A few months ago I spoke with one of the first people I’ve ever met who had truly given up on the Philippines.
He doesn’t vote, he is convinced nothing good happens in the country, and he is 1000% convinced that every business down to the carinderia has to bribe and cheat in order to get any kind of success. He makes a good living and takes loving care of his family. But outside the border of his family and friends? He couldn’t give a fuck and is itching to leave.
I’m a member of some programming groups on facebook. The other day someone posted a government agency’s request for proposals for online services amounting to P300k+, a service I heavily use myself, declaring how f’d up the Philippines is. Most agreed and the hate was deep. I looked hard at the paper though, and couldn’t tell that anything was wrong with it, and so did a few straggler comments brave enough to go against the grain and who were promptly ‘shouted’ down at. I’ve been dealing with government clients for years and I know A.) P300k is NOTHING – that’s just half a department’s office supplies budget, and B.) most of them talk about COA all day everyday, afraid to lose their pensions should anything be amiss.
Recently someone made a Fuck the Philippines rant and it is what it is – an all out shotgun rant at anything and everything, including I think his own life and presumably everything that’s made him come to where he’s at and his beliefs.
Believe me there’s a part of me that agrees, especially when I was younger, and I would certainly have made that rant myself then. Oddly however, despite my best efforts I’ve actually grown older and wiser, and here’s what I think.
1.) First of all, the enemy is at the top.
Our country’s administration is what it is due to decades and decades of voting corrupts and incompetents into office. There is no way Pharmally or Flood Control can happen without the bigwigs knowing about it. If you were a supervisor you would know if one of your staff was taking bags of money and your choice is either look the other way or take a cut. The fact no one has been charged today even if we all know who the instigators are is proof without doubt that the dirt goes all the way to the top. That’s not to say we should just give up chasing the bottom feeders. They are just as guilty, but if the top people are not made to pay in some way there won’t be an end to this.
2.) Second of all, there’s a theory going around that the reason why the Philippines has no mafia or organized crime is because they’ve all run for office, and I wholeheartedly believe that to be true.
We all live in a society where, except for a few shining exceptions, most officials are performing at the absolute minimum. They’ll keep the streets paved, chase after petty theft and occasionally give bags of sardines and 5kg of rice because that’s what the public sees everyday. But pro – active measures like a walkable city and public parks? Better street and modern traffic design? Modern schools, health care, job opportunities, anti – gambling measures, higher wages, social safety nets, pwd care, welfare for teachers and police? That requires hiring professionals and if there’s anything corrupts dont want its smart people figuring out how bad things are.
Corrupt LGUs will give just enough but never introduce anything that might make people realize they were entitled to these things in the first place. That is why the few performing public officials are relentlessly under attack. Good government officials often expose the corrupt so the corrupt spend their budgets on internet troll farms to attack them rather than actually doing something progressive.
3.) Ok so third of all, and here’s where I’m diving into my own feelings.
I love the Philippines. The Philippines isn’t just my neighborhood, my job, my life and the people around me. It isn’t just the government. It’s not just my LGU and it’s certainly not just Manila. It is a wide expanse of multicultural, multilingual, multi lifestyle environment that is as diverse as the heights of mountain province to the white sand beaches of, well, literally any province that touches the ocean and every lush patch of green in between.
To me, it is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. And here’s the part where I sit behind a desk sipping coffee with a sign that says ‘PROVE ME WRONG’.
The little I’ve seen of it makes my heart skip, and I’m absolutely positive this is the one unifying thing that all Filipinos can agree about. There’s just no disputing it.
I agree with the Fuck the Philippines guy. For better or for worse, we are born here and we did not choose to be born here. But surely we could have done worse! Imagine if you were born in the desert. Imagine being born in a place where you have to stay indoors snowed in 3 – 6 months a year. Imagine being born in a place you have to work 3 jobs to stay alive or where there’s already so much hatred and bigotry amongst the locals and then having to assimilate yourself into such a society by migrating there. Imagine living in a place where you can be deported or arrested for the flimsiest of reasons, for the color of your skin, not speaking their language or speaking negatively about that government.
Meanwhile, we are living in a literal tropical paradise! Where you can grow nearly any plant you want, allowing us to grow and farm almost any type food in the world. There are millions, billions of people worse off. Countries both rich and poor that are far far far far worse off.
And if you agree with me and I’m sure you do, the next logical thought would be: FUCK ANYONE TRYING TO TAKE IT FROM US.
4.) Now my fourth point – China is trying to take it from us.
Or at least our fish, our oil, our copper and any other thing their resource hungry industries need. I don’t think they want the whole country, just our resources. And China is doing it via its agents, specific Senators and the VP, none of which deserve to breathe the same air and enjoy any of the things we enjoy as Filipinos, all of which deserve none of our respect let alone our vote.
What would I do if I were the Chinese government? I would make sure, via propaganda, that Filipinos see nothing but the worst of their country and countrymen. I would make Edsa traffic seem like the end of the world. I would make the flood control issue appear to be a reflection of all Filipinos. I would convince Filipinos that they are too incompetent to be capable of running their own government, that since we have no bike lanes we are a loser country and should just give up. I would introduce a sense of deep helplessness.
A metric for success would be 50% for convincing Filipinos that every carinderia has to pay bribes to make any success and making Filipinos so cynical that they would make announcements like ‘FUCK THE PHILIPPINES’ on social media.
100% success would be to convince Filipinos to not vote because, what’s the point? nothing will change – and that, that is the death of the Philippines right there.
If China propaganda can convince Filipinos it is useless to vote, then they’ve won. Without firing a single shot, just like Sun Tzu said.
5.) What would I do if I were the guy I talked about at the beginning of this post?
I noticed they don’t go to museums, they don’t go around the country, they will always speak ill of it and its literally painful for them to say anything good about it. That can be remedied.
I don’t pretend I have his ear. I doubt he’d listen to me let alone read anything I write especially this long. But it’s important to realize the Philippines is far more than what you can see and touch with your hands. The Philippines just like any country is different things to different people, so while it may seem negative to one it is shining light for someone else. Knowing that wouldn’t you even be curious to know what people like about it? If people find something beautiful in something you find so ugly wouldn’t you be the least bit curious to understand their point of view?
There’s also something that everyone should not forget, and that is this. Just like North Korea and Russia, there are no elections in China.
For all its high speed trains, bleeding edge technology and so called ‘law and order’, the Chinese have no choice who leads China. As a result, similar to what happens in almost all societies throughout history the leadership is composed of old rich men, detached and invulnerable living in luxurious accommodations, with zero idea how it is to live any other way, deciding things like what people should wear how they should speak, how much should they be taxed, what they’re allowed to see and hear. They operate with zero accountability to the people they oppress. The only thing they fear is the endless power grabs within their circles and so that’s the only thing they care about.
The fact we can choose who leads us every few years is a luxury to all oppressed peoples around the world. This is a right that is deprived from countries bigger and smaller than us, one that we take for granted by not using.
There’s no doubt about it though. The Philippines is a no – impact, no effect inconsequential country with complete dependence on others. The perfect result of having officials just working at minimum effort. Our President