Lifestyles of the rich and heinous

I know someone who balks at eating at restaurants he deems overpriced. The way he sees it, P300 spent on one entree can just as easily be spent feeding 10 homeless kids. And to him, it's unconscionable to pay so much for a single meal while so many people are going hungry. It's what our Theology teachers in Ateneo taught us to identify as "social sin", and while my inherently capitalistic nature can't entirely reconcile with this concept (and I still happily shell out P300 for a burger at Chili's), I do understand and, to a certain extent, appreciate the spirit behind it.

Social sin was one of the things that immediately came to my mind upon learning of the now infamous $20,000 dinner President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her Entourage of Evil enjoyed at swanky New York restaurant Le Cirque. But social sin does not even begin to cover the sordidness of it all. It's one thing for me to shell out 300 bucks out of my own pocket for a burger; it's quite another for elected public officials to blow a million pesos in ill-gotten gains (and OF COURSE it's all ill-gotten) on fancy food and wine. For chrissake, does ANYone swallow the bullshit the GMA spin doctors are force-feeding us that Congressman Martin Romualdez footed the bill with his own money? What, did the generous Representative from Leyte shoulder the travel expenses for the whole junket too (because that's all this trip to the US really was, another junket for GMA and her lapdogs)?

But let's give the bastards and their Queen Bitch the benefit of the doubt and assume that Romualdez actually paid for the Le Cirque dinner (which Romualdez though, hmm? get your stories straight, morons). Somehow that doesn't make it any less outrageous. It's simply BAD ETHICS and POOR TASTE for government leaders of a Third World nation to be indulging in a ridiculously expensive meal while millions of their consitituents back home lead hand-to-mouth existences. Whenever I travel, especially to the US, I always avoid spending more than what I should, given the already astronomical costs of airfare and accommodations, but I admit I have no qualms about treating myself to at least one good, if overpriced, meal. But I'm NOT President of a country drowning in debt and strangled by poverty. I'm NOT accountable to the taxpayers, whose hard-earned wages subsidize politicians' supposedly paltry salaries. And I certainly did NOT take an oath to be an upstanding public servant-- SERVANT, you hear that, asswipes? You're supposed to be serving us, not robbing us blind and stuffing your fat faces with caviar and champagne.

According to new reports coming out now, apparently GMA and company also racked up a hefty bill ($15,000) at a steakhouse in Washington DC after their meet-and-greet with US President Barack Obama. Also, a source from the Philippine embassy in New York says Gang Greed dined at Le Cirque not just once but twice, and they were chauffered to the restaurant in stretch limos (snazzy!). Moreover, their rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria cost a pretty penny... all charged to the consulate.

I can justify the tendency to commit social sin, as I am frequently "guilty" of it myself. But what GMA and the leeches around her are guilty of is not only the Catholic concept of social sin-- they are guilty of violating the public trust, betraying the most basic of ethical standards, AND committing crimes against their country, if not through malfeasance, then through sheer bad taste. Even pleading poor judgment makes it no less inexcusable and unpardonable. This brazen display of extravagance communicates a complete disregard for the welfare of the people they serve, and the cavalier attitude the Arroyo administration is adopting in answer to the backlash speaks not only of the kind of government officials, but the kind of human beings they are: devoid of social, civic, and moral conscience.

I guess a little Cirquemspection is too much to ask of these corrupt clowns.