Books are Evil

Books are evil. They are very addictive. Once a person picks up and opens one, he is put under its spell. The moment he starts reading, he is powerless to stop and put it down until he finishes reading it.

Reading alters the mind, one will start imagining things, go to different places and meet new people. At times, one may even begin to ponder about life itself and develop new ideas and become aware of the world around us. Indeed, books are bad for everyone.

That is why our clever government, the Department of Finance in particular, decided to keep books away from you and me. Starting March this year, government imposed duties on imported books. No more free importation of books. Custom inspectors will now have the sole authority to determine whether books could contribute the education, cultural development and well-being of Filipinos. These type of books are charged 1% duties. If Mr. Inspector thinks a book does not belong to this category, the importer must pay higher duties to get his items. By the way, it takes time to do this sorting thing so Mr. Importer must also pay for the handling and storage fees of the books.

Thank you people in the finance department for this directive. You have single handedly saved Filipinos from the bad effects of books by making books potentially unavailable and unaffordable for them. Now, only the elite who could afford it and have the opportunity to read books. Books are bad for people like you because they could make a new generation of ordinary Filipinos who could question policies like this one.

Let those Filipinos who cannot buy imported books make do with those produced locally but contain factual errors and twisted point of views.

With people like you in government, do we even have to wonder why we continue to lag behind our neighbors in terms of education.