Of late, I have been avidly reading opinion pieces here in the MetroPost that are articulating more and more the strong concerns the writers have that life for the Filipinos may never change for the better after May 9, 2022.
One piece in particular caught my attention, columnist Michael O’Riordan’s What’s really going on? (Outside Looking In, March 6). In particular, one line brought me despair because of it being bang-on. I quote: “We seem to live in a world where people and regions are casually destroyed simply to satisfy the whims of ego-maniacal dictators.”
Despair… because I was reminded of the Ferdinand Marcos reign of terror in the Philippines during his dictatorship, and the strong possibility of a return to that nightmare.
In Canada every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we celebrate Remembrance Day, commemorating the time when the guns on the western front fell silent in 1918. Lest We Forget.
Far too many Filipinos have forgotten, or just want to forgive. Herein lies our danger.
If you haven’t read O’Riordan’s column here in the MetroPost yet, it is a must-read; if you haven’t been paying attention to world affairs, in 15 minutes you will have a helicopter view of the mess our world is in.
Somewhere in his article he writes, “I refuse to take any significant steps for any cause. My rationale today is that anything I do or say would have little-to-no-impact on the situation domestically or internationally.”
I had to reach out, and tell Michael that I disagree with that rationale. For I do not despair for long. I am a firm believer that even a small act (good or bad) can make a difference, many more acts start to show impact. Much like a pebble thrown into a pond — its ripples move out wider and wider. The bigger the pebble, the wider the distance the ripples go, many pebbles thrown in, the ripples now go in all kinds of direction.
In my life I have been the recipient of such small and large pebbles, good pebbles — my saving grace I call them, and I now hear from the young people who were my Scouts and Venturers in their youth about how we, their Scout leaders, had helped them change and focus their lives. So I do not despair for long because I have the proof. Every single one of us can effect change.
I did tell Michael this: You paint a bleak picture of the world we live in and its dastardly leaders but then, what else is there to paint?
The Philippines is faced with an even grimmer picture if we are not successful in convincing enough people that Leni Robredo, Pangilinan, Macias, Alviola, Arnaiz, Baldado are they who will give us a glimmer of hope — especially for our young people.
I appreciate your putting down your observations about how wrong things have become. It is a must-read for those who have not been paying attention. And, I discovered to my dismay — there are MANY.
This is the first time I have put my observations down on paper for publication to the public. This is not something I had planned on doing when I returned to the Philippines in November 2021, but others have encouraged me to speak up on their behalf. There is much fear. Few are prepared to put pen to paper. I do this because I can.
I am, however, encouraged in that more and more, I see opinion pieces that are pointed, and describe levels of detail regarding the rampant corruption that is now so embedded in the Philippines. In the years I’ve read the MetroPost, yours was one of the few that said it as it is. Most opinion pieces were so airy-fairy, I’d often think, “What is this person trying to say?” Sometimes they made sense, most times they didn’t.
So this is a good change. Whether you say you are now at the stage in your life where you “do not want to get deeply involved”, you have — without probably knowing it. A ripple tickled a number of the MetroPost regular writers. So this is all good.
The uninformed, uninterested fanatical will likely not know who you are talking about in your March 6 article, but even if you spelled it out, they likely still will not get it. This is why we are in such a precarious place right now because the divide between those who use logic and reason to think things through is already so wide from those who run on emotion and entitlement.
But I never give up. Because there is always someone around the corner who is prepared to effect change. It’s just a matter of rounding that corner.
And then I rounded another corner, and voilí , there was more of Michael’s insights.
If you have read any of Michael’s articles published in the MetroPost, you will know that he is of Irish descent. He claims this is what makes him a not-too-optimistic person. The Irish in me makes me optimistic (I am a descendant of an Irish American sailor from way back when), and I had to disagree with him on this one, too. Only an optimist would fight the fights the Irish fought to break away from the British. Only the optimist would sail across the ocean during the potato famine in Ireland to a land it did not know — to America. Only the optimist will fight the courageous fight the Ukrainians are waging to remain free of Russia’s Putin chokehold.
I see someone like Michael as an optimist dosed with a huge sense of harsh reality that he checks under every nook and cranny before writing about it. I am an optimist because it is my way of dealing with the harsh realities of life. A life that has collectively become harsher. Without optimism, what is the point of speaking up?
So this is what I got when I rounded the corner: Love has its cost, doesn’t it? Love of one’s country is a particularly painful attraction with complex equations.
A distinct difference is while our personal relationships impact the few, a nation’s welfare impacts the entirety. I rarely quote Joe Stalin but one of his statements indirectly applies here. “One death is a tragedy. One million deaths is a statistic.”
My Irish genetic setup prohibits optimism. The key to the upcoming election is young voters. Unless they are radicalized, and create massive levels of energy, resulting in high voter turnout, I’m afraid the result that you and others would prefer will not happen.
In this we both agree: Corrupt politicians in the Philippines have powerful advantages. Primary is that passivity is ingrained deep within the Philippine DNA. That element, combined with the controlling religions — particularly the Catholic church where the people are told since before birth to accept their misery in life because of the mythical illusion they will be rewarded after death — allow the status quo to dominate and corrupt, with no fear of reprisal. It is the opium of the Filipino.
YOUNG VOTERS, people like Michael and I may have some wisdom to share, gained through life’s experiences, but you, you have something we no longer have: you have the energy and the numbers.
Please go out and vote on May 9.
Please vote for FREEDOM, not fear and terror. Please vote for HOPE and PURPOSE, not despair and apathy. Please vote for HONESTY and RESPECT. Please vote for COLLABORATION and CARE FOR EACH OTHER, not power and control.
Please vote for people’s taxes to be used for the people, not to support the corrupt politicians’ lifestyle. This is tangible knowledge which does not need to be proven to you anymore. So please vote these politicians out!
I am now old, so same-old-same-old is discouragement in spades, but I’ve lived a good life so I’ll just deal with it. You shouldn’t have to deal with it. You, too, should have a good life. I wish this for you. But it’s yours to get there.
Diana Bugeya
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