If I were back home right now, I KNOW I would have been at the interfaith rally yesterday along Ayala Avenue in Makati, calling for the resignation of the Midget. Even if I was raised in a household where we ate politics for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I grew up largely apolitical. I simply didn't care. Men like Jose Rizal, Apolinario Mabini, Manuel Quezon, Ninoy Aquino and Pepe Diokno... to me they seemed to be freaks of genetics that our national DNA managed to produce every few generations through some fluke of history and chromosomes.
I came to the patriotism party a bit late. Having spent quite a number of years abroad as my own version of OFW - Overseas Filipino Whatever - I missed 1986 and 2001. I do feel I missed out on Edsa 1 but in the light of everything else that's happened since, I am so glad I wasn't there in 2001. My mother of course is smug in her prescience; she's been crowing I-told-you-so for the last 7 years.
What I've tried not to miss out on while abroad, however, is Filipino food. Any fiesta/sale/embassy party with chicharon, adobo, pancit and puto, I am so there (so are my kids). Last week at the Embassy in Pretoria I was in heaven feasting on cuchinta, lumpia, empanada and maruya! And when I entertain at home, I almost always cook something Filipino, either in flavor or inspiration.
Speaking of food, one of my favorite food bloggers and a most patriotic Filipino, Market Man, wrote a most eloquent post about the importance of being at yesterday's rally:
I WILL BE THERE.Because we live in a democracy by choice. Because not speaking up when you know something is wrong makes you an accomplice to the wrong. Because I think everyone must be held accountable for their actions, particularly where their actions impact the welfare of millions. Because of the increasingly brazen disregard for the laws and even basic ethics that should apply to educated individuals. Because in many ways, I am embarrassed to be in the same gene pool as those who are perpetrating and then possibly getting away with such outrageous actions. Because of dozens of other reasons I will keep to myself as I know you get the point.
To the fence-sitters, he says:
It’s easy to say that nothing will change, that politicians are all the same, that we are all doomed, no matter what. It’s easy to say it isn’t your responsibility to speak up, and let someone else do it instead. Well, would you rather be buried under a mountain of caca, kicking and screaming and trying to get out, or calmly lay down as it grows darker and darker and you turn into worm food? If you have read this blog for any length of time, you would know I would bloody well say something and do something, if only for my own conscience. And I am not advocating politician roulette, I simply want folks to be held accountable for their actions.
So simply and eloquently put. And I also salute him for his pithy response to a commenter who chided the protesters for choosing to take to the streets instead of contributing to the economy:
Manila Office Worker, the rally is at 4pm on a Friday. And I understand several companies are allowing staff to leave early if they want to. And who are you to judge what people do with their time if you are surfing the net and leaving comments at 1030 a.m. on a leisure/food blog, probably while you sit in an airconditioned office, and at a likely corporate owned computer, on company time and money… taking swipes at others? So yup, do as you please, go work hard and generate gross domestic product, and eventually some taxes. Which the politicians will pocket with impugnity the next time they think to upgrade the broadband network that you could be using in the future if you ever became a public school administrator…
Touché.
(Photo lifted from Inquirer.net)
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