Accents
"I'm leaving on a jet plane..."
(Editor's note: This column should have come out last Friday, December 1, but was missed after it got misplaced. Our apology.)
I sing with John Denver as you read this, and I change his words as I please. The time has come for me to leave... I dream of the days to come, playing with the cutest granddaughter in the world, any grandmother would love to say...Yes, I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again... But every word I write, I'll write for you...
Yes, dear readers, the beloved e-mail will carry my words across eons of time and space, and when you hold this paper, I am there only a page away even if I did leave on a jet plane and on wings of a song to the heartland of America.
Forty odd columns thus far this year, and there comes a time when a journalist asks what difference did she/he make? Mine is the question; yours is the answer. Reminisce with me as I choose gems (wow!) from my own hills of verbiage (did I hear you say mountain of garbage?) what I thought created ripples in the mighty ocean of your mind:
The food we throw away
Resolve not to throw away food for as long as it is clean and safe, for as long as we can help it. Throwing it away is a crime against the hungry. Shouldn't we see how the same could be channeled to feed the needy? And there's always the option to cut off excesses by staying within our needs. Good for the purse and for the health.
Poverty? Hunger solution? It does not help any that we have a President with a doctoral degree in Economics. (Bah, humbug!) If to be recalled, then Sen. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sponsored the GATT (General Agreement in Tariff and Trade) that turned out to be an abomination to Third World countries like the Philippines. GATT's co-conspirator is the WTO (World Trade Organization) that was vehemently protested in Hong Kong. (But that is an entirely different story deserving of our condemnation.)
"The world's greatest challenge"
"The greatest challenge we face is the growing chasm between the rich and poor people on earth. There is not only a great disparity between the two, but the gap is steadily widening," writes former US president Jimmy Carter.
The disparity hits you in the gut when you picture the posh Forbes Park and Ayala Alabang mansions in stark contrast with the rickety shacks along Manila's railroad tracks. In the entire archipelago, chic subdivisions have risen cut off only by a perimeter fence from the hovels of the poor. And what cannot be denied is the pitiable hand-to-mouth existence of the huge masses of our people.
The world's largest 'ukay-ukay'
Call it a rummage sale, a thrift store or flea market version of a garage or yard sale, "ukay-ukay" is a bat for the environment. Don't just think three R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Act 'em out.
Really, one man's trash is another man's treasure. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom-fighter. Rather far-fetched to tie that up in this column, but I'll let it go considering the highly volatile political times in Bayan Ko. Put in another way, what's good for the gander ain't good for the goose. Or better yet, what is the dogged, high-sounding defender of Arroyo but a lowlife in the opposite camp. And so it goes...
Dinner and 'Imelda'
Let it be known--never ever to be forgotten--that Imelda Romualdez-Marcos was the other half of the conjugal dictatorship and just as responsible for the crimes committed against human rights during the Martial Law years. Imelda has enriched the English language with the adjective Imeldefic to mean unconscionable self-indulgence verging on depravity and degeneracy.
The other globalization
I write in praise of globalization. It's not globalization as a byword of the "corporate evil-doers." There is only condemnation for that kind. This is about globalization as the folks at the Panay Fair Trade Center practice, live by, and manage to keep going. "The Fair Trade Federation (FTF), an association of fair trade wholesalers, retailers and producers, is committed to providing fair wages and good employment opportunities to economically disadvantaged artisans and farmers worldwide." Panay Fair Trade is an FTF member... Protesters and activists must not leave unchecked the exploitative, oppressive, hardnosed practices of Big Business. Down with the globalization of the corporate elite! Long live the other globalization! Hoist the placards!
Love is not blind
Disprove the Bard of Avon (Shakespeare no less)... Cite every conceivable case where love sees all and knows all "beyond the depth, breadth and height my soul can reach," as Elizabeth Barrett Browning would have it. In the BLIND MASSAGE (Home of Expert Blind Masseurs) in one of the malls are four married blind masseurs. BLIND MASSAGE is supported by the CALL Foundation, CALL being the acronym for Center for Advocacy, Learning & Livelihood. Call this a plug for our disabled brothers and sisters who have overcome blindness to find fulfillment in their love life. Blind couples who tied the knot as binding as any knot could be by two people endowed with clear vision to take on the uncertainties of the future.
"Stockade" moms
"Stockade" moms? We do exist or did exist, past tense because others have already passed away to poet John Donne's "silent chambers where each shall find his place" -- ultimately, eventually, sooner or later. The military did not place us in the stockade, but in the almost day-to-day visits to our loved ones in the detention center of the Marcos dictatorship, we were as good as detainees ourselves... We went on with our separate lives, on our hands the metaphor of the brush to paint the varied hues of our existence on the great canvas of humanity. We the living, and perhaps the two who have already crossed the Great Divide, will continue to "ask ourselves where the sacrifices of our loved ones have led." How much did their struggle against feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism, fascism, and imperialism bear fruit? How goes the scorecard? Is theirs a continuing struggle that will finally triumph? Will the oppression and exploitation endured by the huge masses of our people ever end? Questions only time can answer.
"Supermarket" moms (in Iloilo City's wet market)
"Supermarket" moms I call them. In their hurried and harried existence, they struggle to make a life, battle the odds, go with the flow--all winners in overcoming thus far the stereotyped trials and tribulations of motherhood.
Simple folks with goals realizable through hard work, or goals already attained "with the grace of God," as one of them said. And you get to wonder if the impossible dream and the unreachable stars ever featured in their lives -- dreams that hover in the many who sit on the swivel chairs in aircon rooms removed from the din, smells, and hustle-bustle of a supermarket.
"Supermarket" dads (in Iloilo City's wet market)
These are fathers, age ranging from 45-28, from middle-age to below, all in the thick of the struggle to "put food on the table," -- a struggle that would cease only when breath gives out -- hard, grueling, and real tough unlike the one enjoyed by the privileged in society. They are typical supermarket fathers all looking forward to a better education for their children, something they themselves have not attained.
What chance will the fathers I've engaged into conversing make it to Father's Day Roll of Honor, never mind Father's Day Hall of Fame? A generation from now, will they consider themselves successful fathers when they look back down the years to their own brood from ages 45 to 28 like the ones I've just interviewed here? I wish I could dig deep for some profundity that would define the lives of these representative fathers from the mass base of the Philippine social pyramid.
A mess of economy and ecology
Scientific consensus points to man's misuse of nature that provoked and will continue to provoke its wrath unless you and I do something about environmental degradation: the dwindling natural resources, air and water pollution, the hole in the ozone layer, and the rising thermostat.
Call me repetitive, nagging, or badgering, I won't mind--for the sake of the environment. Read, imbibe, and do translate into action:
I. You shall love and honor the earth for it blesses your life and governs your survival.
II. You shall keep each day sacred to the earth and celebrate the turning of its seasons.
III. You shall not hold yourself above other living things nor drive them to extinction.
IV. You shall give thanks for your food to the creatures and the planets that nourish you.
V. You shall limit your offspring for multitudes of people are a burden unto the earth.
VI. You shall not kill or waste earth's riches upon weapons of war.
VII. You shall not pursue profit at the earth's expense but strive to restore its damaged majesty.
VIII.You shall not hide from yourself or others the consequences of your actions upon the earth.
IX. You shall not steal from future generations by impoverishing or poisoning the earth.
X. You shall consume material goods in moderation so all may share earth's bounty.
Mother Earth's ten commandments transcend race, creed, color, and nationality. As sacred as the ten handed to Moses of Bible fame.
A mess of emotions and ecology
The more we are, the sadder. Guys and gals, go forth but go easy on the multiplying... Ecological balance teeters with every additional mouth to feed. Every conceivable way to achieve a sustainable environment must be pursued. Guys and gals can start by cutting family size and grow in responsible parenthood, else ecology will become a strange word in the dictionary instead of being a byword in the 21st century. It behooves everyone to clean up the mess of emotions and ecology before we can say Long live humanity!
(To be continued)