By Bless Salonga
We, Filipinos, pride ourselves with our rich culture, creativity, talents, hospitality, courtesy, humility, kindness, good values, our fear for God and our brilliant minds!
But that was in the past. Not any longer.
There was a time when education, integrity, respect and unity meant a lot.
Now we have a culture of bullying.
We use our creativity to spread lies about honest people without guilt or reservation.
We waste our talents on what would make us quick bucks rather than what would harness our skills ~ decision-making, listening, communication skills ~ or what would cultivate our values like hard work, patience, and honesty, or what would allow us to build a legacy of excellence.
We curse and reject the people who tell the truth and cozy up with those who conform with our selfish wants.
We don’t care what others think because we have entitlement issues, and we think we are always right.
Our pride in achieving excellence or reaching milestones has evolved into an inflated ego; it’s now about us trying to be right all the time than us “doing the right thing” every time.
Education? What’s that? Everything on social media is now the new reality -the twisted “facts” and convenient “truth”. Whatever is in our idol’s fan page or anything we can find on certain websites, as long as it conforms with our opinions, are highly regarded true and credible.
Besides, who needs education if you’re popular anyway? People will believe (and forgive) anything you say. We have lost our moral compass and common sense. What we learned instead is to elect and trust pretentious leaders with fake credentials extending our loyalty by being tolerant of the unscrupulous friends surrounding them.
Reading and comprehension are now passe. These days, we just passionately “share” without verification or research. It’s “all” in the title, right?
Scratch conscience, morality and ethics as well. They no longer exist. *Poof* Magic! We are now all mindless zombies.
It’s no longer about quality but quantity. The more “likes” the better. That’s how we gauge real success. Marketing and branding are gold. And cheap talk is the current trend.
Laws and definitions are now based on double standards.
Our lawmakers and leaders are the first ones to break the laws. Our system no longer has justice. The only justice left is our “justification” for unethical decisions and actions, short-cuts and band-aid solutions.
Our people have no respect for history, too imperious to embrace the ideals of our noble heroes, to honour the courage of our freedom fighters and recognise the brilliance of the statesmen who triumphed the journey before us.
We are ignorant of the laws of the land and dismissive of the laws of God. These days, we idolise celebrities and politicians. They can’t do anything wrong in our eyes!
It is now irrelevant if leaders are no longer guided by high moral standards and principles, or they are not committed to serve our people, or they are simply loyal to their friends who bankrolled their election campaign.
Decency and professionalism are now both optional in the public office.
Elected officers obliged to pay their dues (utang na loob) can access public funds at will. We trust them so much and don’t wish to see them offend their supporters, ergo we’re not overly concerned if their stance compromises our economic future, safety and national security. We’re already used to poverty and oppression, anyway.
Now, our society is plagued by corruption, poverty, murder, social media political analysts and instant “journos”. Our leaders adopt the strategy of “divide and conquer” to enrich themselves and create their dynasties.
Change is here, they say!
But for the remaining free-thinkers, here’s reality:
Until corruption is stopped…
Until justice is put back in our system…
Until people are no longer hungry…
There will be no peace.
Leaders will keep failing, and people will keep hoping.
