Newer and better world
MANY of our friends think that our main problem today is the perceived lack of intelligence in politics, economics, culture, and other spheres of our national life.
It is easy to agree with them especially if we see daily, endless displays of apparent stupidity and lunacy that assault the senses. It baffles us that practical things and profound projects are denied us a people to make our lives get better — be it about work, study, shelter, health care, transport, art, and so on.
The problem with this way of thinking is that it completely forgets or makes us forget about the logic of the problematic present, and unfairly blames us, the victims, for the outcomes of the prevailing logic.
I refer, of course, to the different permutations of the logic of the status quo: Trickle-down economics; “austerity” and neoliberal policies of privatization, deregulation, privatization and denationalization; dreams of free competition; dynasties and traditional politicians; of political superstars and celebrities. We have been told — repeatedly and forcefully — to completely trust them, their logic, and their intelligence.
Take mass transportation, for instance. We are a people always brimming with energy for study and work, but we lack modern means of public mass transportation. The current logic and current policy, however, favor private transportation and private mass transportation. Metro Manila is both a witness and victim to the daily mess of waking up early and going home late just to hitch on rides. If we complain, the problem suddenly becomes about our values (why don’t you wake up early like five hours before school or work?), and not about the problem per se (why don’t we have adequate public mass transportation?).
Despite evidence that private providers (businesses actually) cannot provide adequate and timely means for Metro Manilans to go about our daily lives, they are allowed to own and dominate our buses, trains, and roads. The so-called “mass rail systems” of LRTs and MRT are decrepit and decaying — despite our billions in taxpayer money going to their private owners, private operators, and private maintenance providers.
It baffles me to witness apologists defend this hopeless arrangement and without any fair hearing, shut down any discussion of alternatives like having our own public mass transportation system, or having our taxpayer money build our own trains, our bus lines, and even our own jeepney fleets. The logic of private greed almost always prevails: Never mind the public, never forget the private — or big private interests in transportation.
Just a few days ago, farmers came marching from the provinces to Manila to remind everyone of the lunacy of feudalism that prevails where they live or try to live. It is already 2017 but the bright boys and girls of the Philippine state, still refuse to freely redistribute land in a program of genuine agrarian reform.
It is not as if feudalism and private plantations and private importers have been successful in lifting millions out of poverty. It is not as if we now enjoy the adequate and cheap food supply they promised us before in exchange to keeping the landlords, importing food, prioritizing export crops, and encouraging big plantation owners.
And then, there’s art too. Despite great limitations like limited theater screens, limited screenings, and limited state support, we saw in last year’s MMFF what the future of cinema looks and feels like. It won’t happen again this year, not so much because the great directors and artists gave up on us. It won’t happen against because the state, big producers, and big theater owners have decided (on our behalf and in our name!) that the MMFF would go back to its old style of churning out formula. The MMDA, the big producers, and big theater owners cannot take any more “risks” — and they have judged us Filipino moviegoers and out artists as a hopeless bunch.
Which brings us to Whang-Od whose Cordilleran tattoo-making craft can only merit state recognition in an international trade exhibition. For the status quo, no mention is necessary of the right to self-determination of the people she belongs to, and the right to their ancestral domain threatened incessantly by profit-seeking mining. The status quo would “showcase” a Cordilleran artist who willingly signs a waiver of rights, but would find it criminal that Cordillerans would come out in their traditional garb to decry killings and development aggression. (This is worthy of mention: A trade department minion told off a critic to stop pestering them because because supposedly the state went out of its way to honor the Cordilleran artist. But the truly relevant issue here which she missed is that when and why should the Cordillerans honor the trade department with the honor and beauty of their culture, only for the state to commercialize and have them sell off their land?)
Which brings me to this point that a newer and better way of looking at ourselves and our future should be possible. But this can only be done if we reject the profit-oriented nature, and poser “intellectualism” of the status quo regarding the issues and problems we face as a people. Only when we get to be brave enough to tell the elite and the privileged to stop their lies and deceit, and humble enough to look at and listen to the common aspirations of farmers, workers, professionals (OFWs included), and entrepreneurs who comprise our democratic majority.
A century ago this month, something like this happened and a people built a nation in their own image and a future they wished for themselves. Those were “ten days that shook the world,” as an author described it. Who they were, what they accomplished and exactly how they did it remain an inspiration to dreamers of a newer and better world.