HOY, PINOY AKO

Are you Pinoy? Then you might have already heard or received the latest and hottest ring tone: the GMA-Garcillano conversation.

That’s tatak Pinoy. You are not in the mainstream if you haven’t seen or heard the Anne Curtis-Richard Guiterrez video; the Alex-Ethel Booba sex video; the Mahal bathroom video, the Maureen Larazabal video and the latest is that of the President of the Republic.

Well, those are not new. Years ago, you might have been victims or accomplices to the widespread of the Erap Jokes, the FPJ jokes, the Oreta lambada at the senate, Pope John Paul II’s untimely demise (5 years earlier than his actual death of natural causes, we already buried him). Thanks to technology, thanks to communication, thanks to the power of Nokia which really connect people well, of the simply amazing SMART and GLOBE which really makes great things happen

That’s who we are now. That is Pinoy’s identity now. Anything that occurs that has political impact in our lives is usually confronted not through a nationalistic approach but through a thoughtless text or MMS brigade. Pinoy are so creative in coming up with funny text messages relative to the issues to be passed on and on like an air-borne virus.

And the sad part, we are getting used to dealing with crucial matters like that even though we already knew (from the past) that we have achieved nothing out of those means (or do we really want to achieve something?) We already knew that text brigade could achieve nothing but entertain us, yet we just keep on doing it for the sheer fun of it. Worse, we use text messages to mobilize people into marching into the streets. We know that that people power is passé already yet for the most petty reason someone out there would still shout: “let’s go to the EDSA shrine! And lo! A few who are so used to dealing with life emotionally would follow.

That reaction would last for a week or two, the longest is I think, a month of media festivities, and a dramatic senate hearing. After that, things will be back to normal. That is, we just get bored of the issue, withdraw our support, move on with our lives, then suddenly everything seems so placid again despite of the unresolved issues.

To the offender or to the victim, there is a consolation in that. That is their most awaited moment, the moment of silence (like a week or 2 recess of the senate hearing). They knew for a fact that after a brief destructive media and text festivities, all of us will forget. When the water is calm, the victim or the guilty party would silently crawl into God knows where to manipulate people, to use their power to destroy documents and audit trails, to simply remove all the valid proofs that is left but were quite unseen at first because we busied ourselves into passing some text jokes. It is all so obvious and predictable! I know that a lot out there knew the modus operandi. But who cares, really? Who in his right mind would still adopt Ninoy’s famous line “The Filipinos are worth dying for” when these Filipinos could not even define nationalism and patriotism yet knows how to text by heart and note, even with eyes closed!

That is Pinoy, we really have a more active use of our short term memory and of our sense of humour. We already have forgotten the pain of martial law that is why the Marcoses are back in power. We have forgotten Ninoy that is why other than his face being in the PHP500 peso bill and that he is the father of Kris Aquino, our kids knew nothing about him.

Well, you might say, that as I am always writing about letting go of the past, and leaving everything to God, that this aspect is no different at all. Yes, I know that. We should always adopt that attitude of “letting go,” but that is never the same as tolerance or worse, apathy. The “malay- ko-at-pakialam-ko” attitude.

I do not fear that because of these issues, the inflation rate gets too high, or the fuel price will increase, or the prices of goods will increase, then there will be transportation strike, then there would be dead lock in the negotiation, then the fare will increase, then comes retrenchment and mass lay off, then the high unemployment rate, the civil unrest. I mean, this is all a part of the process, this is already a viscous cycle in the Philippines, we already know the domino effect and we know that in the Philippines, no one has the power to stop the pieces from falling into each other. The beauty of the domino is not actually when we were able to play with it the way it should be played, it is in looking at the beauty of how the pieces would cause the fall of each other after we have tirelessly arranged the pieces standing side by side.

That is Pinoy, we find beauty in falling before the eyes of the whole world.

Yet what I fear are not those indication of economic imbalance but the effect on the Pinoy culture. It is the culture which has a lasting impact, not only on our generation but to the Filipino generation that is to come. Culture is that which we pass on to our children. It is what makes our history, it is what is written in the book. It is the set of values that makes us Pinoy and that distinguishes us from the others. It is the legacy that we pass on to our children.

And what is tatak Pinoy now? That we tackle issues through text? That we deal with the most crucial political and economic matter through People power participated by a .001% of the whole population? That our Senate and Congress hearings are no different from tele-novelas because the drama and the frankness never cease to entertain us.

Hay, I am Pinoy. A very typical Pinoy. I experienced being so dependent on my cellphone, I experienced joining the bandwagon and passing on text messages which are not very responsible, and after the initial hype, I too was guilty of being called pathetic afterwards.

But then, there comes a point in our life when we would have to say “enough already!” I am not a congressman, a senator, a president yet I can do something as Pinoy to stop all this. I can stop being the pus that little by little eats up the wound.

I stopped watching the TV a few weeks ago. I still watch Disney Channel and Nick Jr. to bond with my kids. But I stopped watching the highly sensationalized news, the tsismis and the tele-seryes. I stopped forwarding senseless text messages. I would pass on uplifting text messages. But not the text messages which would all the more wound the country. I still appreciate jokes and still would forward them to friends who needed to laugh, but not at the expense of people who recently made a fool of themselves on TV just because their early education had not equipped them well to act otherwise.

Yes, I am Pinoy, and few years from now, I will have to leave the country to welcome the challenge of the outside world, away from my comfort zone. Yet, I am Pinoy, and when I am the only Pinoy in that strange place I will choose. Nothing can put me down. I refuse to go down and be inferior. Deep inside me, I can still be a proud Pinoy because I would always remember that at one point in my life I refuse to admire the beauty of the domino pieces falling.

A dose of Vitamins for the Soul:

Look closely at a gumamela flower and see if you can still identify its parts just like when you were in 2nd grade. Be at peace, God loves you no matter what!