So many stupid things have been happening mostly political.

Blame it on the hangover after the May 13 mid-term national and local elections – the heady days of the campaign period where survey after survey showed you winning by a margin of 60,000 votes and the humungous crowd in your political rallies, plus the incessant whispers and confirmation of your barkers and entourage that indeed you wold win with exactly 60,000 votes margin drove you to euphoria, only to come crashing down to reality come election day losing by almost 90,000 votes.

The “day after” must have been a bitter pill to swallow but then again this is the Philippines where nobody loses in an election; they are all “cheated”.

It must be really difficult to accept the fact that people voted for someone else and not you and we call that democracy, freedom of choice, or as the Catholics call it, “free will.”

That sense of entitlement is just that, a sense, not actually reality. And “reality bites.”

It looks like perennial loser Mel Carreon will finally relinquish his unofficial title as the “laughingstock of Iloilo politics.”

The bright side is that Mel Carreon has endeared himself to the Ilonggos and sightings of him always bring a benevolent smile, perhaps in time you’ll earn that, too.

And we segue to something utterly stupid not in any way, shape or form even remotely connected to politics or the recent elections.

Here are excerpts from a May 11, 2019 report from Agence France-Presse:

Norwegian woman dies of rabies after rescuing Filipino puppy

A 24 year-old Norwegian woman died this week of rabies after she was bitten by a puppy she rescued while on vacation in the Philippines, her family announced.

In February while on holiday with friends, Birgitte Kallestad found a “helpless” puppy on the side of the road during a scooter ride.

“Birgitte put the puppy in a basket and brought it home. She cleaned it and cared for it and to her joy it started healing. They played with the puppy in the garden” of the resort where they were staying, the family said in a statement published Thursday evening.

“After a while the puppy started trying to bite them like puppies do. It nipped their fingers when they were playing,” the statement continued.

The young woman, a hospital employee, started feeling ill after her return to Norway and was put into intensive care at Forde hospital, where she worked and where she passed away on Monday evening.

According to the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, the last recorded case of rabies contracted by a human in mainland Norway dates back to 1815, and to 1826 for an animal.

According to the family no one in the group of friends had been vaccinated against rabies.

“Our dear Birgitte loved animals. Our fear is that this will happen to others who have a warm heart like hers,” her family said.

At least 59,000 people worldwide die each year worldwide from the animal-borne disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

More than 99 percent of victims are concentrated in Asia, Africa and South America.

It’s quite ironic, nay stupid, that a person who works in a hospital and from a First World country would pick up, or as the “white people” prefer to call it, “rescue” an unknown puppy and not take it to the veterinarian first for check-up and proper anti-rabies vaccination before taking it home.

Doing what that Norwegian tourist did was akin to picking up a street prostitute in Burgos Street or Cubao, bring her/him to your hotel room and have unprotected sex with her/him whilst vacationing in the Philippines.

Sensibility is a trait not exclusive to people from first world countries likewise stupidity is also not a trait that natives from third world countries have a monopoly of, stupidity or sensibility is universal.

What that Norwegian tourist did was a big “No No.” Was she even aware that the Philippines is not “rabies-free” and that people here die from rabies regularly – and not just from dog bites but eating dogs infected with rabies?

During my watch as director of Animal Kingdom Foundation or AKF, this is what I always tell my people and the audience during our animal welfare awareness seminars:

Please do not go to great lengths to rescue a stray dog or cat you see on the streets when these feral animals don’t really need rescuing in the first place. That litter of kittens or puppies you find hidden in some corner or tucked in an ally are not abandoned, their mother knows exactly where they are, she just went out for food. So what happens when she returns and finds out her kittens or puppies are gone rescued by some ignorant wannabe? How do you think a mother feels when she finds that her children are gone?

Animals are best left as nature intended them to be – without human intervention.

Please remember that dogs or cats are animals and not humans, it is inhumane to humanize them.

So there./PN