What can I say? BBC isn't deaf and mute after all. After portraying in Harry and Paul a Filipina domestic worker wearing a maid's uniform dancing before a man in an attempt to seduce the guy, the British media company has issued an apology. The apology came after several protests were made against the British sketch, most of which—if not all—were lodged by Filipinos from home and from abroad. I do not know now if BBC will decide to keep itself away from offending public sensitivity, racist remarks under the guise of humor being the most of it, in the coming days and months. I do not know now if BBC has learned its own fork in the road, respecting other cultures for the sake of decency being the least of it. But what I do know is that there's still a portion of this nation willing to trumpet its voice to distant ears in distant lands just so to defend what little dignity is left of us.
Which makes me think. Whatever has happened to the other half of this country in the face of BBC's cheap shot at humor, I cannot help but mull over. You hear of the news of Filipinos being put down by foreign hands and you shun yourself in silence. You say, who cares anyway? Or if not, you say instead, we tolerate watching our own women dancing in skimpy clothes before national television or in some obscure bar where drunk men frequent in the most unholy hours of the night, why bother ourselves with something that simply reflects the reality right in our backyard? Or still, you say for the sake of argument, sure that Harry and Paul episode has denigrated and degraded the Filipina with a loud and rude thud, but that will certainly pass like a whimper, or a fleeting whisper in the wind, and long before you know it we've already forgotten that it happened.
I cannot agree any less. I can only agree more. Things like these happen and you begin to wonder why this nation hasn't yet been erased from the face of the earth. Things like these happen and you begin to wonder how and why in the world we call ourselves citizens of a nation in the first place. Some say we are a forgetful race, and we have the reasons to become so. Parts and parcels of it have something to do with the hundreds of years we've been held captive by foreign hands. Shards of it have something to do, too, with the turbulent times decades before today that saw how a country can be literally at the mercy of the hands of a dictator. The need to forget is certainly there. But to turn your back against your own nation and forget that a petty crime that hides unspeakable montrosities in hindsight, the folly of gutter humor against your own kind notwithstanding, now that is certainly the most that one can expect from an apathetic organism, one that deserves inexistence, one that ought to give way for another being waiting to be born who's more worthy of the oxygen in this planet. Or better still, one that ought to fall with a thud and pass like a whimper. But that's certainly stretching the imagination to great lengths.
I cannot agree any less. I can only agree more. Sure, women dancing and prancing and contorting with very minimal clothing in noontime shows are reasons enough to bring heart attacks to old conservatives waiting to see the last light of their days. They certainly fill the tubes at lunch time. But that does not mean we ought to abandon altogether the need to strive for better entertainment, which is to rid these shows of perversion. While at that, it does not call upon us to let humiliation inflicted on our domestic workers be forgotten or abandoned either. Quite on the contrary, both of these things call upon us to take notice and care of what little we have left, which is the little dignity that remains in us. We have an economy swiftly sinking to the depths of the abyss. Worse, we have a butcher and a thief for a fake president. And yet we are more than willing to grovel before the plank and take the dive headfirst by closing our eyes and ears and mouth against foreigners who laugh at the thought of humiliating a race with so little riches or none at all. You let these things happen now, God or Allah forbid, there's no chance in hell it won't happen again. You let these things happen, Buddha or Bathala forbid, there's no chance in purgatory it won't stand as a precedent for future generations to imitate.
Which brings me to that unforgivable question: who cares anyway? It's unforgivable. Jesus Christ might forgive you. But unfortunately, I'm no Jesus. I'm just a private citizen who cares enough for what other nations would think of this wretched archipelago. We're already fanning the flames in Mindanao. We already have mad citizens who laugh and cry at the same time, committing harakiri by burning themselves to ashes and causing damage to anything in its proximity. We already have drug pushers who nest right smack in the backyard of police authorities. We already have a confused leader who is no less than a fake president proudly proclaiming that this nation is still strong while America is fumbling and mumbling. And the best that we can do is to ask, who cares anyway?
Imagine that.
But of course, we all have our own lives to live. We have better things to do. We still have to put food on the table. Or we still have to earn our wages. We are a deprived country anyway, we shit problems for breakfast. Thinking about what other nations think of us goes second to everything else.
Well, who cares anyway? The sound of silence is so loud you can hear its emptiness.
Which makes me think. Whatever has happened to the other half of this country in the face of BBC's cheap shot at humor, I cannot help but mull over. You hear of the news of Filipinos being put down by foreign hands and you shun yourself in silence. You say, who cares anyway? Or if not, you say instead, we tolerate watching our own women dancing in skimpy clothes before national television or in some obscure bar where drunk men frequent in the most unholy hours of the night, why bother ourselves with something that simply reflects the reality right in our backyard? Or still, you say for the sake of argument, sure that Harry and Paul episode has denigrated and degraded the Filipina with a loud and rude thud, but that will certainly pass like a whimper, or a fleeting whisper in the wind, and long before you know it we've already forgotten that it happened.
I cannot agree any less. I can only agree more. Things like these happen and you begin to wonder why this nation hasn't yet been erased from the face of the earth. Things like these happen and you begin to wonder how and why in the world we call ourselves citizens of a nation in the first place. Some say we are a forgetful race, and we have the reasons to become so. Parts and parcels of it have something to do with the hundreds of years we've been held captive by foreign hands. Shards of it have something to do, too, with the turbulent times decades before today that saw how a country can be literally at the mercy of the hands of a dictator. The need to forget is certainly there. But to turn your back against your own nation and forget that a petty crime that hides unspeakable montrosities in hindsight, the folly of gutter humor against your own kind notwithstanding, now that is certainly the most that one can expect from an apathetic organism, one that deserves inexistence, one that ought to give way for another being waiting to be born who's more worthy of the oxygen in this planet. Or better still, one that ought to fall with a thud and pass like a whimper. But that's certainly stretching the imagination to great lengths.
I cannot agree any less. I can only agree more. Sure, women dancing and prancing and contorting with very minimal clothing in noontime shows are reasons enough to bring heart attacks to old conservatives waiting to see the last light of their days. They certainly fill the tubes at lunch time. But that does not mean we ought to abandon altogether the need to strive for better entertainment, which is to rid these shows of perversion. While at that, it does not call upon us to let humiliation inflicted on our domestic workers be forgotten or abandoned either. Quite on the contrary, both of these things call upon us to take notice and care of what little we have left, which is the little dignity that remains in us. We have an economy swiftly sinking to the depths of the abyss. Worse, we have a butcher and a thief for a fake president. And yet we are more than willing to grovel before the plank and take the dive headfirst by closing our eyes and ears and mouth against foreigners who laugh at the thought of humiliating a race with so little riches or none at all. You let these things happen now, God or Allah forbid, there's no chance in hell it won't happen again. You let these things happen, Buddha or Bathala forbid, there's no chance in purgatory it won't stand as a precedent for future generations to imitate.
Which brings me to that unforgivable question: who cares anyway? It's unforgivable. Jesus Christ might forgive you. But unfortunately, I'm no Jesus. I'm just a private citizen who cares enough for what other nations would think of this wretched archipelago. We're already fanning the flames in Mindanao. We already have mad citizens who laugh and cry at the same time, committing harakiri by burning themselves to ashes and causing damage to anything in its proximity. We already have drug pushers who nest right smack in the backyard of police authorities. We already have a confused leader who is no less than a fake president proudly proclaiming that this nation is still strong while America is fumbling and mumbling. And the best that we can do is to ask, who cares anyway?
Imagine that.
But of course, we all have our own lives to live. We have better things to do. We still have to put food on the table. Or we still have to earn our wages. We are a deprived country anyway, we shit problems for breakfast. Thinking about what other nations think of us goes second to everything else.
Well, who cares anyway? The sound of silence is so loud you can hear its emptiness.
|