The Wanderer and His Shadow: Our country is in a state of depression

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Our country is in a state of depression

"Leadership is the other side of the coin of loneliness, and he who is a leader must always act alone. And in acting alone, accept everything alone"
-Ferdinand E. Marcos

The scandals that have wrecked our country has been going on for days now. The scandalous tapes, the jueteng payoffs..I never liked Arroyo even on the first day she took office. Her thirst for power, using the resource of our country to boost her image, never made her popular. i see her as someone who has a lot of pretensions. the philippines just had a president worse than the actors who run for public office. we have in here arroyo, a president who wants to become an actress.

everywhere you go, you'll see her billboard reminding people that "GMA Cares". At one point in time, she has transformed her image to that of actress Nora Aunor, doing press releases with actors and actresses, appearing in TV and movie commercials reminding people that she is the incumbent. that she too could be the "actress" that everybody should love. she has just placed the public office in an abyss putting any moral integrity away. She failed to give guidance to the people. The government is no popularity contest.. if it is, i might as well start advising my cousins to stop taking school and just be an actor. For being one would mean more chances of being the president of our country.

just how estrada charmed the filipinos, gloria doesn't seem to have that skill... last election, i could have voted for an actor, the late FPJ. A ruler doesn't necessarily need to have all the brains or education in the world. One could rule with common sense alone. Gloria, boasts of a Ph.D. in Economics telling the people that life with her as president would make life better, and yet, I could not feel the slightest sign of having an increase in the quality of life. Thousands of nameless people die everyday with sickness and yet have no access to medicine. Medical treatment has become a luxury so expensive that it went beyond the reach of millions who are still below the poverty level. Who would you rather choose, a president who wants to become an actor, or an actor who wants to become a president?

I believe what our country needs right now is someone who is not a politician. Politics has been killing our country. The culture of corruption can never be stopped if the person sitting up there is tainted with one. Corruption is inevitable in our government where the system of check and balance is flawed.

To give the opportunity of doubt, probably there's something wrong with our culture as well. The "crab mentality" is what I hate most. I do not see the joy in another person whenever their friends succeed. Everybody wants to pull everyone down. five years working in this country and that is what I observed. The culture of selfishness exists everywhere, and it is with this culture that our country also failed to succeed. Our Asian neighbors' sense of patriotism never fails to amaze me, people there works not for themselves but for a common goal. Japan and Korea are best example of people living for the society rather than for themselves. They work for the betterment of the society. Their love for their country makes them proud to be a Japanese or a Korean. They see foreigners in their street and they scornfully look at them. Filipinos see foreigners and they befriend them, thinking that they have all the $ to spare. The 1997 currency devaluation bought a lot of businesses down. Koreans went their own way and voluntarily sold their dollar savings and sold gold jewelries to neutralize the effect it has bought to their currency. We plunged deeper because people here, speculating that the peso would lose more value bought more dollars thinking of personal gain.

The chaotic roads of our country also seem to depict that idea. Everybody is in a hurry, but you'll never imagine people cornering others at the whole stretch of EDSA because they want to move ahead. Because they could not forgive themselves if the other drivers (who of course also wants to arrive to their destination at the soonest possible time) went ahead faster because they want to be number one. They want to pull others down. They want to always move ahead even at the expense of many others. If Filipinos just think not of their own self but of the bigger picture of letting others go ahead for the benefit of the traffic system, then there won't be any chaos in the roads anymore. If only bus drivers would think about the greater good rather than their own profit, maybe they should stop loading at the middle of the highway and let people learn to walk a little bit. Maybe we would not be implementing a lot of crazy traffic schemes anymore.

If the same thing happens all over again, maybe, our President doesn't really care about her image anyway. for in the annals of our history, Macapagal Arroyo would best be remembered in shame. Someone who wants to be always right. Someone who thinks of personal image and has no sense of direction. An honorary president who disregards HONOR. History and the people could always hold her accountable for her action. and the country suffers with it.

The problem in our country of having too much politics is already there and has never been resolved. Perhaps we ought to look at ourselves now, change what culture we have to work hard not only for ourselves, but for the people around us. Think about the GREATER GOOD. I think we ought to start thinking about the bigger picture. because time waits for no one. and before we know, it might be too late.

We should start thinking about others, our neighbors, and our society, before we can even start thinking about the world.