Portrait of a Filipino as an Ugly Person (2)

"Masama ako pero mahal ko pamilya ko." "Nagnanakaw ako, oo, pero nagnanakaw rin naman mga mayayaman a." "Nagdrodroga ako, oo, ano ba pakialam mo?" "Makasalanan ako, oo, pero nagsisimba ako." "Wag mo na pahirapan sarili mo wala nang magbabago." "Pilipinas to wag ka na humingi ng pagbabago, wag kang umasa manloloko lahat yan." "Anong respeto, ang arte mo naman." "Anong mayabang, ako na nga agrabyado eh." "Oo may bago na akong kotse/motor, diskarte lang yan at waisan." "Bro ganito talaga kalakaran dito bro." "Sis wag ka na maarte sis." "Ngayon ka pa aayaw eh nagawa mo naman na dati." "Ganti ng api." "Bakit ikaw makikinabang eh ako nagpakahirap dito walang libre sa mundo." "Para ka namang bata walang inosente sa mundo." "Malaki kuhaan ng pera dun." "Madadaplisan ka ng libo-libo ganun ganun lang." "Pavictim." "Maghihiwalay rin yan." "May baho rin yan." "Demanding." "Padisente." "Ayoko tumanda bahala na mga bata kaya na nila yan basta ako magsasaya na." "Sino backer mo?" "Sino handler mo?" "Ano tinatago mo, lalabas rin yan, basta ako masama ako, oo, pero mahal ko pamilya ko."

Portrait of a Filipino as an Ugly Person

The tale of a stagnant Philippines with its long, twisted fascination with ghosts, karma, and generational trauma where the ruling class lives in haunted manors wearing caked make-up and sporting golden antique watches beckoning a hapless katiwala with one wave of their hand to quietly dispatch of a deformed infant born out of wedlock from the unholy union of one of the ruling family's sons and one of the servant girls only to be told by the local abortionist who works for the town parish priest that an insane woman wandering the plaza had recently lost a child and would probably be the secret fix everyone is looking for -- this story -- is getting old.

The more modern version of a sugarol, basement dwelling spoiled brat of the family who has power and influence in both showbiz and politics and who squandered their inherited pieces of land to buy whores, drugs, and celebrity status only to hit rock bottom when suffering from extreme drug abuse withdrawal symptoms and end up a "reformed sinner" at a local born-again Christian worship place singing gospel songs and delivering self-righteous sermons is really no better of a tale, just as tiresome, and really, really getting old.

They ask, "but what about of karma, what about of our hardships and the debasement we endured for so long that the gods favored us for by giving us the right to earn tons of money from illegal activities that nonetheless built this nation from nothing?" They ask, "how can you judge who is sinner and saint among men and why should we once again crawl back into the dark, impoverished hole we fought so hard to crawl out of sacrificing our dignity and trading our souls to fairly get out of?" 

I say to them, what is right is right and justice is on the side of the righteous only. To those who do not believe and question whether there is truly such as thing as a one true way or as righteousness, or if we are all just spinning this cycle of life together sinners and saints alike with no power to judge our fellow men, I say, the one true way exists, and we ought to know it, for if we do not, then we are simply lost. And a tale of lost travelers who never find their way home is a story no one really wants to hear.

Forgiveness Is Not One Click Of A Button Away

Repentance is not a voucher you just claim at any point. Redemption is not a given. Forgiveness is not a done deal. Salvation is a gift to be received only by those made worthy.

Heroes who have spilled their blood to reclaim the lost and martyrs who have given their lives to wash away our pain will not pop up like mushrooms nor endlessly be on this walk with us. What we have lost, is lost. And there is no guarantee that they will be redeemed.

Anything deemed important must be handled with care for they are not items instantly available to gratify our desires with one touch of a button. If we deem life to be important, then we must understand that some things take more effort than a press of a button.

So as long as we are prepared to give the required effort, then maybe we can be made worthy. Maybe we can be forgiven and redeemed. Maybe repentance can happen sooner. Maybe what is lost can be gained back because everything has been set right again, and the error in our ways have now been corrected instantaneously.

Why Paradise is Efficient

Democracy need not be an exercise in disappointing everybody. Democracy is the practice of freedom and self-governance aimed at reaching the best outcome for everybody. The best outcome for everybody is what right, just, moral, and true. Anybody on the side of what is right, just, moral, and true should get their way 100% percent of the time in a truly democratic way of life. Democracy does not need to be messy and unwieldy and slow. It should be efficient and effective as a tool to achieve noble goals. Achieving noble goals should please everyone. Democracy should be an exercise in truly satisfying everybody's higher ideals, and not of ineffective and disappointing compromises at every step that dispirits our most sincere and truest intentions.

"Filipinos are Kind"

Filipinos are kind. They are gracious. They are dignified. They do not yield. We will give ourselves the highest compliments if we talk about resilient hospitality and people-pleasing skills but one thing we do not say we are is "Excellent".

"Filipinos are excellent." We compete, we excel and we win. We are not ready for this. In terms of the greatest Filipinos who have contributed so much to the development of our country we have stopped recording at Rizal's generation, as if our soil never generated the likes of them again and the best we can ever aspire to be now if we ever still want to be excellent are to be media-trained, palatable athletes and actors.

Filipino scientists? They have to only come in public service ads and free-use images or clips where they always have to have just one look: wearing some variant of lab coats and lab goggles examining a test tube and/or a more rural preservationist attire examining mangroves at some anthropology site. Then, that's it.

The best and greatest Filipinos our minds can apparently handle now post-Rizal are sanitized, generic looking "do-gooders" who ascribed fully like trained seals to some prescribed way of being. That or be bohemian, free-living looking athlete or vlogger.

"Filipinos are kind." To whom exactly? Not to the best among us apparently.

A Second-place Finish

This post is not about politics. It is about the state of our nation. 

This year's PH SONA was like a second placer's awarding ceremony. Yes, there were improvements, progress, wins, gains, victories since the past that we all can make a show of applauding loudly for. Yes, there were serious preparations done, more care to details given, more attention to intended effects and possible consequences practiced. But no one ever dreams of a second place finish in anything. The second place podium is never the goal. A close second is still a loss. It may seem harsh to say it, but we all know it is true: unless you win, you are a loser. Until the Philippines win, we are still collective losers. We still fall short of our highest aspirations.

Should it be enough to content oneself with small victories? Should it be enough to satisfy oneself with taking small steps? Should we always humble ourselves and not ask for something better? Should we always worry about pacifying hurt feelings or bruised egos in the name of saving face or social harmony? Widespread social harmony at the expense of a single martyred life will always be an unjust equation. And we martyr many lives each day because we have just not been good enough for so long. We have been so ised to losing, that second place begins to look like a championship.

If you say there are no winners or losers in life and that we are all part of one human family, then you are probably so used to a dysfunctional family that your senses to seek a better quality of life for all have dulled. Families do not need to live with injustice. Injustice can be eradicated. Eradicating injustice need not be slow. It does not need to come in baby steps. Taking one step towards the right direction does not need to come with two steps backwards.

The state of the Philippine nation at the moment can be likened to a one time prized fighter who got lazy and cocky and neglected his training and conditioning routine for a long time, and now wants to redeem himself in one final match so he puts in the effort again to get in shape to fight, but the years of neglect have taken their toll and the ghost of the past have caught up with present memories. Unless it is a win, it's a loss.

I'm tired of us losing and being told that it's just baby steps. We've been babies for too long. I'm tired of us losing and being told it's just birthing pains. It's already way past nine months and we are just lucky we are not dead yet. I'm tired of sugarcoated ego strokes. No one ever heals from a deep wound without feeling the sting of a disinfectant and we ever want to get rid of this cancer sore on our collective psyche we have got to get used to the bitterness of some of the most effective medicines. We have to take bigger steps. We have to let a few bruised egos and hurt feelings stand without feeling the need to soothe everybody's care at every turn. 

To lead a country you need to build consensus, yes. But whoever said consensus is only built through soothing and pacifying statements for all? Whoever said that nobody can get 100% of their way in a democracy? You should be able to get 100% of your way in a democracy if you can build a consensus behind the idea that some things get 0. Is it difficult to determine what gets 100 and what gets 0? Is it imposition of some dominant view to say that one thing will be fully supported and another thing will not be supported at all? No. It just takes conviction. 

How can you have conviction against enemies and not sacrifice social cohesion and harmony? Are Filipinos even allowed to have enemies or must we be friends of all? If you make yourself enemies of some, can you still be a good person? I think it is silly we even have to ask ourselves this. For a people who put in a lot of effort to get along well with others and who painstakingly try to avoid being called a bad person or being hated, we sure can be pretty mean-spirited and hateful in our everyday dealings. 

We are, at worst, spineless cowards who are afraid of openly judging people's mistakes because we fear to be judged by others on our countless errors and yet we secretly gossip and judge and laugh at every little mistake of others just to pass the time. Then, we have the arrogance to publicly claim decency and care and consideration and that we are all only for preserving social harmony, while inviting to the table the very people guilty of destroying our social fabric in the name of God knows what.

I never understood why we have to be "gracious" to those who have caused us so much harm and I never will. I refuse to understand it because I think attempting to do so is to engage in the worst form of brainwashing which is to brainwash yourself. I don't understand why we are so concerned about reforming sinners and redeeming offenders while we so carelessly martyr do-gooders and burden so easily the best among us.

The state of the nation at this time is that of a sad second-placer who has not yet learned that champions win because they have the drive to beat the others and not because we all get trophies in the end. Unless we win, we are losers. We can all win but we have to be willing to beat that loser in ourselves.

Phony, Hack, Fake

The worst kind of liar are those who lie to themselves and believe it.

An incurable affliction of the mind begins with falsehoods that a person lets sip in to their reasoning leading to a path toward irredemption. It bears repeating that "once does not make a habit, but choosing wrong again and again will make a person rabid."

Lying only leads to more lies, and an irredeemable liar will ruin others because they have already ruined themselves. It is hubris and debased flattery of one's ego to think that redemption is afforded to all. Redemption is a promise given only to the faithful, and fulfilled only by striving to cultivate virtues.

A covenant for peace is not unconditional. It is a pact to be uphold faithfully by those who enter into it. Those who fail to uphold their part have already invited ruin, and come judgment time, the unfaithful's protestations will only fall on deaf ears. Just as how they denied the truth, so too would a liar's final bargaining pleas be rejected.