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Assata Shakur (via ethiopienne) great quote. (via deafmuslimpunx) Our government considers this woman a terrorist. |
After the elections, I realized that majority of us Filipinos tend to be racist if not, a people imbued with double standards.
Case in point: Nancy Binay. As per Wikipedia, she is the most vilifiedcandidate to win this election. Obviously, she was the subject of heckling, left and right because of her name, color and lack of qualification.
On the contrary, I do not think she is the most hated? After all, how can you explain the almost ten million votes cast in her name? Now if we do the math, where are the supposed Nancy “haters” gone to?
Think about this: Instead of hitting her senseless via twitter and any social media out there, why not make the rounds and vote for her opponent instead? there is the ever qualified RH champ, Risa Hontiveros to begin with. Unfortunately, this did not materialize. One can surmise that either these haters are not registered voters or plain miniscule, an iota of a larger electorate with access to media and technology hence the trend? Because if this is the opposite, one may wonder why Nancy is smiling nowadays?
But this is not about Nancy alone. It is about us and our capacity to handle a person like Nancy Binay and people similar to her.
We have become a nation who flinches at the mere thought of oppression and racism. We classified Claire Danes as persona non grata. We almost raised hell over Teri hatcher’s comments on Filipino doctors. The same goes to the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip and yeah, how can we forget Justin Bieber belittling Manny Pacquiao? In other words, we are up on the defense when threatened but sad to say we foremost guilty of stereotyping and bullying even our own kin.
Gone are the days of respect and proprietary. If we cannot take a person by the horn then we go gutter level and start calling names: we called Nancy “negra” but tell me, what is wrong being black? What has color got to do with it?
Even our sense of fairness is tainted by partiality. We call her family a “dynasty” but we have gone blind over the likes of Pia, Allan, Lani and now Lino Cayetano. Same goes for Gloria and Datu Arroyo? Of Sonny and Bellaflor Angara? how about President Noy and Bam Aquino? of Imelda, Bongbong and Imee Marcos to name a few.
We try to demonize her inability to debate but failed to make the rest the candidates accountable?
Up to the present moment Allan Cayetano is denying the sources of his funds when he first joined politics. Is it true that First Gentleman Arroyo fattened his campaign kitty?
Why is PGMA not yet convicted? and surprisingly, the cases filed against her one by one flops?
Are you even aware that in Aurora, the Angaras wanted to convert a big part of their agricultural land to become a commercial hub to the detriment of farmers and fisher folks?
What has happened to Hacienda Luisita? the last I heard, the beneficiaries are still waiting for the titles and what have we now? three years of PNOY’s presidency and still nothing?
Without his last name do you think Bam will win?
How come the Marcos family are still wealthy and in power?
And what has Nancy done? a lowly OJT of twenty years and yet we raised all hell to despise her. Can you now smell double standard?
Now If we are to wrestle this monster called “Political Dynasty” then we must desist to name calling which is so juvenile in the first place. Instead, we should proactively mobilize our collective efforts and lobby the incoming congress to enact a bill to give Article II Section 26 an “enabling law” to curb this propensity to power. In the same way we should also ask congress to amend Article VI Section 4 and add “experience” as a requirement. In this way, no person will dare jump in the campaign wagon without proper qualifications and experience to boot.
As I reflect on the concluded elections, I ascertain that the enemy is not the elected candidate at all. The real enemy is our inability to change the system the proper way. See, we fail to see that the elected senators regardless of their background are servants of the people! They work for us and we should utilize them to craft sensible laws so that future elections are devoid of unqualified candidates and finally slay the filthy head of political dynasties.
But sadly, we do not. Instead, we resort to the gratification of the wicked: mudslinging to infinity and beyond.
Senator Nancy Binay, prove your enemies wrong.
H&M
H&M’s new beachwear campaign featuring Jennie Runk is pretty awesome. In this article she explains that women have sent her messages saying that this ad campaign has given them the confidence to try on a bikini for the first time in years!
See… it does make a difference when we see diverse body types in advertising and media!
