Eyesore

I thought I had seen the last of political billboards and advertisements months ago. After all, it has been a year since the 2007 local and national polls and it is still almost two years to the next elections.

Surely even our own local politicians have the grace and the delicadeza to give the politicking a rest and concentrate instead, at least for the next year or so, on doing the work they are supposed to be doing for the electorate that had put them in office.

Well, it appears that I have given our politicos here too much credit. For as these pictures will show, they apparently have no qualms at finding any opportunity, even if it is in obvious bad taste, to engage in vacuous political grandstanding and propaganda even if under the guise of public information and education.

One wonders why the people of the province have to regularly endure the sight of the larger than life images of their provincial officials, perfectly coiffed and with arms joined, raised and linked in victory when I am sure they would rather be happier to see them working behind their desks or going about the province and attending to the needs of their constituents. That would be the best political advertisement of them all, wouldn't it?


And who is spending for all these billboards? If it is the poor taxpayer then enough said. No one fancies having his face rubbed in his own (pardon the profanity) shit. If somebody else is paying for them then well and good. I just wish that the money should have been spent for something better, something which does not visually pollute or unnecessarily clutter the landscape.

But then I may be speaking out of turn. Politics today is, in many ways, like show business. A politician's public image is often more important than the man he truly is. Image and the public persona is everything and the truth is often lost amidst the bells and whistles, the tinsel and glamor of the "packaging".

Truth and illusion, reality and make believe. In game of politics, as well as in the larger contest that is life, choosing which sells easier and better is, more often than not, a no-brainer.

The latter almost always wins. Well, almost always.