Selfies in rallies, why this millennial apathy?

FOR heckling the anti-ASEAN protesters up on his office and posting his feat online with a selfie complete with a millennial peace sign and wide smile, Eljohn Mark Licup is now an online sensation.

His post has been shared over 40,000 times, garnered 177,000 likes and still counting. It also earned criticisms from netizens sympathetic with the rallyists, who turned his selfie into memes carrying poems and quotes of thinkers from Brecht to Zizek who criticized this kind of apathy and attitude.

I am cautious about writing about this dude. After all, Eljohn is a private citizen, a young man who might just be displaying his millennial/ postmillennial attitude of taking things lightly. So for him, that rally against Trump and against ASEAN was just a prop to air his biting one liner.

When a protester with a microphone asked have we gotten jobs that the government promised, he shouted "MAGSIPAG-APPLY KAYO! HIRING KAMI!" (Go apply for a job! We're hiring!) I'll talk about this attitude that's prevalent among millennials and post-millennials. Social awareness among this group is gone.

In its place is social media apathy and attention-seeking. It's a kind of attitude that is centered on the self, empowered by the smartphone (such an ironic name for a device) to push the need for attention through garnering likes and comments.

No matter how trivial or serious the circumstance, the attitude is to strike a pose and say I'm in the middle of this and loving it. But Eljohn's pose and post, and the comments it gathered is something else.

It's a display of insensitivity to make fun of protesters who were blasted with water cannons and sonic boom device that may cause damage to hearing, is just plain insensitive. To merely brush the rallyists as lazy for not applying for ness hovers after burying a dear companion. When he checked his phone, there were four miscalls and one text message. The text message came from Carol, his cousin saying “Manong, maykan to dagasen your puppy, a bi-eyed husky.” He was being asked to get a puppy, and he was amazed because he has not asked her, neither does he know that they have a Siberian husky, neither did she know they just buried a dog. He had to check his phone twice to make sure he was reading it right. So he calls and tells me about this phenomenon and I said “only God knows and it can only be God.” As William Shakespeare writes “Trifles light as air work displays an ignorance of our current state. As one netizen points out, that vantage view of the privilege fails to see that poverty is tied up to a system that makes them poor.

A system where education is a privilege, people are just part of a supply chain for contractual work, and communities can be demolished to be replaced with malls, subidvisions and factories. It's a wonder how this "educated" youth attuned to trends and theories fail to grasp the issues surrounding ASEAN or for that to the struggles of the poor, farmers, Lumads and Moro in people in Mindanao who are displaced in this grand scheme of economic cooperation and integration.

It's been easy for them to brush the protesters as "bayaran" without looking at the historic validity of rallies and movements in correct injustices. One activist quoted a quote from a nun, Sr. Emelina Villegas, ICM, who said and I translate: "Sometimes those who are so engrossed with 'selfies' will nurture a very self-centered view, that they do not feel or see the people around them." Does this show millennials and post-millennials are really tuned out of the real world? I don't think so.

Because if there is an Eljohn displaying apathy, there is also a Shibby de Guzman among today's youth who gives a damn. Shibby is the 14-year old St. Scholastica student, whose presence at the Marcos' burial earned her recognition as one of Time Magazine's 30 most influential teens of 2017. On earning that spot she said joining the rally "was an opportunity to do good.

It was the right thing to do." Between Eljohn and Shibby is a choice. Between apathy and awareness, between popular and political, between self and society. SSDavao are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ” in Othello.

that Saturday, they went straight to Quezon Hill and got S-Key or special canine. He had two different sets of eyes, one was blue and the other was brown. The blue turns to red when hit by light at night. He looks he frowning all the time, but tends to jump to play. He likes to be friendly with Bondying, our cat but Bondying ignores him. It will wait and we will see what happens after sometime.

When my husband posted it in Facebook, he got various reactions like George Cruz saying “rearrange dog and it is fully explained to you.” Yes, indeed God knows and He responds beyond our understanding. Rebecca Matlock Sloan said “It was meant to be. Sorry for the loss of your

Marawi. Mainayon koma dayta kadagiti binilyon met a tulong manipud dadduma pay a pagilian kas koma US, China, Russia, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia ken dadduma pay a nasyon. Ngem kuna dagiti managobserba: dumtengto ti panawen a bumaawto met laeng ti tensiyon iti nagbaetan ti Pilipinas ken European Union. Maysa nga ehemplo ti sigud a tensiyon iti baet ti Pilipinas ken Amerika. Saan aya a nakaro ti panagbusi idi ti ngangaw ni Digong kontra ExPres. Obama ti US? Ngem ita...arigda ti agnobyo, este, agkabsat laengen da US Pres. Trump ken Digong. Napaneknekan ti sangalubongan ti nadekket a linnangen dagiti dua. Kinapudnona, inawagan pay ni Trump ni Digong iti RODRIGO .... ket DONALD met ti awag ni Digong kenni Trump. How sweet, saan kadi? No sibibiag la koma daydi lolok...maryusep, amangan ta binarsakna idan iti planggana! Kabusor ngamin daydi lolok a katipunero dagiti tao a plastik. Sanabale koma no ti plastic ket gold plated. He he! Relax laeng lolo...urayem nga aggubat da Digong ken Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau! Bumegbeggangen dayta, lolo. No immasuken, ag-helmetkan ta gubaten. Apay, sinno aya kano dayta a Trudeau?

dog and congrats on the new one!” Coincidence it maybe but it could also be God’s design, for He is faithful and loving.

Alex Allan says “UMAPALAK - that's Ilocano for "Inggit ako" which is how I felt on seeing my brother John's new pet, a 5-month Siberian husky given to him by our cousin Carol and her husband Abe Fanged in Baguio. The puppy has beautiful blue and brown eyes but his expression is a perpetual frown. This breed likes to run (the work dog is used for pulling sleds in Alaska and northern Canada.) and will be giving his master all the exercise he needs.”

We are pet lovers, my husband and I, so there is no wonder I play pet rescue and farm friends, which makes my husband laughs when I say “I need to rescue my pets before I sleep.” Lolo, isu tay delegado a napan naglamut, este, nangan idiay Jollibee idi simmangpet. Tay ngay dusngi a dusngi a kasla artista a kumidda-kidday iti kamera. Hmmm...sige, relaks laengen lolo ta urayenta ti Marawi war part 2. Diosmi, saan koma metten, pakpakwan berde! Ta no kasta ti mapasamak, amangan ta asaen ni lolo ti bunengna sananto manen ipukkaw ti “DINO CRUZADO”! Banzaiii!

-o0oNgem ti kapatgan a kontrobersiya a kas paipus ti Asean Summit ket ti panangbigbig ken panagyaman ni Pres. Duterte iti papel nga imbaklay ti Media iti pakabuklan ti summit. Binigbig ti presidente ti nagappuanan ti media iti pannakaiwaragawag dagiti napapateg nga impormasyon kadagiti umili panggep iti summit. “You have been invaluable partners in raising ASEAN awareness to our people particularly our handwork towards improving the lives of our people and in strengthening our Asean Community. I thank you for getting that message across to the public”. Agyamankami met apo Duterte iti talekmo. Kabuyogmo ti kaadduan kadagiti KARIT nga imbati ti Asean Summit nga ibaklaymo. Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! Adios mi amor, ciao, mabalos!