It's that time of the year again! (and i don't mean Christmas)
Well, the nth anniversary of the EDSA "people power" revolt is upon us again. Also upon us today are the revolting never-do-wells who are out in the streets making nuisances out of themselves as I write this. I saw the TV news about an alleged aborted coup (I don't know which is alleged: the coup or the attempt to abort it....) and as I drove to Megamall to pick up some infant formula and medicine, I saw that the streets were empty of life.
I got emails from a friend from abroad who is worried sick about the country given this new round of idiocy from the "people power crowd ". Oh yeah, I was there in 86, back when I was in the university. I camped out in the street, waved the flag, basically stood down the dictator's black host and helped restore democracy to the Philippines. Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.
I wish this were a fairy tale so I could write the next line which goes: "And they all lived happily ever after".
But alas, life in these pitiful islands is anything but a fairy tale. I think it is more of a contemporary passion play, with the hard working middle class dude trying his best to make an honest living ending up carrying his cross from day to day to day....
After the 86 revolt, we congratulated ourselves. Why should we not? The whole world was saying: "good show..." The commies were pardoned by Cory Aquino and they promised to behave. Cory Aquino was superwoman and she had the rare singular chance to turn things around for the better. People like Guingona were there, writing books and promising to change things for everyone.
Fast forward to 2006. I went to law school two years after EDSA 86, I passed the bar exams (no mean feat there with an average 15% passing rate), got a steady job in a law firm, married a fine woman, settled down, and we had a baby. Oh, and I continued playing Dungeons and Dragons too (well, not exactly, today, I play Gurps...)
What about everyone else in EDSA 86?
See for yourselves:
Cory Aquino, well, she weathered lots of coups and basically squandered all the goodwill she had when they kicked Marcos out. Last year, she made a singularly and spectacularly stupid decision to back the hysterical widow of a near illiterate action star who didn't know parliamentary procedure if it bit him in the banana. That same near illiterate action star came within a hair's breadth of becoming the president of this country (boy, what a real doomsday scenario that would have been....) -- thank God for small mercies! Man, I thought those good for nothing politicians who had the gall to force upon us a dunderhead for president were bad. I guess our heroine of 86 got down to their level by joining them and attempting to force upon us the dunderhead's equally idiotic wife. Great going Mrs. Aquino....I wonder what your hubby is saying up in Politician's Valhalla: my wife is now in bed with the crowd who supported the man who had me killed.
Guingona, ah, I thought he was a good guy. I even read his book about the valiant Filipino. Oh and I liked it too. Now, he's a bitter old man who spends his time yakking about how we should kick GMA out. Wish he'd just buy the farm so we'd be spared of his crap....
So here I am, 20 years later, older but not too old, and seeing that as a people, we never really moved forward from where we were in February 1986. The truth is, we Filipino working middle class professionals, businesspeople and entrepreneurs just wish the hysterical politicos and their patsies would leave us alone and give us a chance to make an honest living. Really. 20 years ago, the EDSA crowd fought for a larger purpose. Since then, we'd gotten our lives together and made something of it.
But not for the politicos and their ilk who were with us in EDSA. Sure, they're still at it.....making our lives miserable and destroying every good thing we'd worked for since 1986. I have this nagging feeling they'll still be at it in 2116.
So with this, should I even say "Happy anniversary?"
ps. As I write this, the air is rife with coup rumors. All this when we have to take Josh for his shots at the doctor tomorrow. How's a decent family going to live and bring up their kid when so many people out there just insist on acting like a bunch of irredeemable idiots?
posted by judgefob at 4:20 PM
5 Comments:
Yes. To quote a Bobby Humphries song, I'm so tired, so tired and so blue. Having traditional politicos rant and rave with no progress in sight is like tinnitis. The ringing in the ears get louder sometimes, and you can't stand it. Somedays though, it fades into the background. But it never goes away.
So true. Inggo and I are much older I guess Imee because we were there at the 1st EDSA (Inggo was in the more dangerous place where people were sniping at each other at the GMA 7 tower...) but seeing how everything turned out since then did not really give me reason to rejoice. Don't get me wrong, I think the present president we have isn't someone's first choice to run this country BUT what else do we do? I could not imagine letting another film actor run the country...
Things get a tad more desperate when you think about things like this and you have to care for a baby you've just had little while back eh?
Very true. I think you hit it on the head: the lesser evil at this point in time.... sheesh. We Filipinos have been reduced to this.....
Hiya, Imee :) Even if you were only 8 years old then it was a special time to be young. When I was 8 and Martial Law was in place I used to live in fear that my parents would not be able to come home in time for curfew. I knew, at 8, that curfew meant a siren going on at midnight and that people had to be indoors. And if my parents weren't indoors by then, what would life have been for me?
Bob, I dunno if you ever had that experience. But then, I have an uncle who joined the Kabataang Makabayan...
We grow with history.
Yes Mona, I was 7 when they declared martial law. I remember the whole day with no classes or office. The tv stations went off the air but for channel 9 which kept airing "mightor" cartoons. At about 6 pm Apo Ferdie came on the air and made his declaration in public.
I remember the curfiews and the fear. I also recall that all news programs came on at a given time only (8 pm or 9 pm).
On the lighter side of things, i also recall that some segments of society tried to clean up their act. I dunno if this was just window dressing. I recall crossing the street at avenida rizal as a kid with my dad and younger brother. This soldier walking beside us just reached out and held my hand and guided me to the sidewalk as we crossed the street. It made quite an impression on me. I didn't see that kind of behavior from soldiers or cops ever since.
Post a Comment
<< Home