Sunday 21 July 2013

'When the rich think about the poor, they have poor ideas.'

'When the rich think about the poor, they have poor ideas.'


Today marks the start of a new wave of sugar-coated rhetorics spoken by a head of state.

Facing the barong Tagalog and terno-clad constituents, members of the foreign circle and various sectors sympathetic to the regime, the head of state, like ever before has to speak a hodge-podge of statements, justified by facts and figures, data gathered, as well as series of promises people may tend to described much as a joke.

In a way that President Aquino himself, with his spin doctors had to rewrite and add some additional words to an existing idea, quite desperate though to justify, even further with proofs such as facts and figures; and yet most of it are rather consists of empty of half-realized promises just like what happened in 2010 when he promised to end Arroyo's programs especially the controversial CCT program; and yet most had remained still active-especially the once-abhorred program of handouts, and its unwillingness to give Hacienda Luisita land directly to the struggling masses, impose social justice other than human rights to the marginalized sectors of the society.

Obviously, Aquino et al. chose to remain silent in regards into much serious issues to tackle while proceeding with their promises and other "optimistic" matters being vented at the rostrum of Batasang Pambansa. Otherwise, it tends to hid the reality such as an intensified crisis with the sharp decline of the people’s standard and quality of living as a result of its own policies same as Arroyo's and the earlier regimes; also to think about grave scarcity of jobs and the continued efforts of the present regime to export Philippine labor, as well as the absence of quality jobs due to the unindustrialized state of the economy and the prevalence of flexible labor practices which further pull down the value of labor and subject workers to worse forms of exploitation especially those of lower wages and inhumane working practises; there are other realities the present regime may ought to take less time focusing if not entirely disregard it. Otherwise, Aquino himself and his retinue, no matter their class background is (whether it be a Compradore, a landlord, or even a foolish member of the upper-middle class) cares nothing, about its vast subjects, they just simply rule for the sake of ruling the country and preserve the old order they enjoyed and aggravating it further with policies its subjects had to endure.

That includes demolishing houses of those who struggle for their right to live, even assailing them such as "baby-ing" or whatsoever to the point of making them entirely a pariah of the society. Yes, farmers and workers had been a pariah so are the urban poor that most people had to be equating them with the notorious lumpen class of thieves, prostitutes and the like; coerced through various promises, half-realized programs and lots of rhetoric as if these people can be fooled all the time.

Or perhaps, to sum it all, those programs being made and the implementors themselves invoke this kind of quotation as what the late Eva Peron said so:

'When the rich think about the poor, they have poor ideas.'

And just like what the late Eva Peron said in regards to the oligarchs and its social policies, it makes no sense for a system and its rah-rah peeps to underestimate, to the point of merely heckle these deeply affected people; again, they had less idea to show as compared to those whom they assail such as those who will protest in Commonwealth ave. or in various social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, to think that most of these protesters, those who dare to complain and instead seeing nonsensical comments usually face rising costs of commodities and a low purchasing power of Peso. No matter they worked hard, save and take time doing austerity measures, the purchasing power of their peso remained low and seemed insufficient to face the rising costs especially those of oil and other basic needs everyone tends to struggle for.
After all, did these rah-rah peeps and apathetics speak for the workers in increasing their wages? Farmers for their land and the marginalized for their livelihood and welfare? Nope. What they only know is for them to stop making noises and endure the sickening truth of a semicolonial, semifeudal order.

Yes, like any other State of the Nation, the head of state, along with its constituents may take pride in their so-called achievements, of half-realized programs that require borrowing loans, yet despite all their attempts, they're merely served as an icing to cover the sickening truth in a way high rise buildings and various projects made to create a façade of progress in a society vast tracks of land remained owned by the few and builders of high-rise edifices lived in a house of junk. Again, people from the ruling class had poor ideas despite trying to present themselves "caring" towards the poor and of the unjust.

-That somehow benefits those who took interest such as the United States and China with the latter most people assailed much out of cold war nostalgia.

Anyways, it's up to the people whom to heed:
will it be from the head of state or the leaflets and speakers from the protest action?
will it be the promises left in paper or the concertina wire laid at the concrete barriers?
...or the clapping of barong tagalog-clad constituents or  the banging of the truncheons?

Again, it's up to the people, especially those who are greatly affected by a silent but stunning crisis.


***

Anyways, for an off-topic, as the famous Basketball star Lebron James to visit Manila this coming 23, why not Mr. James speak at the rostrum at the Batasang Pambansa instead of Aquino and had his Araneta event this Monday? After all, this writer had seen ironically that while the assailed poor are queuing in lines for a Conditional Cash Transfer, the middle class afford to take the same queue for a free ticket.