I was watching a trailer for “Waiting for ‘Superman’” on Apple Trailers last night while keeping myself up-to-date with the Philippine 2010 elections.
I have come to the conclusion that even as I rip my hair out and scream bloody murder at the thought of school, essentially, I love it. I love school. LAAV IT.
I love all those Social Studies classes and World History classes that I had originally abhorred with every fiber of my half-awake being. I love every map I’ve had to colour and label, every dictator, conqueror, activist I’ve ever had to write a paper on and the teachers who have had to mark it. I love all those books and stories I’ve had to read for Reading Comprehension, all the limericks, haikus, and couplets I’ve had to decipher. I love every chemical reaction I’ve witnessed that left big grey stains all over my fingers, arms, burnt through my lab coat and made me smell awful. I love calculating the acceleration of a ball hurtling down a cliff . I love pi and I love deductively reasoning out the lengths of edges of polygons using mathematical identities.
So why the love-fest?
Because I realized my education, while half-useless, is better than no education at all. I may never need to differentiate an integral ever again, but surely critical thinking has its benefits. The sheer ability to read, to write, and more so, to understand what I read and write must have its benefits and I am so, so, so thankful that my right to an education is well respected in my country. Sometimes I feel like I can be the shittiest student and still, the government will pay to have me educated.
In contrast to that, there are places where political leaders do not realize the power of knowledge. Where government officials- public servants- are too busy covering up indiscretions in their private life to be of any use to the public. Then, they try to fix it by promising money, money, money. Kung may Erap, walang hirap. This slogan alone is a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme. It is! And even worse that it is being used at all: that it WORKS! And that it is the slogan for the same man convicted of plunder under his former failed run as a president. This man, Joseph Estrada, came in 2nd in the presidential race.
The winner: Noynoy Aquino, son of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, assasinated under Marcos’s dictatorship and face of the 500-peso bill, and Corazon Aquino, the housewife that led a revolution against Marcos, former president and victim to cancer in 2009.
I feel like the only reason he was even thrust into candidacy was the death of his mother in August 2009. If she hadn’t died, would people have been so infected with the “Yellow Fever”? I feel like there’s really no other reason he won seeing as he was so invisible in Filipino politics prior to the campaigning. It makes you question just what people are basing their decisions on. And my suspicion is in names. They’ve associated the Aquino name with all things good and the outpouring of condolences for Tita Cory on her death bed seems to be the only force that kept the momentum. After all, the apple shouldn’t fall far from the tree, right?
Back to the topic on hand: education. Why is it relevant? Well, in my education, I learned to be critical of things. I learned NOT to be a sheep. I learned to weigh out pros and cons and to look at the bigger picture. I learned not to be fooled by shallow promises of money because I also learned that literally giving money to people does not lead to a richer nation but to inflation, that horrible horrible thing that happens when a loaf of bread costs a briefcase of money. I learned that what will help are social programs, that fund education and health care, to make sure that first and foremost, your citizens are COMPETENT to work towards a better future, not hopeless, disenchanted and weary of a stupid government they can’t even trust. I learned that people who are proud of their country will do anything to keep that country afloat and will not abandon it any second they get to live the American Dream. So give them something to be proud of, not something that makes them want to GTFO asap. As much as I respect the OFWs for all their hardships, I also find it deplorable that people are the Philippines’ best commodity, some claim they’re the #1 export- people!
I think that if the Filipino voters just knew more, if they understood more, they would never be swayed by empty promises propped up on flashy pagodas surrounded by celebrities. For example, the overwhelming majority of universities, colleges, the youth and most professionals were vehemently against those two front-runners. So what happened? Who voted for those two?! There’s that saying that Democracy only works when the voters are informed. And how can that be when so few people can afford three meals a day, let alone study?
Am I being elitist? Yeah, I think this makes me elitist. Like, oh, the poor can’t vote, they’re uneducated so they must be stupid. I don’t want to think that, but I think that I do think that. Just being honest, ya know? I think I should be sorry for them, cause they’re victims to a craptastic government. But then, instead of lamenting the loss, shouldn’t we just focus on how to NOT have victims to a craptastic government by oh, I don’t know, not having a craptastic government in the first place? Weed out the Manny Pacquiaos, the Lucy Toresses, the Joseph Estradas, the Imelda Freaking Marcoses, the incompetent individuals who are just interested in being in power and not in actually serving the public.
I keep trying to figure out why I care so much. No law in effect, no idiot in office in the Philippines can compromise my rights and freedoms as I am a citizen of Canada. I am not ruled by PGMA but by Stephen Harper and his cabinet. I guess it’s like an onlooker-complex thing. You bitch and bitch about something that doesn’t concern you in the least. But when it actually does matter (ie: Canadian Politics), you proceed to fold into the fetal position humming to drown out the outside noise.