"12 Jeepney" Evolution Project

There are people, including even some government officials who proclaim the jeepney as a proud Filipino achievement. For them the jeepney is a a showcase of Filipino ingenuity and creativity.

I count among those who disagree with these people. Government officials who ride on this jeepney propaganda should be made to take the jeepney everyday to work so that they will at least be consistent with what they are talking about.

As a mode of transportation, the jeepney is inconvenient, uncomfortable and inefficient. It contributes greatly to air and noise pollution. Jeepneys worsen traffic and do not help much to improve the quality of living.

I believe we Filipinos can do better and deserve a better transport alternative. The jeepney may have evolved in response to our transportation need in the past, but it is now time for us to say goodbye to the jeepney and say hello to a better, faster, cleaner and more efficient mass public transportation system like the rail based rapid transportation system.

As for the jeepney, those who want to be creative and artistic about it should be challenged to find an alternative and better purpose for it.

To start off this challenge, below is my 5 cent list of 12 ideas of what we can do with the jeepney:

1. turn the jeepney into a "jeepxi" or a jeep that functions as a taxi
2. turn the jeepney  into "jeepotel"  mobile hotels to serve distant and far flung communities that do not have adequate lodging places.
3. turn the jeepney into mobile sari sari stores or native craft stores to replace the carabao drawn craft carts
4.turn the jeepney into restojeeps or mobile restaurants
5. turn the jeepney into a mobile emergency water purifying plant
6. turn the jeepney into a school bus
7. turn the jeepney into a mobile toilet service provider
8. turn the jeepney into a family recreational camper or van
9.turn the jeepney into a mobile library and internet cafe to serve far flung areas
10. turn the jeepney into mobile government extension offices
11. turn the jeepney into an"ambujeep" or jeepney ambulance
12. turn the jeepney into a mobile clinic for use of doctors to the barrios

WIP pic to follow

Doctrine of Public Self Defense

Although I am against the death penalty, I will be a hypocrite if I deny feeling a sense of relief and satisfaction whenever I learn about  a notorious criminal who has killed or harmed other people being eliminated by the police or the public. And it does not matter if the criminal was slain in a shootout albeit under suspicious circumstances or a public lynching. What matters to me is that at least the public have one less criminal to lose sleep over.

In order to reconcile my conflicting stance about the death penalty and elimination of notorious criminals, I am toying with the idea of the right of the public to defend themselves, their lives and properties by permanently eliminating those who they catch as having committed violent and heinous crimes against them or those they caught as having deadly weapons at the time they were committing the crime.

While we have our laws and the police who are supposed to address the problem of criminality in our country, I believe that this problem will be more effectively addressed if there is greater public involvement.

If a person can justifiably kill another man to defend and protect his own life, the public too should have this right to defend itself and its peace. This is what I call the Doctrine of Public Self Defense.