I write about national issues and also about touching lives. This is about two of my Filipino friends, Sharon and Mimi.
The oil-rich Saudi Arabia became Sharon's home right after her college graduation. As an entertainer in a foreign land, money fills her purse with no trouble at all when she belts out her songs like no other could. Today, she is as rich as the country she is working in.Mimi's talent has brought her to a far away place. I knew it the first time I saw her twist her waist gracefully in a local dance competition. Precisely so, she boogied herself to Japan. For money and family, she dances with pride.
Sharon and Mimi dislike the Philippines for not having much to offer in regards to good jobs and compensation because of the apparently unending problems in the government. Abroad, surviving life may be hard for both; nevertheless, the price of aloneness is a long-lasting abundance.
So why would I continue loving and enduring a country where friends think poverty, corruption and politicking have become a way of life? Why would I remain loyal to the flag when corruption clings like a malignant tumor obstructing political stability and hindering foreign investments? Why, when my family has been pushing me to stick to Uncle Sam? They wondered on my forever-national allegiance.
Mimi wasn't wrong when she decided to take a chance and danced her way for the Japanese audience. Neither was Sharon sinful when she preferred the applause of the Arabs. Theirs were decisions forced by existing circumstances.
I admit I do now resemble dream-wise like Sharon and Mimi, though not completely. Even if I am physically absent in the Philippines, I still think about the welfare of my homeland.
While everyone is rushing to leave the country for greener pastures abroad and forgetting their roots altogether, I keep my contacts. I keep on writing for all the hopeless Filipinos, just like back home.
I write to somehow touch the hearts of government leaders so they'd run our institutions with competence and proficiency, minus the greed in power and wealth. I write to somehow encourage public servants to dislodge the wrong values and instead develop honesty and integrity in public office. I write so proper statutes on the evil creature of corruption be situated. I write this for the millions of my countrymen whose hopes are shattered and who have been waiting for the advent of a happier life.
This life of mostly discontentment, I write for a country fastened to a poisonous weed of bribery and theft, a country deserted by my friends Sharon and Mimi upon seeing their hopes lost in the society's twisting wind of uncertainties.
I write because mine is a voice so little for the over 80 million Filipinos, yet can become loud through every article of: Hope, to see Filipino dreams finally found; Encouragement, to use our art and culture for touching lives; Anticipation, to change our attitude and love the country more and more; Realizations, to make use of our skills and talents in molding our future; and Desire, to someday see Sharon singing and Mimi dancing on Philippine soil while the Filipino audience, including me, claps in awe.
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5 Comments:
I just like to add comment on your statement that your friend dislike her beloved country because of no opportunities in her homeland.In fact the compensation of the worker here is not negotiable for everyday living but you know contentment is the way to be on top.I am living here in this country philippines but why i am successful in my carreer.No patience in living here will cause you discontentment.We have all the freedom here.We have also jobs.The government is trying to convinced investor to support the filipinos and i think if you are persistent to become successful then no need to go abroad.live in the philiipines.philippines need you.filipinos are the hope of
this country. let us support all the program of arroyo's administration.
November 21, 2007 2:57 AM
i love your article.. im made me think that working abroad is not only about sacrificing ourselves to be alone and be away with our family but its a way to fulfill our dreams in our life.
Keep writing my Brother...and Im proud of you...
November 22, 2007 4:35 AM
Its okay that your friend feel that way even me hate sometimes the situation of the economy but the goodnews right now our economy seems improving the value of peso seems increasing .let us support the country.
November 28, 2007 1:58 AM
Nothings gonna change. How do you expect anything to change when the foxes are protecting the henhouse? Case in point...Estrada pardoned? Imelda not in jail?- she stilll has billins in Swiss banks. Arroyo sanctioning the murders of journalists?--I don't see heads rolling because of this. Filipinos have a basic problem, they don't like to punish their own, they're scared, and easily intimidated. Also they don't like to publicly acknowledge how fucked up their country is..due to national "pride". What a joke.
December 17, 2007 2:36 PM
It is not what we do and who we are that hurts us, it is what we donot do and who we became causes us to turn a blind eye that hurts as the most.
-rdelima
February 05, 2008 8:36 PM
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