LSS of the Week: Give a Little More by Maroon 5

*Seriously, I cannot remove this song from my head! I've been listening and memorizing it for all I can remember.. I can't wait for the album to be released!

Now you've been bad, and it goes on and on and on
'Til you come home babe, 'til you come home
Now you taste past the poison you learn to love is gone
I'm all alone baby, I'm all alone

I'm waiting for something, always waiting
Feeling nothing, wondering if it'll ever change
And then I give a little more, ooh babe
Give a little more, ooh babe

I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
'Til I get a little more from you baby
Get a little more from you babe

You were wrong for turning me on and on and on
And on and on
You make it so hard

I'm waiting for something, always waiting
Feeling nothing, wondering if it'll ever change
And then I give a little more, ooh babe
Give a little more, ooh babe

I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
'Til I get a little more from you baby
Get a little more from you baby

I have no defense
I know you're gonna get me in the end
(gonna get me in the end)
And I cannot pretend
I never want to feel this way again

I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
Till I get a little more from you baby
Get a little more from you babe

I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
I'm not falling in love with ya, I'm not falling in love
Till I get a little more from you baby
Get a little more from you baby

Aftermath: Dancing to Mayhem (Thoughts After the August 23 Hostage Crisis)

*This will be my entry for the Citizen, The Assembly's Newsletter. Hope it gets accepted..

Last Friday, September 4, several security units of the government, which included the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), the Special Action Force (SAF), considered an elite unit trained to handle hostage situations, the five SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) units of the Metro Manila police districts, the Aviation Security Group, Maritime Group and the Regional Public Safety Battalion, took part in simulation exercises to determine procedures that need to be further refined in training to respond to different crises. Advanced firearms, kevlar armored vests and helmets; armored personnel carriers and other necessary equipment were on hand for a six-day "reassessment and reevaluation" course after the events that transpired during the August 23 hostage situation that took the lives of 8 Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker himself, Rolando Mendoza, an ex-policeman who wanted his case of extortion reviewed and he to be reinstated into the force. All the information collected from the exercises will thus be used to evaluate on whatever changes need to be done in order to improve the effectiveness of our police officers.

The case in point that a set of police exercises being hastily organized to reassess procedures after a botched hostage situation that has angered the island of Hong Kong is in itself appalling. After the massacre of innocents stemmed from a nearly daylong fiasco, President Benigno Aquino III apologized to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang for the bungles of the police force and took on the responsibility for remedying the situation. With this PR move, he managed to take up some of the blame and possibly the anger of those who were affected by the tragedy. Yet, this does not diverge from the fact that "Manila's Finest" did not look good in front of international news outlets. Like a scene straight out of a tense action drama, media personnel came in the droves to cover the tragedy that was about to unfold near the grounds named after our National Hero. This all angered not only the Filipinos then, but also the international community at large. The people of Hong Kong, the most affected, have been thus filled with rage after how the police executed their 'plan' to solve the problem. Some local officials would want to believe that this should be a 'local problem' and that this should not be taken as something serious by other states, however the damage has been done. The world now knows how much of a blunder our police officers are after smashing windows on the bus and being scared away by a single hostage taker!

With the current socio-political climate after the incident, dialogue and calls for improvement are still being pushed forward. Cries of anger and hatred for what had happened and for what is continually happening, such as the lack of justice and compensation for those who have lost friends and family, still continue to resound in the minds and hearts of the Hong Kong people. But it is not just foreigners who are disgusted with what had happened. A lot of Filipinos feel disgraced over the hostage taking, only deepening the common notion that the government's inability to handle critical situations trickle down not only into national and local legislative affairs, but also in its various active organizations. Sighs of corruption, ineptitude and lack of regard for the welfare of the common people have also been invoked. I for one personally felt the infuriating complaints of my Chinese Filipino friends, who instantly tuned in to the news, on how much wrong the officers on the scene approached the bus where the hostages and the hostage taker were. Of course, because of their common ancestry with the hostages involved, they felt a certain connection and deep sense of horror as to what was happening. The complaints I thus read from their own personal blogs and entries ranged from utter rage to mere humor, traveling through cyberspace and became shared content amongst their other friends. Given the availability and advances in technology, more people were able to express their own personal views and misgivings over the case, with the more or less same emotion that my own friends had.

But will all this hullaballoo eventually end in the annals of history as another misgiving, another slap in the face, another picture to gawk and frown at, another to discard and to be forgotten? Will we necessarily treat this incident as something unfortunate yet a difficult yet lucrative opportunity for improvement to our self-image, that in spite of the bad mouthing and discrimination emanating from the different parts of the world towards our race and culture, that we may someday look back at this and say, "we have passed this, let us forget it"? The government, after President Aquino's public apology, can only take so much of the blame and responsibility over the situation History dictates that such international incidents, an example being the hostage taking and eventual killing of Israeli athletes by Islamic extremists in the 1972 Munich Olympics, repeat themselves and teach valuable lessons. From the example, an elite, leading counter-terrorist force, the GSG-9, was formed. In comparison, the SAF too, are further being assessed and retrained to see to it that these incidents may never happen again. Will the promise of a better and peaceful daily life overshadow then the bloody and senseless killing of innocents that stemmed from a lack of communication and preparation? Only we, encouraged to be active, speaking citizens, will be able to answer these questions in the future.