[I was swayed to engage my witty and sagacious UP Law classmate, Jose “Joe’ Camano, in what he termed as an “unwieldy” debate on the subject of President Rodrigo Duterte’s WAR ON DRUGS on Facebook. I took the position fully supporting Pres. Duterte’s initiatives as in the back of my mind is the worrisome thought of an emerging new designer drug which has sprouted and is being peddled flagrantly in FLORIDA in the U.S.A. And addiction to this new designer drug results in violent and bizarre reactions. I told IDOL Joe that I would not want my grandkids and great grandkids to live in a narco-state in the future. A map of the U.S.A. is shown above depicting the states particularly FLORIDA which have been contaminated by this new designer drug named FLAKKA.]
I was swayed into a DEBATE1 with my IDOL2,
I was actually afraid, as I might turn out a FOOL3;
Knowing that IDOL is a wide and voracious reader,
Might got drowned in an avalanche of quotes, ‘tis clear4!
IDOL JOE must have read all the works of Mark Twain5,
Methinks, he also has read the writings of Mark’s boatswain6;
Memorized all the books of McCoy7 on Marcos8 and RP9,
Gobbled up even the works of Karnow Stanley10…
What could I brag about my simple reading inventory?
It’s INQUIRER11, STAR12 and at times BULGAR13 and REMATE14—
But my IDOL JOE is a ravenous reader…
My arguments indeed are restricted by a seeming tether!
But with respect to the DRUG problem NOW in RP,
I really feel that ALFRED McCOY or even KARNOW STANLEY…
Has no knowledge about the SHABU15 in our terrain and country,
Even KARNOW is now DEAD and is BURIED in ALLEGANY16!
And with respect to McCOY, well his views are QUEER…
For with respect to DRUGS, he has made a seeming STEER17…
McCOY wants COCAINE and HEROINE just REGULATED,
Are we ready indeed for a SHABU TIANGGE which is GATED18?
Well, gradually it seems the McCOYISH stance …
Has enveloped the psyche and Joe’s views with ASKANCE;
IDOL JOE has labeled the DRUG CRAZE as a health ISSUE…
The “KILL THE PUSHERS” spiel is not attuned with his CUE19!
But as I pleaded upon my IDOL JOE CAMANO,
How can ALFRED McCOY be in touch w/ our BARRIO20;
Having “eradicated” a pusher and a drug lord just a month ago,
The enforcers in our town made it sure; they’re DEAD as DODO!
Even BBC’s Sackur21 is all LAUDS for DU30’s22 strategies…
Labeled DU30’s politics as POPULIST delivered with a MENACE—
Stating thereby that majority of PINOYs are in FAVOR,
The iron-fist policy of DU30 has truly found a FLAVOR!23
I reminded IDOL JOE of the DRUG CRAZE in FLORIDA24,
It’s named FLAKKA25 and the result is “DISASTAH”26…
Users of the DRUG would achieve a HIGH,
They’d run and thrust their heads into a car’s windshield like a FLY!
But still I do DEFER unto JOE’s WISDOM and WIT,
His IDEAS and FERVOR, for a PREXY he could FIT;
He has seemingly crafted a plan for a wise GOVERNANCE,
If he runs in an ELECTION, I’ll take care of his FINANCE!
IBOTO SI IDOL JOE CAMANO; PAG NANALO AKO SA LOTTO!
======================================================================
[Legend: 1 – The “unwieldy” DEBATE which my IDOL PADI JOE CAMANO referred to in his FB post recently is about Pres. Duterte’s war on DRUGS; and I took the position that it is RIGHT. And that I salute Pres. Rodrigo Duterte for his unrelenting war on DRUGS as I do not want my grandkids and my great grandkids to live in a virtual narco-state in the future.
2 – IDOL refers to my UP Law classmate and friend, Jose “Joe” Camano.
3 – FOOL is used in this FUN RHYME BLOG to mean as someone who would be laughed at; LAUGHABLE as my arguments may not measure up with the arguments of IDOL PADI whose every argument is backed up by scholarly observation or point of renowned historians, journalists and writers with the likes of Alfred McCoy, Stanley Karnow, and Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
4 – In our on-and-off tiny debates in FB, IDOL JOE will always be ready with a quote either from McCoy, Twain or Karnow. So splendid indeed; and so LOVELY.
5 – MARK TWAIN is the pen name of the American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer who is better known as SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS.
6 – A “boatswain” is a ship officer who is in charge of the equipment and of the crew. During his boyhood as narrated in LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, based on my recent research in the INTERNET, Mark Twain suggested that he shared that “one permanent ambition” among his comrades then, which is to become a steamboatman. But it would seem that Mark Twain’s subconscious ambition was to become a PILOT of a ship as he said that:
“Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay.
“As Twain describes it, the pilot’s prestige exceeded that of the captain. The pilot had to:
“…get up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cottonwood and every obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of this river for twelve hundred miles; and more than that, must… actually know where these things are in the dark.”
As recounted in MARK TWAIN’s Wikipedia: “Steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $500, payable out of Twain’s first wages after graduating. Twain studied the Mississippi, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would “tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated”. It was more than two years before he received his pilot’s license. Piloting also gave him his pen name from “mark twain”, the leadsman’s cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat.”
7 – McCoy is Alfred McCoy, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been recognized as one of the world’s leading historians of Southeast Asia and a supposed expert on Philippine political history, opium trafficking in the Golden Triangle, underworld crime syndicates and international political surveillance.
8 – MARCOS is former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
9 – RP is acronym for the Philippines, specifically Republic of the Philippines.
10 – STANLEY KARNOW was an American journalist and historian. In 1990, Karnow won the Pulitzer Prizefor History for his book IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICA’S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES.
11 – INQUIRER refers to one of the leading newspapers in the Philippines, the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
12 – STAR refers to another leading newspaper in the Philippines, the Philippine Star.
13 – BULGAR is the name of a tabloid being sold in the metropolis of urban greater Manila area in the Philippines.
14 – REMATE is the name of another tabloid being sold in the metropolis of urban greater Manila area in the Philippines.
15 – SHABU is a powerfully addictive meth stimulant, easily accessible and affordable in the Philippines until its “free-trade” in the Philippine country was restricted and stopped with President Duterte’s WAR ON DRUGS. It was the drug of choice of over 90% of Filipino drug users. Usually, a “fix” or the use of the SHABU via inhalation, is done every 3 hours. A single “tingi” or 0.1 gm costs Php 100. One mongo-sized “gram” costs Php 1,000-2,000. (In contrast, 1997 methamphetamine prices in the U.S. ranged from $3,500 to $30,000 per pound, $400 TO $2,800 per ounce, and $37 per gram in the Seattle area to $300 per gram in the New York area.)
16 – STANLEY KARNOW died on January 27, 2013 due to congestive heart failure and his remains were buried in Potomac, Allegany County, Maryland, USA.
17 – STEER is used in this FUN RHYME BLOG to mean a misleading advice.]
18- GATED, meaning confined under a REGULATED arrangement with an embellished GATE to add elegance, class and perhaps charm to the SHABU SALE.
19 – CUE is used in this FUN RHYME BLOG to mean APPROVAL.
20 – BARRIO was actually the smallest political unit in the Philippines but has now been replaced by the BARANGAY.
21 – SACKUR is Stephen Sackur (born 9 January 1964), an English journalist who presents HARDtalk, a current affairs interview programme on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He is also the main Friday presenter of GMT on BBC World News. On June 21, 2017; Mr. Sackur interviewed Senator Antonio Trillanes LIVE as the featured guest in HARDtalk. In his introductory spiel, Mr. Sackur declared: “When it comes to populist politics delivered with menace, no one does it quite like Rodrigo Duterte, elected President of the Philippines a year ago. Since he came to power, around 7,000 people have been killed in his “WAR ON DRUGS” crime. Human rights groups are aghast, but the majority of the Filipino seems to like his iron-fist.”
22 – DU30 is acronym for President Rodrigo Duterte’s surname.
23 – FLAVOR is used in the FUN RHYME BLOG to mean as an ATTRACTION.
24 – FLORIDA is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida’s most populous urban area.
25 – FLAKKA is a cheaper kind of a man-made drug which causes a high similar to cocaine which has become a craze in Florida specifically in Miami. In some parts of the U.S.A., it is also called “gravel” because of its white crystal chunks that have been compared to aquarium gravel. But like “bath salts,” a group of related synthetic drugs that were banned in 2012, flakka has the potential to be much more dangerous than cocaine. Those who have ingested flakka would sometimes experience a HIGH that would lure them to run at high speed into an approaching vehicle and even crash and barrel the user’s head unto the windshield of the vehicle.
26 – DISASTAH is an altered spelling of DISASTER and has been used here in this FUN RHYME BLOG to achieve a RHYME.]
I love that Idol Walter.