It’s 2:19 PM
All my college-level roommates went home while I am here catching up on lessons on coursework, and hundreds of research papers to read if I want to pass this semester without any problems.
I’ve been reflecting a lot about what has been happening this week, how it relates to the bigger picture, and observing how I have been fairing in the middle of all this.
One thing that is a general theme of this week is that everyone in my country is angry. With that level of corruption, who wouldn’t be?
I’m angry about the years of ordinary citizens being left to fend for themselves in the middle of typhoons, and neck-level flooding, while a handful of politicians and government officials and contractors and bank employees so conveniently and lavishly spend and accept money that isn’t theirs.
I’m more angry at how ordinary citizens are forced to circumstances and sell their votes at a price of a couple of bags of rice. Is the price of every Filipino’s hopes and dreams only worth a few hundreds or thousands of pesos disguised as “goodwill” and “kindness”? What’s tragic is that a few days ago, someone referred to these stolen tax money as “basura” (trash). People here accept it anyhow because according to my parents, “it is our tax money anyway”, and then fight tooth and nail in defending the favorite political dynasties like sabungeros (gamblers) in a cockfight.
Based on my previous stint as a teacher, one of the ways we can gauge if a learner well-understood a lesson is when the learner can actually relate that lesson on how things work outside of the classroom.
Learn ‘interest rates’ to learn when starting a business from loaned money is worth it.
Learn graphs to learn the importance of relationships between two things— Does average IQ necessarily equate to a better national GDP?
Learn history to learn from other people’s mistakes in dealing with the government (and hopefully not do the same mistake all over again).
But when I talk to the average Filipino, most people cannot engage in a conversation that shows an ability to connect the dots. I’m angry because corruption didn’t allow this ability to materialize.
All people know here is propagating fear, and using that same fear to manipulate each other.
We all know the stories of why kids can’t stay in school, or when they do, their trajectories are set on entirely different angles. From the moment a learner steps in school they have already been groomed to be the best rat racer, to be the freshest professional that would be ripe to be flung out of the country as an OFW: “Study hard so you’ll make it in the honor roll” “Study hard to make it in the honor’s class” “Study hard so you can land a scholarship” “Study hard so you can finish school early and help keep our family afloat”
I have been angry and I am still angry, and upon reflection, I also know that I have been carrying the weight of anger that isn’t mine. It’s an anger piled up by my ancestors being constantly in the receiving end of this cruel system.
How do people move forward from this?
Roxanne Marie is a twenty-year-old something who calls herself the Protean Creator.
She has a background in chemical engineering, worked as a public school teacher, and currently, retrying her luck as a blogger with passion and frustration, and lastly, a life enthusiast. She loves open discourse, witty musings, discussions about abstract and tangible ideas, and any opportunity where she can insert memes into the conversation. She is doing her best to walk the way of love.
She is on a mission to rediscover her truth through the messy iterative process of learning, relearning and unlearning, and openly discusses the ideas and thoughts that are born from her experiences here on Hive.
Currently, she is taking her Masters in UP Los Banos, Laguna, all the while documenting her misadventures, misfortunes, pagka-hugotera, reflections and shenanigans as a working-class millennial.
If you like her content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. It would be an honor to have this post reblogged as well. Also, don't forget to follow her to be updated with her latest posts, and catch her next intellectual (and most of the time, untethered) rants.
