By Apolinario Villalobos

In the jungle, tribal communities help each other in getting to their destinations through signs using broken twigs, heaped rocks, seeds left along the trail, etc. Other telltale guiding signs come in the form of sounds such as those made by currents of rivers, waterfalls, as well as, direction of wind, position of the sun, etc.

In the highly civilized world, a person gets his direction from road signs and street names, aside from landmarks. In the not-so-civilized communities, pouted lips pointing to desired direction are used aside from the universal “finger pointing” if there is a language barrier. For the fortunate stranger whose language is understood in a strange community, there could be verbal exchanges.

Unfortunately, all of the above become useless when the forests are suddenly denuded by unscrupulous illegal logging activities resulting to floods, creating new rivulets that dry up in time. On the other hand, in the civilized communities of lowlands, vandals deface street names and road signs using spray paints. Some even go to the extent of changing the direction of sign posts.

Directions are important as they lead us to where we want to be at the most convenient and safest way. And, that is how a nation should be led by one who gives correct directional signs not tainted with selfish motives… as bungled directions can lead a nation to a disaster.