Moving Forward?
Like what Manolo said, it has become a battle of the Epistles. Helga is doing her share of stoking the flames against apathy. Most about anybody straddling the political spectrum either have been enboldened by the barbarism with a pretty face put up by GMA and her sychophants or gotten more fed up by the political howl of the anti-GMA groups.
The battle is everywhere even in my alumni yahoogroup. In response to a classmate who is anti-GMA but who believes that we ought to move forward, I had posted my own epistle to my fellow batchmates from St. Jude. His posting and my response:
"I was never a fan of GMA, but I share the same sentiments as the writers. Couldn't have expressed it any better. I think we should adapt Toyota's new ad campaign "Moving Forward" as our contry's slogan. Enough of the bickerings and lets all think positive. Kaya natin to! Dollar today is 50.93. Isn't that encouraging? As I've said before the silenceof the silent majority is most deafening. My apologies to Atty."
My response:
You are entitled to your opinion as much as I am to mine.
Unfortunately, I do not share your view of Moving Forward for the simple reason that democracy is more than putting food on the tableor seeing the peso appreciate against the dollar. If it were so, Cuba would have been one of the best democracies in the world since it is reputed to have one of the best health care systems in theSouthern Hemisphere.
I agree that we ought to think positive. But if it means to ignore the corruption of this government, hide them under the bushel and move on with our lives, I am afraid I cannot agree.
If your friend's child was murdered and you know who murdered the child, do you tell your friend, think positive and move forward? Will your friend not go the extra mile and see that the murderer be brought to justice? And while going about seeking justice, he minds his everyday chores but with the firm belief that justicewill one day be done.
That is the same outrage of one who voices his opinion against GMAand does something about it. Life goes on and yet the passage of time does not forget the deeds of GMA, nor should economic progress blind us to the fact that she is a liar, a cheat and a thief.
Unlike Jean Valjean who admitted his wrongdoing, GMA denies she is all of the above and goes about insisting that she is the best person to lead the country. How then can we or she even speak of reconciliation when she herself denies the existence of sin and spurns the peace of God?
I am just curious. If the country is doing badly economically, will one agree with those who go out to the streets, justify the political noise, and pray for her reign in government to end? Or will one also tell the country to forget about it and move forward?
I know that some of us are not fans of GMA and I know that many of us do not have the luxury of rallying against her. But having no such luxury does not automatically mean that we should stop clamoring for justice.
You do not need to go to rallies although that would be most welcome. There will be martyrs, there will be leaders and there will be followers. What is needed is not to let government propaganda cow or fool us into toeing their line. And Moving Forward is just one of the many government soundbytes that abound today. We are like the frog that is being boiled ever so slowly to death without even knowing it.
So, who is the greater fool? The fool who insists on the truth or the fool who puts blinders on his eyes and trust this present government to do what is morally right? We dream if we believe in the latter.
In essence, to summarize the position of the silent majority, democracy has become a function of the economy, i.e., since the economy is doing very well, forget aboutGMA's corruption and crimes and lets move forward. Sounds very practical but unfortunately, very amoral. What does that teach our children? And again unfortunately, what does that speak of our values?
Indeed, apathy and indifference, former sins, are the new virtues of this age. They are the weapons of mass distraction foisted by the government. That notwithstanding, Dante has reserved the apathetic and the indifferent to one of the lowest rungs of hell.
My apologies.
The battle is everywhere even in my alumni yahoogroup. In response to a classmate who is anti-GMA but who believes that we ought to move forward, I had posted my own epistle to my fellow batchmates from St. Jude. His posting and my response:
"I was never a fan of GMA, but I share the same sentiments as the writers. Couldn't have expressed it any better. I think we should adapt Toyota's new ad campaign "Moving Forward" as our contry's slogan. Enough of the bickerings and lets all think positive. Kaya natin to! Dollar today is 50.93. Isn't that encouraging? As I've said before the silenceof the silent majority is most deafening. My apologies to Atty."
My response:
You are entitled to your opinion as much as I am to mine.
Unfortunately, I do not share your view of Moving Forward for the simple reason that democracy is more than putting food on the tableor seeing the peso appreciate against the dollar. If it were so, Cuba would have been one of the best democracies in the world since it is reputed to have one of the best health care systems in theSouthern Hemisphere.
I agree that we ought to think positive. But if it means to ignore the corruption of this government, hide them under the bushel and move on with our lives, I am afraid I cannot agree.
If your friend's child was murdered and you know who murdered the child, do you tell your friend, think positive and move forward? Will your friend not go the extra mile and see that the murderer be brought to justice? And while going about seeking justice, he minds his everyday chores but with the firm belief that justicewill one day be done.
That is the same outrage of one who voices his opinion against GMAand does something about it. Life goes on and yet the passage of time does not forget the deeds of GMA, nor should economic progress blind us to the fact that she is a liar, a cheat and a thief.
Unlike Jean Valjean who admitted his wrongdoing, GMA denies she is all of the above and goes about insisting that she is the best person to lead the country. How then can we or she even speak of reconciliation when she herself denies the existence of sin and spurns the peace of God?
I am just curious. If the country is doing badly economically, will one agree with those who go out to the streets, justify the political noise, and pray for her reign in government to end? Or will one also tell the country to forget about it and move forward?
I know that some of us are not fans of GMA and I know that many of us do not have the luxury of rallying against her. But having no such luxury does not automatically mean that we should stop clamoring for justice.
You do not need to go to rallies although that would be most welcome. There will be martyrs, there will be leaders and there will be followers. What is needed is not to let government propaganda cow or fool us into toeing their line. And Moving Forward is just one of the many government soundbytes that abound today. We are like the frog that is being boiled ever so slowly to death without even knowing it.
So, who is the greater fool? The fool who insists on the truth or the fool who puts blinders on his eyes and trust this present government to do what is morally right? We dream if we believe in the latter.
In essence, to summarize the position of the silent majority, democracy has become a function of the economy, i.e., since the economy is doing very well, forget aboutGMA's corruption and crimes and lets move forward. Sounds very practical but unfortunately, very amoral. What does that teach our children? And again unfortunately, what does that speak of our values?
Indeed, apathy and indifference, former sins, are the new virtues of this age. They are the weapons of mass distraction foisted by the government. That notwithstanding, Dante has reserved the apathetic and the indifferent to one of the lowest rungs of hell.
My apologies.
posted by Edwin Lacierda | 10:17 AM
4 Comments:
Amazing! This has got to be happening to HUNDREDS of yahoo email groups. My two La Salle related egroups have exploded in heated verbal warfare over this whole thing too. My god, old friends calling each other names and arguing in flame wars over just the things you are talking about here Ed. "Apathy" being one of the main flash points between those who are antipathetic, apathetic and sympathetic to Gloria with all the shadings and dimensions.
BTW we're having a discussion of Alan Paguia's observations on 1017 and 1021 over at Philippine Commentary. Give us the benefit of your considered opinions Counsellor? In particular am trying to get the meaning of "whenever it is necessary" in the Commander in Chief provision. thanks.
By the way, here was my response to some pro-apathy guys after an Atenean, Manoling Morato sent an email to the DLSU archersnook email group:
The Good Manoling Morato
Feel free to use it because I'm already cutting and pasting your response to the moving forward guy into archers nook. haha. (it was good. Cuba! hehe. I've been using the analogy to Uganda and Somalia.)
Bravo! Apathy really distorts thinking; apathy is just plain laziness.
Gloria Arroyo is one great strategist. She is employing divide-and-conquer tactics to fullest, just to hide from the truth. The people are playing to her tune. Brilliant!
Too bad not every one is fooled.
No, moving forward is not about forgetting about GMA's corruption and crimes. We will come to that. She will not be president forever.
Moving forward means offering a better alternative. Moving forward is giving us guarantees that things will not turn for worse. If these are not met, we, the silent majority will just move on. YOu do what you want to do but don't count me in. I've been there before. When Marcos was ousted, there was a battle for spoils. When Erap was ousted, everybody wanted a slice of the pie. And us, ordinary Filipinos we were simply used by these politicians. Nothing has changed since then. I doubt if anything will change if ever GMA is ousted. It may even be worse for we don't know what lies ahead. We could even fall into a civil war.
We are as passionate as you are about our country. So let's move on away from civil strife. Move on by not allowing ourselves to be used again. Our moving on is not apathy nor indifference. It is neither helplessness. For there is another way.
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