Haba haba jeep

I saw this passenger jeepney while on a stopover at a gas station inside the North Luzon expressway. It is the longest jeepney I have ever seen.

When I saw it, the first thought that came to my mind was how long does it take for this jeepney to fill up with people . Does it take off even with just one or two passengers? What if people are in a hurry?

It is possible to make the jeepney bigger and longer, but still, I don't believe that it can ever be a solution to our transportation problem.

The jeepney is not an engineering marvel that we can be proud of. It is inconvenient, poorly designed and inefficient as a mode of mass transport. It is also a major generator of pollution.

The kind of transportation system that we have says something about us. If the jeepney has become a national icon, it is because  it is how we adapted to a weak and even corrupt government that can not give us a better alternative.

We were among the first countries in our region to have a rail transport. How did we lose it and ended up with the most backward transport system? It is time that we do something about it.

Let us have a real modern mass rapid transportation system. As for the jeepney, let us try to use our imagination to evolve it for other uses.

Night magic

View of a riverside community at dusk as seen from across the Guadalupe Ferry Station

Night is usually a metaphor for gloom.

But sometimes night can bring out the beauty of something which is otherwise plain or even ugly in broad daylight.

Such is the magic of the night.

Fake Japanese Stores

Isn't it cheating when a store is given a Japanese name but then sell products mostly made from another country? This is like faking a whole store to ride on the good image of Japan.

Caveat emptor.

Philippine Map