Not my picture, just my commentsFor a while there I was proud. I thought this occupy movement will never reach our shores. And so, I was wrong. Perhaps, our nation’s colonial mentality is truly heavier than our understanding of our reality.
I remember my friend telling her sister who lives in New York when she showed her a video of an occupy rally near her apartment, “Ano ba, taga Pilipinas ka, and you call this a rally?”. The video was of a sparse group of people walking around a sidewalk claiming to “occupy”.
And it was true that rally pales in comparison to our rallies here: to Edsa 1 that started it all, even to Edsa 2 that turned out to give the nation false hope, and it definitely pales in comparison even to a crowd of stampeding fanatics into a Willie Revillame show. The rally captured in that video was indeed lame.
I remember my friend telling her sister who lives in New York when she showed her a video of an occupy rally near her apartment, “Ano ba, taga Pilipinas ka, and you call this a rally?”. The video was of a sparse group of people walking around a sidewalk claiming to “occupy”.
And it was true that rally pales in comparison to our rallies here: to Edsa 1 that started it all, even to Edsa 2 that turned out to give the nation false hope, and it definitely pales in comparison even to a crowd of stampeding fanatics into a Willie Revillame show. The rally captured in that video was indeed lame.
So, it this slogan trying to be cool or what?!So, this Occupy Movement, I have previously discussed why I have no respect for it. But ok, let’s discuss it even further in the Philippine context. I've, previously, said that these occupiers from first world countries don’t know what it’s like to live poorly, not in the same way that people in third world countries know how. I've implied that we (Filipinos) would never rally that way because we had other things to stress about such as what we are going to eat the next day.
So I will say it again – these activists and rally people in Mendiola, can they say that they are part of the lowest 1%? Or even the lowest 20% of this country?!
The fact that they are educated, as most of them are said to be students, and the fact that they even know what the Occupy Movement is, know what it stands for and know this whole brouhaha about the 1% vs. the 99%, they are surely not part of lowest of the low of society, who probably have other concerns for the day.
In the past, there were kings and queens, there were aristocracies and gentries, there were caste systems, there were colonizers, there were feudal lords, there were priests and holy people who acted like lords, there were sultans, there were datus, there were tribal leaders… There was a societal hierarchy… It was the way of the world.
In the modern world, people were/are left to believe in democracy and meritocracy. With this worldview, people can choose their profession, who to marry, who to vote for… Women can chose to be educated, women can chose who to marry, women can vote and women can fight for equal rights…
With this worldview of offering freedom and freewill, people are left to survive amongst themselves. Some will win, some will lose, yes. This is to be expected. This is the way of the world these days. It is probably assumed that when you work for something (legally or illegally), you will reap what you sow (provide you come across some luck as well).
In the modern world, people were/are left to believe in democracy and meritocracy. With this worldview, people can choose their profession, who to marry, who to vote for… Women can chose to be educated, women can chose who to marry, women can vote and women can fight for equal rights…
With this worldview of offering freedom and freewill, people are left to survive amongst themselves. Some will win, some will lose, yes. This is to be expected. This is the way of the world these days. It is probably assumed that when you work for something (legally or illegally), you will reap what you sow (provide you come across some luck as well).
I am not saying that it is great that the rich people are getting richer or great that the poor are getting poorer. I am merely saying that if I owned a corporation, my aim would be to develop it. Wouldn’t that be logical? People do not open up businesses for it to fail. People do not start up enterprises to make them charity wards for everyone who is down in the dumps and are angry at the world.
That is not business, that would be dole outs and hand outs. Businessmen and women aim to get richer, it's their job. Corporations aim to make more profits, it's why they exist in the first place.
this cartoon that I saw the other day: My thoughts exactly!I ask again. So, you are angry. So, the 1% are rich and you are not. And so, what is it that you want oh-crowd-of-anarchists-trashing-mendiola?
Do you all want to be magically rich? It does not take a genius to tell you that cannot happen.
Should we all turn Marxist, socialists or communists? Even if we do, government officials would likely still experience a more luxurious lifestyle that the general mass. So, will you guys still rally on then?
Is it equality that you want?
Do you just want to be rich? Or do you want the rich to be as poor as you are?
If you were suddenly rich and others were not, would you still rally on like this?
Do you all want to be magically rich? It does not take a genius to tell you that cannot happen.
Should we all turn Marxist, socialists or communists? Even if we do, government officials would likely still experience a more luxurious lifestyle that the general mass. So, will you guys still rally on then?
Is it equality that you want?
Do you just want to be rich? Or do you want the rich to be as poor as you are?
If you were suddenly rich and others were not, would you still rally on like this?
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