The Upside of Being the 3rd Mice

“It’s the second mice that gets the cheese.” So they say.

This piece is about the third mice, though.

The third mice stood behind watching the first one get caught on the mouse trap and the 2nd feast on the cheese. Hesitation has its advantages as well. You can be bold and daring, or such a risk-taker and win the game, but sometimes being scared and saying no can do as much favor… sometimes it pays to just stay still and listen to your heart palpitating… ‘Saves the day as well.

While the world witnessed the recent disaster in Japan and sincerely expresses its deepest sympathy, I can’t help but feel distressed with the idea that tragedy can in fact strike anywhere. Regardless of the national economic status, when it hits you it just hits. You can be prepared for it but survival may not be an assurance for all. Japan being the third most progressive economy (next to China and the United States), didn’t see it coming at all, did they?

Well, with that in mind I have nothing to say except that we cannot squabble with nature. Nobody ever can. The sinkholes, the earthquakes here and there, the numbers of flood and tsunami incidents… Whatever is happening to the world these days may be beyond comprehension but one thing’s for sure, it’s the people who are accountable for all these imbalances.

To make things worse for Japan, now they would have to deal with the downside of a progressive economy probably brought about by a few of their major decisions in the past… the Nuclear Plants being one, that is.

Going back to the third mice and looking at the lighter side of it, on a Pinay perspective… made me look back at my elementary years , circa 1984, my memory serves me right, I was one of the kids in school who would join a mock student rally and would shout “NO TO NUKES!” not to sound radical, ‘got me carried away with the scare campaign led by our teacher on nuclear weapons eventually turning people to mutants. That’s all I knew back then, not that I didn’t have a choice but I remember bein’ just proud standin’ up for a cause.

If you look at it now, not the best but probably the smartest decision the Aquino regime ever made was to scrap the operation of the Nuclear Power Plant in Morong, Bataan—supposedly a response to the economic oil crisis, during the martial law regime when Marcos believed nuclear power to be the solution to meeting the country’s energy demands and decreasing dependence in imported oil. Such a visionary he is, nothing against his being a dreamer, was actually all for it except for the nukes. The Plant was completed but never fueled. Good.

Imagine how progressive our country could have been, had the Plant been put into operation. We could have been the 2nd mice. Getting the cheese though, doesn’t spare you from any consequence. Had we not been scared about the Chernobyl incident in 1986? Hmm… Thanks to the strong opposition from Bataan residents (that includes my mom) and our citizens. Among other issues raised back then was that it was built near major earthquake fault lines and close to the then dormant Pinatubo volcano. A few years later, Mt. Pinatubo erupted. Did our cowardice save the day? Definitely! Maybe!

In 2008, there was a motion to rehabilitate the Nuclear Power station in Bataan, but thank goodness the 3rd mice strikes again. Last year another Aquino scrapped bids to revive the nuclear plant. Whew! Now I doubt if someone would still ever file a motion for reconsideration on this. How about turning the facility into a six-star-hotel instead? Kidding aside, a lot of the taxes we paid went to building that nuke plant in Bataan, right? Might as well turn it into something profitably useful.

We would have not seen the bigger picture if not for what happened in Japan. It was a series of unfortunate events not even the most powerful of nations was ready enough to face the blows. Let us deal with things that are still beyond our control for now. Being the third mice has its advantage after all. Lessons are learned, only the hard way for our Japanese brethren. Now unlike Pinoy Media, Japan’s ethical broadcasting chooses not to show deaths footage brought about by the tragedy in respect for their losses. It’s better off that way. My heart still bleeds on the devastation; I can only keep on praying for their fast recovery and healing. PEACE.