About that survey

LAST week, the local media was momentarily driven to distraction over the results of a survey titled “The State of Southeast Asia 2021,” resulting in headlines such as “Most Filipinos disapprove govt’s Covid response,” or words to that effect.

I would like to believe that is an accurate characterization of public sentiment, as it aligns with my own considered opinion that it is nearly impossible to write a sentence with the words “Interagency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases” without including the phrase, “brain-addled dinguses.” However, a closer examination of the survey reveals that the media reports are rather misleading. I would say, “angled so hard they’re folded over on themselves,” but I work with people, so I’m trying to be nice.