I heard that the Swiss government requires its citizens to take anticoagulants (blood thinners) before long-haul flights. This is because even though the possibility of randomly dying from a blood clot during a long-haul flight is relatively small, the Swiss government doesn’t like it when their citizens die for no reason.
As a Filipino citizen, such an anecdote was just fucking mind-blowing to me. “Government” is practically a dirty word here. A person would never go to a government hospital or hire a government lawyer if they could at all afford a private one. Filipino citizens are used to the government in its present form: this massive, disgusting hulk of nepotism, red tape, smarmy politicians, etc., that takes a lot of money and gives very little back in the form of services, or anything at all. Kind of like a huge fat slob who sits in your living room and eats through P5000 worth of chips and soda every day, and pays you back in farts and blocked toilets.
Unbeknownst to this wretched population, the concept of government is actually a rather beautiful one. This is how it works, listen carefully: the citizens give the government money, and the government takes care of the citizens. Mind-blowing. I never would’ve imagined.
(time for class. tbc)
My Name Is Trinity 