Politically Flavored (May not suit your taste)

Consider the specified posts from the following blogs:

Liquid-Packets ("Why We Are Not Out in the Streets")
Musings of a Muse ("SSSSSShhhhhhhhh" to "Virus in My Brain")

Reading posts like the ones in those blogs above always make me think. I think about the superfluousness of my life --and even my posts --that I go a-frolicking when perhaps I should be doing something more substantial or be part of something pivotal. My life is shallow really, and merely pleasure-driven, when I set it beside the lives these people live, dedicating them to a worthy cause as seeking for the country's emancipation from the pitfalls of Third-World status. And I get compelled to sit in a silent corner in my mind and ponder once more on this complicated and twisted political mess that is my country and the forces that are constantly shaping and shifting it. I wonder who are really on the side of the people and true economic progress and who are really just self-indulgent and power-hungry, and who are the fronts and the pawns and who are the true players and movers in this never-ending game. I had been narrow-minded and perhaps somewhat naive to believe the one side of a probably polygonal conundrum.

I was immersed in that world for a while, and I slowly became convinced that theirs is the righteous cause. It all seemed to fit in a logical way, the pieces of information I was given. I learned to despise capitalism and its extreme manifestation, imperialism. It seemed true that my country is a slave of the capitalists, a mere pawn in the cutthroat world of competitive free trade. It is exploited of its resources ever so cheaply and made to buy the finished products at a far more expensive price, under the protection of the label "imported". At the microcosm, the laborers and other low-class workers are being paid too disproportionately to the toil that they wield; the masses, deprived of the most basic rights that the government is mandated to provide and protect. I was far from completing the puzzle, but the pieces were making logical sense as they were handed to me.

But my single-minded determination to get to the ominous bottom of the matter was to be cut short. I was shown a different angle of the story, perhaps not as polemic as the other, but one that still made me pull my head back out of the crimson waters and consider. It seemed to proclaim a far more encompassing reality: that not everyone can ever amass wealth in colossal proportions and live in comfort, that in this world, there will endure an economic hierarchy, an affluence gradient, which will preserve the words "rich" and "poor" indefinitely.

However, that does not bid bad news apparently, since anyone, anyone can and by all means transcend their economic situation if they put in the necessary effort. For had not a lot of people started from nothing and came out millionaires, or if not, at least living more comfortably in the end? I took a look at certain prominent figures in society with such backgrounds and at the backgrounds of some of the people around me. I looked at my own family, and sure enough, we had similarly undergone the hardships of striving for a more economically secure life.

One supposed reason why there exists an economic low class, why there are impoverished people, is these pe:ople's attitude towards their state of living. Some blame fate or leave it up to fate for their luck to change. Some make unwise and lazy decisions, for instance, selling their land in order to grasp a fleeting sum of money in a more effortless manner, instead of breaking sweat to till and eke out a small, but sustainable and sustaining living. Then there are those who incite their ambitions and attraction to the modern life that they flee their relatively secure but uneventful lives in the countryside and venture into the unfamiliar cities and end up broke and penniless.

Ambition and attitude are the culprits of poverty, I was told, not the government. The government, flawed as it is, does its job nevertheless, serving the people's interests to the best of its imperfect abilities. It does reach out to the farthest recesses of the islands to build schools and roads and bridges. Not the best quality education it could give, but gives education it does. I was told off to stop focusing on the negative aspects and give more credit to the little good things that do happen. The repatriation of foreign workers from Lebanon, is a good thing, is it not? The media may present unbiased information, but it is a big business enterprise, nevertheless. Bad news seems to have higher viewer stats, and they capitalize on those figures for profit. That could be one of the main reasons why one mostly hears of bad news, not because it's all that ever happens in the world, but because it is what the media plays up, however subtly or unsubtly.

And there's some more, quite disturbing this time. Activism and countryside rebellion against the government is a front, another perspective says. It is a front used by certain opposition figures to stir unrest or to unsettle the government for their political agendas. Where do these activists obtain their funds? Where do the rebels get their guns? The common people, too, are said to be also using activists' cause for their personal intentions. Say a guy named Procupio is complaining of being landless, so he joins demonstrations demanding for apportionment of land to certain aggrieved citizens. But then, Procupio was allotted a piece of land, so he goes home, happy. When his activist friends invite him to another street rally for the cause, Procupio was not to be seen again.

I, exposed to be truly ignorant of the real issues by this time, have no answers. I am at a loss now as to who is really on the honorable end. And I may try, but I know I can never tap into the core and find out the truth for myself. What little I may know is likely to be already wrapped in layer upon layer upon layer of distortions of the truth. It has come to the point where I don't anymore know what to believe. Is democratic socialism really the solution? Should we move to change the economic system of the country? Or should we learn to cooperate with the government this time than continue to go against it?

I do not discount the idea that capitalism contributes to poverty. It probably does. All Third World countries are testaments to that. All Third World countries are exploits of the world's richest and most vicious capitalists. Capitalism encourages some degree of freedom in the acquisition of wealth, but it tends to eliminate the small-time players out of the picture. Democratic socialism rewards each according to his labor and control the state's assets and wealth. That's about what I know about it. Will it transcend communism, which just about failed to hold in most countries that established it (North Korea, an existing exception)? I have yet to be enlightened.

There is some credence to cooperating with the government to achieve progress, but what if that government is really not aiming for that and is really just submitting to its capitalist masters and pinching from the coffers while putting up a circus of endeavoring to steer the country economically forward?

It's basically a this-or-that situation, and then some. But in the end, what all of us really want is to see this country haul itself out of its miserable economic hellhole. In the face of ongoing and extensive brain drain and rampant colonial mentality, I still believe that nationalism and patriotism has not totally died in the hearts of the people. We merely want a substantial reason or a handful to be proud of the country. And no, boxing conquests and international beauty pageant crowns are NOT substantial reasons to feel nationalistic pride. These victors and queens are merely citizens or else descended from the bloodline and have not at all achieved anything more substantial that can contribute to national progress.

No. True national pride emanates from the transcendence of national crises. The end of Third-World status. The end of poverty. The end of illiteracy and unemployment. The reign of justice. The successful conservation of natural resources. The extensive encroachment of modern technology. These are the true victories that should stir national pride. Celebrating anything lesser in the name of national pride is farcical.

There is one more achievement that should be on the list: true national unity. We have been tolerating our national discord for too long a time. We have allowed our mentalities to become as archipelagic as our islands. It's not a bad idea to try working together for once, even if it's just to get a feel for once of what unity is like. Then things might get a little easier. Then it might become a lighter and happier burden to toil for progress. Then we can be truly proud of ourselves and of this country. It's a big dream, but if we share it in manageable pieces, it just might become reality.