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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 Philippians after the war, they left surplus jeeps behind.
Locals took these jeeps, cut the chassis in half, stretched it out and created a makeshift bus.
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 Manilla 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 of jeepneys is that they have 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 Manilla, things need to change.
The jeepneys are at least 70 years old, and some are probably older.
Even if people cannot and may never 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 the traffic and pollution problems of Manilla.
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.
