Are We Really A Pathethic And Apathetic People?
Written on Sunday, May 11th, 2008 at 10:22 am | by Patricio MangubatWhy is it that when push comes to shove, we Pinoys step back? When faced with an anomaly such as this regime, we always cite Mohandas Gandhi’s way of doing things?
Oil companies had a field day last week, raising fuel prices by one peso. Rice traders are also making a killing. Electricity firms such as Meralco are raking billions of pesos worth of distribution charges and systems lost charges.
Smugglers are all around, partying all day, depriving millions of Filipinos of taxes which could have been used in food security and solving the high prices of power. Drug syndicates continue their operations, destroying whole families and futures of young ones.
State security agencies are decimating the ranks of people’s organizers and labor leaders. Violations of human rights and dignity are stuff of newspapers. Killings here and there, abhorrent crimes a regular thing.
Are we really that pathetic? Are we that apathetic?
While we write from the comforts of our rooms, Gloria and her gang continues their raid of our coffers, even thinking of using our money to buy out the Lopezes from Meralco. Or at the minimum, forced money from the Lopezes to fund their cha-cha come June.
Why do we think of 2010 to solve this anomaly when the times call for swift, decisive action now? We can always say, wait for 2010 because we, members of the middle class, have money to buy food. While the rest of Pinoys, don’t. Are we to wait for more Pinoys to die of hunger or take their own lives due to depression and hopelessness?
Benigno begs for an identity. He seeks a good branding. This is the time to do it. Let’s brand ourselves as a people who will not anymore tolerate the repression and oppression of this government or any regime.
It’s time for the voice of the Filipino to be heard. Twenty two years ago, we did it. Let’s do it again.
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13 Responses to “Are We Really A Pathethic And Apathetic People?”
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The way i see it…. this “branding” must come from somewhere.
Our people– the juan dela cruz and maria clara walking the streets of divisoria, of quiapo, or riding the mrt, their priority is of course their daily wage. it is that thing that puts food on the table. it isn’t that they don’t care, but i think, they broadly know what they want this country to be, but the specific strokes they don’t know.
it is like our people expect a painting, but they’re no artist. it’s up to our leaders to paint that canvas. it’s up to our leaders to know where to brush the stroke and what colors to use or what medium to use. To put it another way, what our people need is for someone to lead the way, to execute what they broadly want/define.
branding must come from somewhere… it comes as i’ve written before— when good people band together for something they believe in. they don’t protest in the streets, they come up with ideas and they make them work through the system. they don’t simply throw stones at the house, but they work to unravel the Gordian Knot of our society. it is a methodological undertaking that i believe in a nutshell is what i’d like to call, “People Power 2.0″ and it is all about painting the canvas.
The branding I had in mind was more about our ability to collectively deliver economic value, quality products/services, and reliability. Those are what build strong societies in the long run.
We’ve already branded ourselves in the past based on a political action (i.e. these Edsa “revolutions” as we call ‘em). That’s nice but we need more than that. We need to be known for something other than the way we frame our politics.
Our brand must symbolise our aspirations BEYOND politics and embody achievement in BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, and SCIENCE. It’s in these fields where long-term value lies.
We need something that would unify ourselves.
The Filipino have become both.
The poverty and injustice brought about by a system favoring only an oligarchic few have made most people pathetic. We are impoverished, both physically and psychologically; poverty is the absence of choice.
Meanwhile, failed promises of successive regimes, whether elected or installed through people power, have nulled the desire of the people to participate further in the political process, hence the big indifference. The attitude of “pare-pareho lang iyan” is pervasive.
While we live in a ‘democratic’ society, the absence of economic power to make an objective political choice, makes it undemocratic.
Benign0, I know that’s part of the equation. And I’m all for that because, truth be told there is nothing I’d like more to do than focus all my attention on business. My blog for years has been on that same road. I’m all for entrepreneurship. I’m all for private Filipinos usurping the madness of our country through private endeavor. The greatest countries in the world have been build because of middle-class endeavor: Better schools, better science, better enterprises, all private.
But that’s the left hand. That’s the most important hand.
Increasingly, I am coming to the conclusion that as we do the whole encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit, as we retake our private lives, our right hand needs to be fixed.
We need civility in country. We need a better justice system for example. How can our contracts or business agreements hold true, in a land where they can be broken, just like that? what is a man worth if his word could simply be broken? In a country where you can be tied up in court for the simplest of issues, the cost of litigation is so high, why bother seeking justice at all?
In country, the basic thing is not the safety of law or that the equality we each share under that law. Sadly, the most basic thing is that anyone with resources can manipulate Law to suit their own purposes. My best analogy is that we are like the Wild West.
The Power issue is another fiasco that for years has had no resolution. And here comes government with the threat of taking over a private enterprise “for the greater good”. I’m not for high power cost, but i for one am not convinced a take over will bring power cost down. And if people in government believe that, even if they may or may not be masking some other motive— that’s not helping. Their stupidity hurts private enterprise.
We need serious people running the show or whatever we do in our private lives will have a degree less of impact. At the same time, I wholeheartedly agree that in our private lives, we focus on raising families, in giving the next generation the best possible education. I believe people are doing just that. We need strong Filipino enterprises, of improving science through private enterprise, and it’ll survive against the wildness of our country. Our people little by little are doing that. But our right hand needs to be purged of insanity, of stupidity: we need civility. we need good and serious people running the show just as there are good and serious people doing the entrepreneurial work that will make this country rich.
jakcast,
exactly.
a huge chunk the equation is what benign0 is saying. i’d say it is 80% of it. the 20% is the political spectrum.
part of the answer to “apathy” is that our people is like a man walking in the desert. he finds a cache of water but it is a mirage. he keeps searching for real water and so far, he hasn’t found it yet. Anybody who can sell iced water in the desert will be successful.
Our people know the difference now, I think. It is why no one followed Trillanes. It is why they shrug Lozada off. It is why they are not in favor of people power, or of merely ousting GMA. They know false prophets. Our people are not idiots nor that shortsighted.
Where do we find good people? That’s in every Filipino who wants to participate in civic duty. LIke in my previous posts, it comes from establishing a political system that welcomes this kind of breed. That’s the 20%
The rest is for people to work hard in their own private lives, to endeavor to raise themselves up from their own condition.
J,
a unifier is a leadership function. we need real men running the show. (a woman can be a real man just look at Elisabeth I, etc. etc.) lets just say our crop of leaders, not exactly encouraging. They’re not exactly someone all sides would respect, even if they disagree with him.
I agree with most of what we wrote here. I like what Cocoy succinctly put it–we are lacking an artist. The masses are not artists. They need no messiahs nor false prophets. What they need are true-blue nationalists that will sacrifice both personal safety and their futures for the sake of the majority.
Where to find these leaders? Will we wait for the new generation? Or we stand up now as leaders?
@ cocoy,
Yes, leaders can make the broad strokes of the painting. But they could also make the people happy by defining some details.
‘If a picture can paint a thousand words…’ Then provide the basics: food, clothing, and shelter.
That’s what government is all about.
@ Patircio’s “Where to find these leaders? Will we wait for the new generation? Or we stand up now as leaders?”
That’s why we need to mobilize for this new party come 2010.
[…] too, is what he said here: “the most basic thing is that anyone with resources can manipulate Law to suit their own […]
People who agree with you are “vigilant”, people who don’t are “apathetic”. Nuff said.
not all are pathetic or apathetic. its worthy to note that there are groups, particularly Magkaisa Junk JPEPA coalition (a broad coalition of various organizations, that is opposing the government’s policy on neoliberalism and unbridled liberalization. Indeed they are fighting a very tough fight - opposing Japan’s corporate interests with collaboration by our govt functionaries. MJ Coalition purpose, which i believe is noble and which of us shares, is to ensure that our economy and patrimony is controlled and run by filipinos.
Because of different motives and agenda, coupled with the divide and conquer strategy of exec govt, its difficult for us to unite in one issue. if we see the unity shown by the koreans and thais in fighting these Free Trade Agreements and Economic Partnership Agreements with other developed countries (US, Japan, etc.), we would certainly wonder why we dont have balls?