Another reaction: A Forum on the National Situation

The class was surprised when our instructor told us to attend a forum at a Christian school nearby. I was intrigued—what kind of forum would it be? I did not have any other thoughts afterwards until we reached the, ahem, room. Apparently, it is a church. And inside, Liza Masa, the guest speaker, was discussing the economic and political situation of the Philippines.

The first part of her discussion was on the country’s seemingly improving economic performance. However, numbers do not always tell the truth. The increase in our GDP was caused by the development of the real estate and construction sector and by the service sector which is still intensifying.  But these sectors do not contribute to our economy in the long term scheme. It seems to me that these are just patches that could wear out anytime. They are like band-aid solutions. Moreover, these do not make up a real economy.  As I understood it, real economy composes of some parts which produce. This is a crucial point for a country’s economy to grow. However, production is not our problem; the problem lies in how these products are utilized.  Add this to the fact that both industrial and agricultural (most especially) productions are receiving less attention compared to the BPO industry.

The second part centered on the country’s political situation. Mrs. Masa discussed briefly the Mamasapano case. I don’t think that this is the appropriate venue to discuss the case at length. Suffice it to say that at the end of the day, PNOY and other public officials must be held accountable for the massacre. They should answer to the Filipinos. They should stop playing the blaming act and man up. (If you want to know more about the case, you can search for the whole BOI report which was just released.)

But for me, the highlight of the forum was a question that came from an instructor. She asked about us. She asked what she, as a teacher, should do to ‘awaken’ the youth from apathy. This impacted me in two ways: first, it impressed upon me that some, if not all, are as clueless as us in regards to what we should do. Second, it reiterated to me Bovard’s and Bauman’s words: that is, in a consumerist society, there are no citizens.

Observe very closely and you shall see students busy fumbling their smartphones. Young people are more immersed in latest fashion trends than getting involved in social and political issues. Students are more interested in buying FRA shirts or attending parties than going to forums and educational discussions. Ultimately, we became more of consumers than citizens. We became customers of our own desires instead of becoming servants of our people. This, for me, is the greatest tragedy.

I do not argue that we do not consume. That's just absurd and impossible. However, back then, we only consume for survival. Now, we consume to quell our desires and wishes. We consume to satisfy ourselves. We slowly become more and more selfish to the point that consumption became our comfort zone. We begin to disregard the common good for our own good.

But it's too late to go back to the time when consumption was only for survival. Having a life in the form of consumption became a part of being human and there is nothing wrong for wanting to be human. But let's not go to the point when consumption starts to consume us. Let's take the time to look around and 'have a life with others'. Let's aspire for the common good, always.