Friday, August 01, 2008
This Is A Call
After just spending P200,000,000 on the renovation of the Batasan Building for her State of the Nation Address, you would think our dear president would have something exciting to say. You'd think wrong, however, as the SONA was nothing more but the same old song and dance. At least text messaging is cheaper now, but only until October 2008. Maybe this will be enough to make us forget about the country's more pressing and relevant problems like poverty, unemployment, graft, and corruption, maybe not. Still, this is what we have courtesy of our dear president, at least until October, that is. Maybe it's important. She had to say it in her SONA so it must have some relevance, right? Maybe text messaging will save the country. Maybe text messaging is the future of a brave new world. Maybe not.
It makes you kind of wonder; why do we bother? Why do thousands of people still come to listen to her speech? We know it's gonna be the same damn thing every single year. What makes us believe next year's SONA is gonna be different? Are we stupid? Are Filipinos stupid? Am I stupid? I would like to believe otherwise, believe me, and I think stupidity is not the main reason for our holding on to Ms. Arroyo's every word. Nobody's perfect; we all have our flaws. Our quintessential flaw is the source of our greatest strength and our greatest weakness – HOPE. I'm sure most of you still here in the Philippines know exactly what I'm talking about. Deep in your hearts you know, you still believe in what we stand for and in what we can do as a country. You know if we put our hearts and minds to it, we can achieve anything – something.
The Philippines is dying and everybody knows it. All our dear president is doing is putting on a show; applying excessive amounts of makeup to the dying body we know as our beloved country hoping that at the time of its wake people will come and say, "Oh, look how peaceful she rests -- it's as if she's only sleeping. I remember how beautiful she once was. What a shame." Can our country not be beautiful now when it counts? Now when it would really make a difference? Can we not resuscitate her and let her continue on? Ever since 1986, I have had my own idea of what the Philippines stood for. I always thought the Philippines was a country that will not go gentle into that good night. A country that will rise up no matter what the odds. A country whose citizens are willing and ready to fight back -- inch by inch, day by day, until this country, our country, returns to its former glory. Either we heal now as a country, or we will die as citizens; a country can only be as good as us, its citizens. Let us show the world how great the Philippines can be. Some of us already did so in the past. It's our turn now.
What better place than here, what better time than now?
1 comments
Posted by shadoweaver at
hay, pagnareremind ako kung gaano na kabulok ang pilipinas, naiisip ko na din tuloy magpunta abroad kahit na ayoko.
