If I were a senator, I would file the Anti-Political Narcissism Bill. Basically, this bill, if enacted into law, will ban the display and posting of incumbent government official’s (whether elected or appointed) face and/or name in government offices, on the streets, practically everywhere, even if the funds used for these are personal.

You know, even if you look OK (or even cute for that matter), I don’t care about your narcissistic tendencies. If you love yourself so much, use the toilet. The people have elected you to work for them, not for them to look at your billboards, not for them to read your name at billboards announcing that their taxes are working (yeah, that’s true, the taxes were used to have your face/name on billboards).

If you deal with government offices (whether local or national), you cannot fail to notice those grinning pictures. Government offices tend to look like museums – or worse – mausoleums (if you have seen a Chinese mausoleum, you’d get what I mean). What the hell are those for? Are we to venerate them? Maybe I should always bring candles, flowers, and incense sticks when I drop by government offices.

If this bill is passed, imagine the amounts of money saved from these unnecessary expenses. And we do not have to view their faces and/or read their names again. We will be saved from visual pollution. But that’s just me.

Caveat: the politicians might argue that this bill will violate their freedom of expression.

Anyway, I live in Caloocan, and I used to live in Manila. The incumbent mayors of both cities are guilty of visual pollution.