So What

12:49 pm

May 03, 2009

Msg 1 from Arbiz*: Daug si Pacquiao asta lang round 2 (Pacquiao won, it lasted only ‘till two rounds).

Msg 2 from Erraine*: Nanu man. Daw agi si Hatton. Eww. (What the hell, Hatton seems to be gay. Eww).

Msg 3 from Bisay*: Go Filipinos! Pinoy talo ang Britons. (Filipinos defeated the Brits).

*names of the senders are modified. Some contents are also modified since the writer erased the messages after he has received it. But it is somewhat close.

So what if Pacquiao won over Hatton?

So what if Mr. Manny won another suitcase (probably two suitcases) full of money?

So what if his mom is in the United States when he was fighting?

So what if Gloria did not watch the fight?

So what if Martin sang the National Anthem? (By the way,Mr. Nievera is a great singer.)

So what if Mayweather Sr. insulted Pacquiao?

So what if there are live telecasts everywhere in the country?

So what if Pacquiao won over Hatton?

So what?

Ladies and gentlemen we Filipinos are united this time, every time, Sir Manny is in a match. United for petty entertainment and petty gambling. For a few minutes (his match doesn’t usually exceed an hour) we stop everything, we wait, we watch what we call ‘the fight of Filipino pride’. I am not against Sir Manny, neither against the sport. I am against the die hard, dying, deceased, and almost 50-50 fans of this addicting entertainment.

It seems to fascinate me that most Filipinos agree to stop their jobs, turn off their computers, turn off their faucets, and stop watching the other television in the other room for a few minutes in order to watch him punch a foreigner. When well in fact, few did help commemorate the cause for earth Day (which for me is more important than a fight of one person).

I wonder why Manny binds the Filipino closer and more intimate. Maybe that’s why he ran for congressman last election for he thought he could unite a congressional district. He may unite the nation for a good ten minutes when he’s inside the ring but he could never unite General Santos City for four years, the people surely knew that. That’s why he did not win.

I am not blaming Mr. Pacman for being a great athlete, I am blaming the Filipinos who have been obsessed by this no-cause games. To wit, my father just forgot his work and just laid up on the couch to watch Manny. I mean, tatay usually isn’t the type of person who stops work for petty things, but this time, he did. Maybe what Manny does is not a petty thing. He stops a country’s market economy!

What’s wrong about the picture is that the Filipino people don’t clearly see ‘what to see’ and ‘what to observe’. We don’t observe earth day, Earth Week, EDSA Commemoration, the triumph of a cultural performing group abroad, the research of a UP professor, the natural habitats of rare species and the invention of a Filipino. But we observe the so-called ‘racist’ (as we culturally egotistic Filipinos tag it) scripts and lines of tv sitcoms in the US, the inhumane boxing matches, the dirty impetuous statements of politicians, the every dirty politics of our country, the superstars and their star spelunk life, and the what we call ‘trouble with the minority’.

We don’t even realize the even bigger problem that faces us. Instead we turn to petty quarrels, petty suicidal attempts of people who are clearly not in capacity to help our country and ourselves, and stupid pun jokes on shows. We lack the sense of realization. We don’t realize that the problems we see are much, much shallow compared to the world is facing (and what we should also face). Parang wala lang A H1N1 sa mundo kaninang umaga.

We are bothered about the scripts of some sitcom. Its just pun joke ladies and gentlemen. They put it there to give justice to what the character is. Then if you put some unwanted meaning to it then, people would see it on your side and there comes the endless argument of the non-existing racism.

We are packing up boxing matches and abandoning arnis de mano bouts. We are queuing for concerts of Akon, Rhianna, and Secondhand Serenade, when we forgot Joey Ayala, Pinikpikan, and other traditional artists. We seek thrills in the roller coasters; we forgot the games of our country. We ogle reading Harry Potter’s adventures and watch Lily Moscovich’s show, when we threw away the collections of poems in Karay-a, Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Iklocano, and Bikolano. We moved with hip-hop, crumping, and jazz, when we stepped over ethnic, traditional, and rural dances.

We flock to malls, instead of museums and art galleries. Very sad.

We lost ourselves to modernism.

To another culture.

You say that the problem is the government, well, think again. Look in yourself if you had done those things, and ask yourself,

Did I even bother to think before I watched?

Did I even bother to think before I reacted?

Did I even bother to think before I do some things?

Did I even bother to think before I flicked the switch from news to buzz?

Did I even bother to think before I judged my fellow Filipinos?

Did I even bother to think before I threw another stone at the government?

Did I even bother to think before?

Did I even bother to think?

Did I even bother?

Did I?

Think Filipinos think.

*and think before reacting to this post. This is just one commentary. Mostly personal, none political. Thank you.