An amazing week!
The only problem I personally had with the killing of Osama Bin Laden last Sunday was that it sucked up the air out of all the events that occurred during the past week that I had considered writing about. But given the enormous significance of the breaking news that Obama-got-Osama, I won’t quibble. Instead of focusing on one topic, I’ll just cover them all.
I do not recall a week that was packed with more significant events. Let’s review.
On Wednesday, April 27, Pres. Barack Obama released his long form birth certificate that conclusively debunked the malicious allegation of billionaire buffoon Donald Trump and the lunatic fringe “birthers” that Obama was not born in Hawaii but in Kenya.
On Thursday, April 28, killer tornadoes struck six states in the US south killing 342 people and causing thousands to lose their homes. When Pres. Obama visited Alabama the following day, he described the devastation the worst he had ever seen. In fact, it was the worst tornado tragedy in 80 years.
On Friday, April 29 in the Philippines, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez submitted her resignation to Pres. Noynoy Aquino averting the need for a costly time-consuming Senate trial that was set to start in 10 days, and paving the way for Pres. Aquino to appoint a competent Ombudsman not subservient and loyal to the past president. This resignation proved convenient for most members of the Philippine Congress who are traveling to Las Vegas to watch the Pacquiao-Moseley fight on May 7. Now, they will have more time to enjoy their Vegas vacation.
On Friday, April 29 in London, Crown Prince William Mountbaten-Windsor married commoner Kate Middleton in the wedding of the century (only 11 years into it) that was viewed by an estimated 2 billion people. The estimated cost of the wedding is $32 million (including $434,000 for Kate’s wedding gown!), in these frugal times, less than the $48 million spent for the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
On Saturday, April 30 in San Francisco, whistleblower auditor Heidi Mendoza spoke at the University of San Francisco (USF) about the arduous work of ridding the Philippines of corruption as she outlined how she uncovered billions of pesos of fraud in the budget of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Heidi disclosed to me that she had received job offers from Washington DC where she spoke Thursday at the World Bank Institute which sponsored her speaking tour of the US. But she declined all offers to return to the job Pres. Noynoy Aquino offered her as a Commissioner of the Commission on Audit.
On Saturday, April 30 in Las Vegas, the We Are One Filipino Summit is held at the Monte Carlo Hotel attended by youth supporters in the US of the Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation that aims to build 700,000 homes in 7000 communities in 7 years throughout the Philippines and to end poverty for 5 million Filipinos by 2024. Special guest speaker at this event is Vice President Jejomar Binay, reportedly a relative of Osama Bin Laden.
On Saturday, April 30 in Washington DC, before exacting the US revenge on Osama Bin Laden, Pres. Obama exercised his personal revenge on Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner by mocking the Donald’s presidential ambitions. Referring to Trump’s decision to fire actor Gary Busey instead of rock singer Meat Loaf from his reality TV show earlier this month, Obama quipped: “These are the types of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir.”
On Sunday, May 1 in Rome, the late Pope John Paul II (Carol Wojtyla of Poland) is beatified as “Blessed John Paul” in Rome at a solemn mass in St. Peter’s Basilica (attended by a million faithful outside the church), the final step before being canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.
So what event could top any of these?
The one that will be remembered decades from now, long after all the others have faded from memory, is the Sunday killing of master terrorist Osama bin Laden by US Navy Seal Team 6 under the command of Pres. Barack Obama. “Justice has been done,” Obama said.
Contrary to the image of Osama as hiding in a cave somewhere in the mountains of Waziristan in Northern Pakistan, Bin Laden was found living in a million dollar “mansion” in Abottabad, a suburb of the capital city of Islamabad, just 1000 yards from the country’s West Point.
Ironically, but perhaps symbolically, Bin Laden was killed on the same day that Adolph Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin on May 1, 1945. May Day is usually celebrated around the world as International Workers Day but may also now be commemorated as Mass Murderers Day.
But it was also ironic because on the same day that the world was celebrating the beatification of a man who devoted himself to peace on earth and religiously following the Ten Commandments, much of the world was wildly celebrating the violation of the Sixth Commandment not to kill.
Sign of the times. The most popular T-shirt that was selling online on Monday was not of Blessed John Paul II or the Royal Couple William and Kate but of President Obama saying, “Sorry it took so long to get you a copy of my birth certificate. I was too busy killing Osama Bin Laden.”
(Send comments to [email protected] or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800).
