Something caught my attention just a while ago. It was plain outrageous. The provincial board of Catanduanes is aiming to strike down a TV ad saying that it is "improper" and "misleading". Apparently, the TV commercial features actor Edu Manzano asking a young student the spelling of the word "remittance". The latter spelled the word as "capital L, B, C." Board Member Ariel Molina called says it is "not a good example for children". Board Member Edwin Tanael says that it "would corrupt the minds of thousands of children usually watching at these hours," meaning prime time. They even went as far as suggesting that DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus "should immediately take steps to correct the wrong message of the ad." Now if that isn't outrageous, I do not know what else is.
It isn't the TV ad that's outrageous, although I would have to agree it sends the wrong message to those who are watching them, especially so the children. Interestingly, it doesn't only send the wrong message to the kids. I reckon it does far greater damage to those whom we have installed in government seats, thinking that it degrades the intellect of the society when their actions bear semblance to what is probably the unspeakable insult to human evolution, which brings us to what truly is outrageous. What is outrageous is how these public officials have become engrossed over the task of containing the smoke but forgetting about the fire, or cutting one head off of the Lernaean Hydra only to grow back two more. Or sweeping the dust under the rug and pretending to have solved the most of their worries thereafter.
On the contrary, to pullout the TV ad is to solve the least of our worries. You quash the commercial, you don't get any deeper than the skin; you only go as far as the eyes can see. You remove the advertisement from mass circulation, you don't get any real than fiction; you only plunge yourself less than the heights and depths of your ego. You bother to tell the DepEd Secretary to "correct the message" and you only bother to attack the face-value of the real problem. Quite frankly, I do not know what has gotten into their heads, assuming they still have them intact. To say that the TV ad "would corrupt the minds of thousands of children usually watching at these hours" is to assume that our children are as gullible as those who are supposed to look after the interest of the public. At least children are still flexible enough to allow themselves to be corrected. As for these public officials, well, you know how they go.
I recall a story about Marcos. Foreign dignitaries were scheduled to visit the country and poverty swept the very heart of Manila, if not the country, at the time. Several hundred families lived right at the banks of Pasig River and their dilapidated shacks were an ugly sore to the eyes. In an effort to rid the possibility of international shame and uphold pride above everything else, huge beautiful billboards were installed as a front to the unforgiving sight. I do not know how it must have felt on the part of those who lived behind the rest of the world, literally and figuratively. "Ignored" must have been an understatement. "Walled," either. The point is that a band-aid solution is just exactly what it is: an aid. It helps to hide the wound, but it does not necessarily heal it. The same goes for pointing out the wrong in a TV ad and forgetting about the real problems it implies.
You agree that the TV ad can corrupt the minds of thousands of Filipino children, you are likewise submitting to the ill proposition that our education system reeks of flaws both inside and out. Had it been the case that our education system is doing what it is supposed to do in ways more proper than one can begin to imagine, one can not hardly say that people of the younger generation can tell for themselves if something is "improper" or "misleading". Had our education system been the shining beacon of hope that we all want it to become, one can not hardly say that people of the younger generation can correct for themselves the things that they understand as simply wrong. But, unfortunately, that is probably asking too much. Our education system may not be working as it should. After all, the provincial board members of Catanduanes are glad enough to underscore that thought for us.
Should their efforts stop then there? The answer, presumably, is a whopping no on both counts. The efforts to resurrect the education system should not end where these types of TV commercials begin. Neither should it end when all has been said, "improper" and "misleading" notwithstanding and all the rest of the tirades of these provincial board members. I do not know for certain if they are doing anything under the guise of public service, but I do know that they should do something but not the types that remind us of Paris Hilton.
If there is anything at all that can be learned from the TV ad, it is this: you get outraged by an "improper" and "misleading" commercial and not by the realities it ought to direct our attention to, whether intended or otherwise, you become no less outrageous than the things you propose.
It isn't the TV ad that's outrageous, although I would have to agree it sends the wrong message to those who are watching them, especially so the children. Interestingly, it doesn't only send the wrong message to the kids. I reckon it does far greater damage to those whom we have installed in government seats, thinking that it degrades the intellect of the society when their actions bear semblance to what is probably the unspeakable insult to human evolution, which brings us to what truly is outrageous. What is outrageous is how these public officials have become engrossed over the task of containing the smoke but forgetting about the fire, or cutting one head off of the Lernaean Hydra only to grow back two more. Or sweeping the dust under the rug and pretending to have solved the most of their worries thereafter.
On the contrary, to pullout the TV ad is to solve the least of our worries. You quash the commercial, you don't get any deeper than the skin; you only go as far as the eyes can see. You remove the advertisement from mass circulation, you don't get any real than fiction; you only plunge yourself less than the heights and depths of your ego. You bother to tell the DepEd Secretary to "correct the message" and you only bother to attack the face-value of the real problem. Quite frankly, I do not know what has gotten into their heads, assuming they still have them intact. To say that the TV ad "would corrupt the minds of thousands of children usually watching at these hours" is to assume that our children are as gullible as those who are supposed to look after the interest of the public. At least children are still flexible enough to allow themselves to be corrected. As for these public officials, well, you know how they go.
I recall a story about Marcos. Foreign dignitaries were scheduled to visit the country and poverty swept the very heart of Manila, if not the country, at the time. Several hundred families lived right at the banks of Pasig River and their dilapidated shacks were an ugly sore to the eyes. In an effort to rid the possibility of international shame and uphold pride above everything else, huge beautiful billboards were installed as a front to the unforgiving sight. I do not know how it must have felt on the part of those who lived behind the rest of the world, literally and figuratively. "Ignored" must have been an understatement. "Walled," either. The point is that a band-aid solution is just exactly what it is: an aid. It helps to hide the wound, but it does not necessarily heal it. The same goes for pointing out the wrong in a TV ad and forgetting about the real problems it implies.
You agree that the TV ad can corrupt the minds of thousands of Filipino children, you are likewise submitting to the ill proposition that our education system reeks of flaws both inside and out. Had it been the case that our education system is doing what it is supposed to do in ways more proper than one can begin to imagine, one can not hardly say that people of the younger generation can tell for themselves if something is "improper" or "misleading". Had our education system been the shining beacon of hope that we all want it to become, one can not hardly say that people of the younger generation can correct for themselves the things that they understand as simply wrong. But, unfortunately, that is probably asking too much. Our education system may not be working as it should. After all, the provincial board members of Catanduanes are glad enough to underscore that thought for us.
Should their efforts stop then there? The answer, presumably, is a whopping no on both counts. The efforts to resurrect the education system should not end where these types of TV commercials begin. Neither should it end when all has been said, "improper" and "misleading" notwithstanding and all the rest of the tirades of these provincial board members. I do not know for certain if they are doing anything under the guise of public service, but I do know that they should do something but not the types that remind us of Paris Hilton.
If there is anything at all that can be learned from the TV ad, it is this: you get outraged by an "improper" and "misleading" commercial and not by the realities it ought to direct our attention to, whether intended or otherwise, you become no less outrageous than the things you propose.
|