Last Septemberfest in Las Vegas I was confronted by one of Catbaloganon from San Francisco about my being so sensitive about the word “racket”. This happened a year ago when I was communicating with Ricky i Manila via YM and the first word that come out from my friend Ricky “Kumuzta ano a racket mo dyan?” A baton ko ano a kasirig mo ha akon kawata? Though I realized latter that he met no harm all he was asking ano a job ko.
Now ano a implication hine? Racketeering is the act of operating an illegal business or scheme in order to make a profit, perpetrated by a structured group. It is a broad category of criminal acts that includes bribery, sexual exploitation of children, and illegal gambling, among many others. Racketeering is closely associated with organized crime, since both are conducted by groups.
I might have over-reacted but I come to reallized the implication of the words we are using in our daily lives and using the word racket to replace hard and honest work for me is beyond comprehension. This implies how we loosely interchange words and how we take corruption as acceptable and as common as in our daily lives. Correct me if I’m wrong let not let this common words be so common to our children and our kababayans that it become self fulfilling.
So when I cut our conversation with Ricky and somewhat lecture him about corruption I meant it and I meant it hard that “Honest and hard work should be the foundation of a good society.
