Broken Windows

In another site I wrote something about broken windows, a social phenomenon described vividly by Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point. I suddenly thought about it again when I passed by Manila High School in Intramuros on my way to the nearby Manila Bulletin.

In what used to be the canteen area of the school (as I knew it eons ago) were broken windows, literally, and nobody seems to mind. Each and every glass pane, I noticed, is broken.

I assume that it all started with one pane, then another, because no one gave a hoot until practically all the panes are now broken.

When I was holding office at the Phoenix Building (beside the Bulletin) in the seventies, my friends and I used to have lunch at the Manila High canteen (that same place with all the broken windows). Of course, the simple reason is that we enjoyed the "student meal" that goes with a "student price", siyempre.

Back then, I suspected that many students had more baon than most of us did in the office so we took advantage of the "privilege" to partake of the food served to students, which was not bad at all.

In fact, if my memory serves me right, a special section was reserved for the faculty and "guest" diners like us. The canteen was the OJT of students learning the rudiments of cooking and restaurant services like table skirting and table setting.

It saddens me to see that old place deteriorating simply because no one seems to mind. I wonder what the school principal is doing. Maybe raising both arms in surrender?