Scared to death
EVERYTHING arrives late in the Philippines except Christmas, where it is expected, unofficially, on Sept. 1. There’s even an undeclared contest among radio DJs to see who’s the first of the first to play the first Christmas carol of the season.
With the way traffic has been behaving, you could say, yes, EDSA and other major thoroughfares have been experiencing Christmas traffic since August. (Last year it was the port congestion, this year it’s just sheer, unadulterated, unmitigated exasperation. ApoCARlypse.)
Still, whatever anyone may say, Christmas even if it arrives ahead of Halloween is still more fun. Santa Claus or The Grim Reaper? Winged angels playing on their harps or devils armed with pitchforks? Who’s not scared of death, or wouldn’t be scared to death by ghosts and ghouls, witches and werewolves? This year, a “quality of death index” gives us more reason to be afraid to die. Out of 80 countries surveyed, ours was next to Iraq and Bangladesh as the worst places in the world to die, in terms of palliative and healthcare environment, human resources, affordable care, quality of care, and level of community engagement. The report, compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit for a Singaporean foundation, does not include post-death issues such as quality of funeral homes, burial sites and customs, and the costs to be borne by surviving family members. (I wonder if Iraq and Bangladesh observe the custom of laying out an all-day buffet in the funeral parlor for friends paying their last respects to the dear departed?)
“We are born to die,” it’s true, but in recent years death has become inevitable sooner – as a choice, by one’s own hand – as suicide rates go up. In the US, the suicide rate is double that of homicide. In the UN, attention has been called to the escalating figures of young adults committing suicide, the last way out. Way out of what? How ironic that in a world exploding with communication gadgets designed to make life more convenient and sociable, young people in the prime of life should fearlessly seek self-destruction as the ultimate solution.