On Life and Survival in a Third World Country

My country is beautiful. My countrymen are beautiful. Let me say that before I start the process of disassembling life here.

The game show tragedy, the stampede that killed almost a hundred and injured scores a few weeks ago was appaling to say the least; yet despite all the clamor for ABS-CBN's proverbial head on the platter, have we thought about what drove these people into such a frenzy?

Yes it was 20,000 PhP or roughly 400 USD. Let me ask you now, would you kill for it? Will you at the minimum, be willing to risk life and limb for it? Or ask a relative to do so? Then what,why, how?

Yes we are poor. There are a lot of us who work overseas to help our families. There are families who migrate in search of greener pastures. Those who have remained try to eke out a living, those unlucky toil to salvage self esteem and what is left of their pride.

We are a proud race. We may have been bound to slavery in the past and servitude in the present, but we have a quiet dignity in our suffering. We keep our humanity, and we keep our sense of self.

I could not help but shed a tear as I saw the footages on television. Then it turned to anger as I saw people unwilling to leave the scene, hoping to somehow still win the prize money for being one of first three hundred to enter.

How have we allowed it to go this far as a people, as a society? To be desperate and destitute enough for our compatriots to allow themselves to be debased in such a manner. No, my dear friends the fault does no necessarily lie with the network giant. It resides within what we as a nation have allowed ourselves to become, what we have allowed our leaders to steer us into.

The collective desperation is nothing new, there have been innumerable poor everywhere since the dawn of time. Hence the irresistable lure of fortune and wealth. There might even be some who will argue using the pyschology and mechanisms of mobs. Then again, why did it become a mob in the first place?

We need to address the growing sense of hopelessness that was centric to the issue. We as a nation and a people need to wake up and become more accountable.

I am no fan of the show nor the host, but hey, they were honestly trying to help. Before everyone goes asking for crucifixion, have you asked yourself what you have done for your neighbor lately?

I have tried to keep this blog apolitical - I failed.