 |
| His Holiness Pope Francis: Perhaps one of the many souls that humanity needs now. |
What with the coming of the Pope
and all, the streets of the Metro Manila have been once again filled with
thousands and millions of Filipinos all professing their love for the Pontiff.
Don’t get me wrong though, I like the Pope—inasmuch of an irony that it may
sound, given that it was coming from a non-religious. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, or better known as His
Holiness the Pope Francis, is both a rational and religious man who believes in
evolution as much as the scriptures. In fact, I would even go so far as to say
that he is perhaps one of the many souls that humanity needs now—whether one is a
believer or non-believer, or anyone who are in between.
Now, the visit of the Pope to the Philippines has been, of course,
eventful. Besides the cringe-inducing woe-is-me speech by none other than the
President, the shallow almost idiotic covering of the Philippine media (believe
me, here in the Philippines, the way a psalm singer looks or mundane things such
as the wind conditions and the manner with which the Pope waves are more
important than an analysis on the meat of the Pontiff’s messages), and the
truckloads of trash left by devotees, the Pope has left Filipinos strong
messages regarding corruption, freedom of speech, the youth, the role of
females in the society and equality, poverty, and a lot more.
I would agree with most of what he said. Most, but not all. Let us focus
on poverty. The Pope has left a challenge among us to care for our poor
brethren. Sure, I agree to that. But here in this country, such sentiments are
lightyears far easier said than done.
Oh
sure, we do care for the poor. The problem is that most of the poor are sods
who continuously cry of injustice whilst invading the properties of legal
owners. Give them relocation sites, and they will up and leave their new
settlements, sell them, and move to urban areas once again to settle illegally
in another’s property (otherwise known as professional squatters). Worse is
that when it's time for such owners to claim what's theirs, these people would
huff up their chests, scream foul and swagger as if they own the earth. Never
mind that they have already been given a solution to their housing problem, or
that there are a lot of ways to educate one’s self for livelihood purposes for
they still want more—like parasitic children weaning from taxpayers. What was
the old adage again? Oh yeah—“give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach
a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Apparently, after giving
fish and teaching how to fish, one still have a moral obligation to spoon feed.
Then
there are the 'poor' who weep everyday of paralyzing poverty whilst they
multiply like bacteria on a Petri dish without thinking of the consequences. Never
mind that with every Filipino born is another mouth to feed, brain to educate,
and body to nurture because contraceptives are against their god’s laws—that because
having more children than one can afford signify a strong, virile and alpha
male of a father.
Let us
also not forget those who clamor for change yet vote the same imbeciles over
and over again. These people claim that they are jaded of corruption here and
corruption there, but when you ask them who they want as their leaders, you’ll
get a clueless stare and a no less than retarded plethora of answers:
“Because _________ is an actor/actress!”
“Because _________ came from (insert name of
a political dynasty)!”
“Because there’s no one else.”
Or the
worst:
“I don’t know.”
Cue the
laugh track and comedic sound effects. Only thing is, every bit of this is a
sad, sad affair.
Sure,
I will agree that there have been innumerable inequities committed against the
poor; that those seated are robbing every one of us blind. But if the poor wear
their poverty around their necks like a fashion statement, that’s when pity and
sympathy run dry.
I care
for this nation, but I do not pay taxes monthly to finance the cycle of
corruption and the mindless masses who continually vote for the corrupt.
Seriously,
had I not a shred of humanity in me, I'd say the Philippines is in dire need of
eugenics. Screw natural selection, it only tends to reward those who multiply
quickly, not those who are contributing to human evolution (then again, merely suggesting
so make me sound hypocritically self righteous).
But
this is the current status quo, and unless a similar but a lot less radical
solution would occur to the Philippine populace, the best choice is to guide
the masses and shove nasty truths right up their orifices, regardless the pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment