1. Filipinos are hopeless romantics.
Oh, we know this all too well. We are in love with democracy. Nothing wrong with that, really. What’s wrong is when we play the part of the naive girl who gives her all to the man of her dreams who turns out to be nothing more than a professional “playa” who toys with feelings and leaves you for “dead” when he’s got what he wanted. Oh, the tragedy of it. Thing is, in this analogy, I speak of a single victim. But, as it relates to us, there are more or less 90 million victims — now, that’s a lot of “naive girls”. And boy, do the future seem gloomy..
2. Filipinos love drama and entertainment.
Well, who doesn’t love entertainment anyway, right? I’ve always believed that entertainment is a universal human pursuit. And given the many problems we are faced with every waking day of our lives, who would not want to be entertained?
3. Rallies are “good” diversions.
When banks are either having holidays or declaring bankruptcy, fuel prices aren’t dropping as fast as they do in the international market, OFW’s who we depend upon for their remittances are coming home and losing jobs, wouldn’t you just want to forget all of it for a while and make-believe that there’s a panacea out there? A one-time-cure-all medicine for our our ailing country? Ah, rallies — they seem like “good” diversions indeed. While there, we are neither living in reality nor living in a fantasy world. We are in-between. And what joy it brings. While we’re there, we reject reality for a piece of hope — that should we stay longer, should we shout louder — someone will actually listen, something good will actually happen and things will actually get better.
4. Filipinos love politics.
Realizing how much time we spend politicking, debating with each other (and even blogging), it is clear that we just can’t seem to get enough of politics. Take this blog for example. I know nothing about politics — no authority, no education or previous experiences related to politics and yet here I am, dipping my toes into unchartered territory. See? We love politics. We can’t deny that.
5. Filipinos love parties.
We are easily amused by dancing and singing in the same way we bat our eyelashes in delight while we listen to political grandstandings in supposedly hallowed places like the EDSA Shrine or Mendiola. We love the noise it creates and we eagerly participate in the shouting. As long as it’s still fun, we stay there. But as soon as the reality of what rallies are supposed to be in the first place sets in and the demands become too big a burden to bear, we go running home. Who wants to listen to some politician anyway? That’s not what we came for. We came for the par-teh! baby!
6. Filipinos are suckers for rebels.
Oh, we have lots of examples for this — we loved Gringo Honasan for being a rebel — so much so that we elected him as senator several times. FVR became President. Chiz Escudero, by merits of his being overly-critical and vocal of his irritations about PGMA’s government, became senator as well. Trillanes and his “Oakwood” stunt endeared him to the people who voted for him as senator amidst a pending trial. WE are suckers for rebels. That, we must admit. Maybe because we see a part of us in them. We also have that “part”, only that it’s weaker in us.
7. Filipinos like repeating history.
I don’t know why we do this all too often. I don’t understand why we never seem to learn from past mistakes. Maybe we’re just addicted to the “high” that “dramatic exits” give us. We can’t seem to get enough of it, so we search for more. And by doing so, our tolerance for such a thing increases, that we need more today of what we had yesterday.
8. Filipinos are impossibly optimistic.
Nothing wrong with clinging to a “hope springs eternal” kind of mentality. Nothing wrong with believing that “only the dead are hopeless”. But to deliberately blindfold ourselves and walk towards a cliff is nothing short of suicide.
There used to be a time when political rallies are considered a sacred congregation of spirited, patriotic, “willing-to-fight-and-die-for-country” individuals. Now, it has been nothing more than a concert or play, with no real singers or stars but the politicos who at the end of the day don’t really give a damn about a word they said in a rally in the same way that they don’t give a damn about this country.