Our Shared Humanity

Written on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 10:24 pm | by cocoy

Perhaps it was cooking steadily before, but since 9/11, our world has been gripped by a plague. This plague strikes not on the flesh but on the psyche of the human spirit. More and more, political and religious ideologies matter more than the people we grew up with, who we share common blood with, who we worked with, who we shared meals and holidays with. In short, our differences are more important than our shared humanity. I don’t just speak about the religious zealots from every strata that clearly, this plague striking humanity is seen in them. I speak about the very same disease affecting each and every Filipino. I speak about this disease eating away at our spirit whenever the search for truth is placed in such religious fervor that it blinds people into thinking that this is all there is. With equal weight, this disease eats at the spirit while those in power seek at all cost, to hide the stench of their greed.

Not just today but going back decades, our politics has been unwavering with all the crisis about “truth”, of corruption, of graft and accusations flying to and from all camps of the political spectrum. Even as the Administration of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently and proudly waved statistic that the economy is on the mend, is on the rise, the press is blazing with rice shortages amidst this great economic rise. Ironic, don’t you think?

And once more, unto the breach, dear friends, Poverty is thrust as an issue of great importance, as if it were any more important or was less so than in years past.

I have to ask: with the same intensity, as when people marched for Truth, would you paint “Make Poverty History” on a T-Shirt and march down the street, wearing that shirt with thousands of your fellow believers and yelling at the top of your voice that slogan?

You know, say all you must about Bill Clinton, he got it right when he said: “Incapacity is a far bigger problem in poor countries, and feeds corruption”.

Our people have this inability to do anything creative to change the dynamics of the game. We realize that many of our leaders will not do this because the status quo works for them. Many yammer about the truth, yet refuse to take the necessary step forward.

Would you believe, we do this seasonally? We speak of rice shortages, and poverty and in a few months, of excessive flood, and lack of school buildings. It happens like clockwork. We speak of the need for truth, but stop to do anything about it. We speak of hope, but it becomes self-evident that those words come from yet another false messiah.

I asked you, would you paint “Make Poverty History” on a T-Shirt and would you wear it while marching and exercising your God given right to Free Speech? We might forget though that such slogans tend to fade in the wash.

The most obvious answer, is the answer of Capitalism. And as cynical as it may sound, why don’t we make wealth compulsory? If everyone was rich, wouldn’t that solve so many of the world’s problems? Don’t you think?

There are many dimensions to development. The means to achieve development starts with first and foremost, economic growth. It continues with education, and good governance. And ultimately our goal is a healthy physical well-being, and just equally, an environment with which to enjoy the fruits of our labor but more importantly, we must enjoy human rights and the need for our diverse cultures to flourish. In short, our goal is that what makes life worth living.

Often, we mistake poverty with just simply the absence of material wealth, of hunger of the body. Poverty is the absence of creativity, of human achievement, if not more so than the hunger of the flesh.

Successful communities and organizations have three things in common. First, they have broadly shared accessible opportunities. Second, there is a shared sense of responsibility for a common Enterprise (a common goal) and third, they are communities that make you feel that you belong.

More than ever, our country needs to think in terms of what our future should be. How are we to shape that future? We need to rethink our old strategies. We need to establish the foundation for new systems to work.

To fight apathy, we need to open up our politics, to allow for the creation of political parties that are inclusive of every Filipino because we need every able bodied individual to take an even greater responsibility for our future. It can not be just from a select few, or the old boys’ club. To meet the challenges of the future, our politics need new blood. Thus we need Political Parties that engage our people not just in the sham grassroots initiative we do today, but to allow the mechanism to choose from them our future leaders. We need political parties with a vision of inclusion, to thrive on the diversity of our people. We need true parties that would live or die based on support from the shared vision and commitment of their membership.

To create opportunities, to meet the diverse and unknowable challenges of the future, we need to establish an educational system that encourages creativity. We need educational systems that inspire people to think, to challenge convention, to push boundaries. We need our children to learn not to fear failure, but the courage to learn equally, why they failed and to pick themselves up. In short, we need risk takers and thinkers!

We need to reduce the complexity of our government’s bureaucracy. To bring our house into order, we need to reallocate resources to be able to maximize the potential of our limited means. If that means to enable every town, every province the ability to provide basic healthcare, basic education, basic security then we must.

We need new systems in place that encourage accountability and to know that the only accountability there is, is to ensure that our future generations will not want materially but more importantly to enjoy a life worth living.

Our future needs serious thought and the passion to make our future happen.

Are we done with our zealotry? Are we done with our compulsive need to self destruct? Are we done being sycophants? Are we done yammering on the street, exercising our right to free speech but forgetting how to freely express our creativity, our genius? Are we done with mindless rhetoric, and endless gossip? Are we done spreading a false gospel of hope?

The future will happen, whether we want it to, or not. It has happened in every generation since the dawn of our race and will do so, unbroken. Our war isn’t with poverty, isn’t against graft or corruption or the search for truth. It isn’t even about our leaders’ greed. My point is simply this, the day we put our shared humanity over our differences, the day we put the future before anything else is the day we start to bring about real change. Easier said, than done? You bet.

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About The Author: cocoy is a twenty-something neoliberal, Linux & Mac user, technology geek who enjoys a good cup of Coffee and who believes in New Media. He hangs out on twitter as @cocoy and blogs at Big Mango.

Filed Under Politics, Society

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