variety. Still, give the guys an A for effort. Better that than nothing. However the true hazard of going the railway route aren’t the evil terrorists plotting to blow as many civilians as they can to kingdom come, nor is it the slow deterioration of the trains that’ll make you imagine all the worst train accidents you’ve heard of or probably seen in seedy sites like Rotten.com. Nothing as melodramatic as those. Your fellow commuters can take care of that hazard issue for you. Just take the train during the rush hour and you’ll see it in vivid colors.
It can actually be a good springboard for anthropological or psychological studies about how civilized people degenerate into mindless insects. I wanted to use 'beasts' but it's a little extreme for that kind of situation. Besides, fireflies around a light is a closer phenomenon to this. When it comes to securing a place in a public vehicle especially when the clock's ticking. The pushing and shoving when the train stops to pick up passengers is THAT bad when you notice your clothes, looking sprightly and clean before you arrived at the station suddenly turn into last week's laundry.
Sometimes the pushing and shoving reaches insane heights as men resembling ogres more than actual human beings shove women aside effortlessly like bowling pins. Pity the poor ones who actually fall down. No amount of cursing can redeem what damage was done. The perpetrators act like it never happened at all. Such is the way of life in the Philippines-- it isn't limited to the local railway system: Ride a jeep, go to the mall, and even walk in the streets and chances are you'll get behind couples who act as if they're in a perpetual stroll in some park. Never mind that they're blocking the lane and causing unnecessary delay for people who are at their backs. Me first, you later.
Those instances are just within the microcosm of the Filipino society. Don't even start with the bureaucracy. Rugged individualism skewered whatever was left of any decent values Filipinos had when? Thirty? Forty years ago? I do not have any empirical evidence to support this but the majority of people I talked to who were around during the pre and post-war years of the country said people had more discipline and manners as opposed to today's contemporary, everyman-for-himself setting. It's not like living was easier before, however the factors to making it harder to exist seem to exponentially increase with time.It's a constant struggle nowadays. Like the pushing and shoving I have to face tomorrow in the station. And the shoving the next day. and the next...and the next..and the next....the next.....
