LEFT, Gary Hart and girlfriend, Ms. Rice. The photo was taken when the two partied in a boat called Monkey Business. It was not a luxury cruise ship. MMDA Chairman Tolentino made news yesterday when two groups surfaced and brought plunder charges against him in the Ombudsman. Tolentino said the charges are just political harassment, coming from someone who was defeated by his brother in the last mayoralty race in Tagaytay city.
Last Sunday, President Bill's Clinton's only daughter Chelsea got married to Mark Mezvinsky, whose father, an ex-Representative in the state of Iowa, was jailed for fraud, a la Nigerian bank scam.
President Clinton, while in office, almost got impeached because of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, " I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky," fame.
The other day I wrote that I await more scandals from the past administration to be unraveled by the present one. But it seems that political forces are trying to thwart the success of the Aquino administration and pinning scandals into Noy's own political appointees.
We should remember that MMDA Chairman Tolentino exposed the payola and is now hell bent on eliminating the "colorum" buses along EDSA, and to impose coding on license plates 7 and 8.
Secretary Singson, meanwhile, has been accused of illegally dealing with Pagcor while he was the President of Maynilad.
Remember Gary Hart, who ran for President of the U.S.? He was trounced in the primary when a picture of him with a young girl in a yatch appeared in the dailies. Monkey Business was the name of the boat.
Then, the Governor of New York State, Eliot Spitzer had to abruptly resign when it was uncovered he was dating a high-prized call girl.
Sex and political scandals have always been staples of societies and governments. London politics and society, in particular, is famous for such kinds of scandal. The Royal family is one great source of this kind.
A misdeed becomes a scandal only if the party/parties concerned are well known or what we call "celebs." Holywood abuzz with scandals which are so commonplace that they are already considered part and parcel of its glitz.
Locally, we have the Kris Aquino-James Yap state of affairs mirroring Hollywood.
But if we, unknown people, get embroiled in a messy situation, would it be considered a scandal?
A scandal is defined as " 1 a : discredit brought upon religion by unseemly conduct in a religious person b : conduct that causes or encourages a lapse of faith or of religious obedience in another
2 : loss of or damage to reputation caused by actual or apparent violation of morality or propriety : disgrace 3 a : a circumstance or action that offends propriety or established moral conceptions or disgraces those associated with it b : a person whose conduct offends propriety or morality 4 : malicious or defamatory gossip 5 : indignation, chagrin, or bewilderment brought about by a flagrant violation of morality, propriety, or religious opinion
So, it seems that if no one knows or if just close family knows about a person's misdeeds, or lapses, violations, etc which offend established moral conceptions, then these are not scandalous at all.
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