I love “The Hunger Games”! Both the books and, so far, the movie.
Jennifer Lawrence was completely relatable and I could just hug Josh Hutcherson and tell his character “Peeta” to stop being so chivalrous and just go ahead and kiss Katniss. Off course, if he did that, Katniss would most probably stick her arrow in his throat.
I read all three Hunger Games books in my Kindle. Mockingjay and Catching Fire are due for a repeat reading. I want to re-read books I love before I watch their movie. It would be easier for me to nitpick.
Okay, spoilers ahead …
In Book 2 (Catching Fire) and Book 3 (Mockingjay), we saw Peeta captured by the Capitol; which subjected him to some very sophisticated forms of torture that resulted in him having distorted memories about Katniss. Prior to his torture, Peeta was hopelessly, irrevocably, undyingly in-love with Katniss. In most of “Mockingjay”, all he wanted to do was kill her.
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That got me thinking about the recent political scandals in my country, particularly the pork barrel scam which involved (involves ?) billions of pesos.
I can hear Carl Sagan say “billions and billions” in my head — yes Carl, billion and billions.
Of money that could have gone to the food, clothing and shelter of destitute Filipinos …
… money that could have been given over to programs that would benefit a lot of people instead of Jeane Napoles only and her penchant for expensive foreign brands …
… and, yeah, I will be so selfish here to wish the darned money had gone to my salary so I wouldn’t feel so used by the government, making me just this inch away from accepting an offer to work somewhere in the Middle East. Which, I think, has a more twisted government and social structure, but that is another story.
Corruption has been with humans for most of their history, I would imagine. Ever since humans realized that resources are scarce (whether nominally or relatively) and that one can get ahead by scamming other people. Ever since humans learned to torture and do mind games on others weaker than themselves.
Human-invented systems like “governments” or “taxes” or “PDAF” can be corrupted because humans and their malleable hearts can be corrupted.
More’s the pity. Sometimes I wish I were a computer, but where’s the fun in that?
The thing is, PCs can be corrupted too! There was this time that all my files were wiped out because of a goddarned trojan (or a virus, I’m not sure which). The difference between computers and humans is … hmmm, sometimes, I think, not much. Their programmability and algorithms will soon be in sync. In the not so distant future, an R2D2 in a distant planet will wonder at Human that created it and will probably wait for something like a “Second Coming”.
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