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WotD: Status quo
Say goodbye to the status quo, Manila; jeepneys will soon be a thing of the past.
Status quo is Latin for the way things are now or the current situation.
The English language is peppered with Latin words that are still used today.
Love ’em or hate ’em, jeepneys have been a part of public transportation in the Philippines since the end of the Second World War.
Jeepneys are ingenious.
When US forces left the Philippines after the war, they left behind surplus jeeps.
Locals took these jeeps, cut their chassis in half, stretched them out, and turned them into makeshift buses.
They’ve been the mainstay of cheap public transportation ever since.
Now, the government has plans to change the status quo.
Yes, jeepneys are dirty.
Yes, they are dangerous.
They seem to be extremely uncomfortable and hard to drive.
I have no idea how the drivers can get them through Manila traffic.
Those drivers have the talent and nerve that no driver in Canada or Japan has.
I love driving but don’t think I could drive a jeepney.
The status quo for jeepneys is bald tires, missing gears, and no AC.
The horns work, though.
The horns work very well.
You can’t fight progress.
Although the jeepneys cause everyone to wax nostalgic about how they are a cultural and practical icon of Manila, things need to change.
The jeepneys are at least 70 years old, and some are probably older.
Even if people cannot, and may never be able to, have AC in their homes, they may be able to have a more comfortable ride to work, the hospital, or government offices.
Jeepneys contribute to both traffic and pollution in Manila.
The status quo can’t last forever.
Hopefully, though, a few jeepneys will be saved.
Some jeepneys could be restored, modernized, and put back on the roads.
No matter what happens, it’s a guarantee that the status quo is not the way of the future.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 76.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
