Three Key Ingredients Of Prosperity And Progress That The Philippines Lacks

April 21, 2015

by Grimwald

Sorry for not having posted anything in a while guys, I had to take a short break from it all and spend a short vacation away from both my identities. However, your favorite Fallen Crusader has returned from his recent sojourn to once again ruin the day of many a delusional Filipino. Apparently, not even one week in the Philippines will PASS without anything failing spectacularly in the country. Ah well, as the official intro song of Borderlands goes: “Ain’t no rest for the wicked, ’till we close our eyes for good.” which is by the way entitled Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant.

Anyway, it was probably the third day into my one week vacation when I heard about the tragic loss of Mei Magsino. It came to me as a great disappointment and sadness that this kind of barbarity is all too common in the Philippines but it didn’t surprise me in the least. What’s worse is that as shocking as this tragedy may seem, there are other tragedies taking place across the Philippines even as we speak and that we will probably never know about them unless the victim is a celebrity of some kind. In the unlikely CHANCE that we actually get to learn anything, it will probably be too late for the victims who are probably rotting away in some mass grave where their only hope of being identified can be found in their dental records.

To be truly prosperous, a nation must at least have two of the items listed below and, unfortunately, I doubt that the Philippines possesses even just one of these traits. Of course, some loyalists will tell you differently but I can assure you that whatever they’re trying to imply, it’s either a sham, a misinterpretation or an outright delusion. Majority of Pinoys have always preferred superficial definitions over deeper meanings as will be evidenced in the following:

Peace

Just about anyone with a sense of morals will want peace. Unfortunately, the definition of peace is all too often lost too many Pinoys and it has come to simply mean “not war” for many people. This is evidenced in how President Aquino and his supporters constantly shove the BBL in our faces and intimidate us into supporting it. “Approve BBL or count body bags!” Or an approximation thereof.

However, I would like to point out the fact that there is actually a huge difference between peace and the coercive ceasefire that our government and media is trying to get all of us to support. Well, let me tell you, “peace” has a LOT TO do with the idea of safety. One can say that there is “peace” when one doesn’t have to worry about being attacked or killed. In the end, President Aquino’s statement is not about peace at all but fear.

Apparently, the current administrations definition of peace is simply caving in to the demands of terrorists. This comes with its own risks as there is really nothing stopping them from committing more acts of terrorism. In the end, there will never be peace for Filipinos is peace simply amounts to giving the criminals and bandits what they want.

Justice

Okay, you can rant all you want about Vhong Navarro but I will tell you now that his case only succeeded because he was a popular TV show star. What about Mei Magsino? What about the Fallen 44? What about the victims of Andal Ampatuan? What about the casualties of the bus hostage crisis? What about the victims of police brutality? What about the countless children who are preyed upon by sexual predators?

Then, despite all these questions, some of us even has the gall to demand justice from foreigners from the drug mules who are now on death row to demanding the arrest of foreign nationals on unstable charges. More often than not, the idea of justice for the common Pinoy is that of vengeance and vindication. Again, in another of President Aquino’s speeches, he goes on to imply that some journalists deserve their bleak fate due to their inquisitive nature (which is supposed to be their JOB IN the first place) as if saying that journalists are every bit as guilty as the criminals they are trying to expose.

Justice is supposed to be about a sense of harmony and balance as well as responsibility and accountability. Considering that the current administration so far refuses to even acknowledges its mistakes, the idea that Pinoys will even fully understand the meaning of “justice” is rather remote.

Hope

“Hope springs eternal” or so people like to say. Hope is a good thing as it supposedly gives one purpose and face the troubles of another day. However, do take note that hope alone is not enough to alleviate one’s condition. Also, hope is only good if it is a “goal” and not a “wish”.

Again though, both our government and media like to corrupt the very essence of hope for us. At the end of the day, instead of getting a goal we can work our way towards, we instead get helpings of wishful thinking. Considering the themes and plots of many teleseryes and local TV shows of today, it is not at all surprising that so many of us are trapped in a kind of FANTASY WORLD. Not the kind of fantasy world found in stories like Lord of the Rings or GAMESlike Skyrim but ones wherein the local villagers are always SAVED by a hero who somehow comes along. It never even occurs to some people that they could very well be the heroes of their own story and that it is often by working together that truly great things can be achieved.

In the end, if common Pinoys have any kind of hope for their country, it is at best merely a false hope. Instead of setting a goal and working their way towards it, they hinge things on senseless issues like Pacquiao winning against Mayweather as if Pacquiao is the only person who can SAVE them from the rampant poverty, corruption and general misery that permeates the Philippines.

Grimwald

Thaddeus Grimwald is an avid writer and supporter of the GRP website and writes his own fiction in his own Grow Up Philippines website. To check out his works of fiction, you can check the following: Hired Help.