Philippines
I came across Carla's blog here on multiply and I have this sudden urge to unleash the 'iska' in me.She says: "on a deeper thought, have you ever thought this point in time that the end of the world is drawing near? i mean, it's just pretty darn obvious because of the fact that a lot of terrible things are happening especially to our country. if not "the end of the world" then, we might encounter an event that would break the country- total chaos, some kind of a "war". call me crazy, but i feel bad things are about to happen. the G2 explosion, Saguisag accident, the girl who killed herself because of poverty, the Congress Bombing-- these are just some examples of terrible things that just recently have occurred. and analysts are talking of a financial tsunami that would hit the country and leave a big damage. when you think about it, the country is somewhat in a state of "anarchy", full of mishmash and disarray. the day when we as a nation are able to survive from this, we can only wonder."
I agreed: "It's like the series of 'unfortunate' events are telling us something. We are in a state of anarchy because we no longer care. People are still caught up with their own little lives that they don't see the bigger picture. Their will be no 'little lives' if we continue living like this. Yes, we see the things going on around us but do we do anything about it? No. Not really. That is the sad part."
We are selfish people. (Yes, you can say 'speak for yourself' but just try to read and understand). When we wake up in the morning, what do we do? Do we pray? If we pray, do we pray for the people who are also waking up or do we only pray for another happy day ahead?
When we get stuck in traffic, do we curse each and every other people around who are causing your delay? Do we not realize that maybe there was an accident and that someone out there could already be dead? No, we don't think that.
This is because our lives and our thinking only goes as far as at most 4 feet radius. We no longer see other people's problems because we think we have too much on our plate already. We have too much issues going on in our lives that we forget what is truly important.
We do not cooperate with other people thinking that you only have yourself to depend on. There are no more neighbors, no more 'bayanihan'. I had the privilege, together with other isko's and iska's, to hear our very own historians say what they have in mind about our country. They say we are in the period of postmodernism when people no longer think as a citizen of the Philippines but as citizens of the world. Thus, they say. it does not matter if our nurses work for Americans or Japanese or their fellow Filipinos because they are working for the whole human race. This is soooo wrong. The Filipino First Mindset is what we should have and that is what I am sticking with. My devotion starts with reading Filipino works first before others.
This goes the same with the government. The politicians are too preoccupied with filling coffers before their term ends that they forget what their true duties are. Citizens are also to blame. They think that voting is too much of a hassle so they just avoid it. OR they think that the candidate who gives the most 'pakurong' (bribe) is the most deserving (because they benefited more).
I admit, I am ashamed of myself. Who am I to talk about these things when I myself have not yet registered to vote and I have done nothing but write and rant about these social and political ills.
Point is, you, who are not, should be aware of the problems. Maybe then we can move on to acting.
