Activism?

The world is full of ideals. Ideals fill containers. These containers are people and people are full of themselves.

PUPians logged into Facebook last night on the wake of a happening that's sure to put another stain in their resumes: Students throwing chairs off balconies and burning them to embers to stop a tuition hike. "How radical," my right brain thought. "How desperate," my left brain answered.

Granted that there are many forms of expressing oneself, these activists chose to make an utter display of barbarism just to vent out their beliefs. Due process is a good thing to believe in but in bird's eye view, it's a long, crowded highway filled with dirty politics acting like tar pits. It's tempting to go off-road but it's a gray area. Before you know it, you're in some isolated community in the mountains, cocking your AK and chanting "Viva CPP NPA!" 

Road rage is more common than sparrows. Month after month, the same activists pit themselves with placards and megaphones across the Polytechnic University of the Philippines campus under belief that utopia can be achieved through such bullish tactics. Ridiculing government officials, discrediting members of the school administration, shouting how oppressed the youth and the poor are--they do these administration after administration. No matter who ruled over the Philippines and the university, they are never satisfied.

If you don't believe them, you have a closed mind; you're a conformist square. But if you do, your wearing a scarlet letter; you're a bad influence. It's the hippie revolution all over again.

Self-proclaimed heroes, maybe if they spent more time seeping through the cracks to aid legislation and enforcement, they wouldn't be looked down upon today. The system can't be beat, it can only be painstakingly reformed. It is good you are standing up for something but reducing yourselves to destruction of property, no matter how useless the said property was already according to your organization, is cowardly violence as clear as day. It's as desperate as burning your drunkard father's underwear in front of a news crew just to get him to notice you.

But are they really doing this just to stop a one peso hike in tuition? Let's take a deeper perspective. 

Politicians and points of authority are almost automatically demonized in the eyes of the common man. If the economy rose 6 percent (which is an awful lot) during PNoy's term, does it make a sound? It's mentioned in the State of The Nation Address and is forgotten forever. But everyday the Filipino is bombarded by news exposes about corrupt politicians, atrocities of corporations, police brutality, forced evictions, and everything wrong about those who govern. 

Put a Filipino in front of a political ad and what does he say? "Bleh. Mga politiko. Mga walang ginawang mabuti." ("Bah. Politicians. Those no-goods.") On these grounds, it's safe to say activists are acting upon this effect of exposure to stimuli often magnified by individual turmoil. Most of them lacked an authoritative figure in their lives or had ones that lacked authority in their lives, too.

Another factor to consider is that most students' financial struggles are from many aspects of life. The rising costs of food and transportation, water and electric companies hogging more of their parents' budgets and the constant social pressure put on by BlackBerry phones and digital tablets also add to the pains of those who study below the poverty line.

So in a sense, these people are admirable. They see a wrinkle in the way things work and they go out of their way to straighten it out. Ever since the early days of Filipino civilization, there were activists fighting for what they understand is good for the masses; the greatest among them being Jose Rizal who believed in due process, and the near-second greatest being Andres Bonifacio whose blood-littered path is slowly being tread by modern-day demonstrators.

There was once an anecdote saying that PUP itself is borne out of activism. But with a closer eye on the university's history, it's more of activism through due process. They didn't vandal, they didn't call anyone a pig, and they didn't burn chairs; they pulled through all the red tape and claimed what was rightfully theirs--a university which today blossoms with minds of brilliant students. To those who made charcoal out of "unusable" chairs yesterday, take heed of PUP's lesson.

It's all in the execution. Do not act surprised if your drastic measures are an unwelcome sight to society.

All American Idol fans at one point wanted to scream at Simon Cowell, "Let's see you sing it!" This is a similar scenario. If you think the school administration or the government is railed with demons, then commit. Study up and get a shot at cleansing it.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” --Margaret Mead.

Not-So-Creative Writing

Sorry I've been away for awhile, readers. It was finals week in school. Not that it was brutal or anything, it was just hectic--chock full of unnecessary things to write.

Anyway, I came to notice that most of my classmates dream of either being rich authors on book tours around the world or being nationally recognized reporters. I found this strange. If anything, journalism is the direct opposite of creative writing and the newsmen on TV usually have degrees in broadcast and not in journalism.

Seeing my name on a book has never been my aspiration. I mean, I don't even like reading. But my head became so good at daydreaming, it began to fill itself up with ideas without trying. Here's one that might strike me a movie or a book deal someday. (Wishful thinking, I know.)

The concept was originally a fictitious version of the real-life story of my significant other and her best friend who recently passed away. But as I daydreamed more and more, the plot has gotten way off course. Now it's a cross of characters from Greek and Roman mythologies.

Chapter I: Genesis

The gods were a highly civilized, almost-immortal race that existed from the beginning of time. Their bodies stand hundreds of feet from the ground and they were capable of living for thousands of god-years. In their land, A (the girl) and B (the boy) came across Eros (the mischievous god of love, son of Aphrodite), at a council meeting. In the land of the gods, everyone were siblings and since the birth of Ceto (a sea monster, the mother of Medusa and all gorgons, daughter of gods Gaia and Pontus)*, love was forbidden.

*I plan to write this as a prelude if I ever get around to composing this book.

Chapter II: A Scoundrel Among Us

The Heca, three monsters with a hundred hands and fifty heads who were once assailants of the Titans, escaped from Tartarus (hell). The gods struggled greatly to defeat them. Upon their arrival to A's city, B fought mightily against them. Noticing his sudden might, Athena promoted him to a high position in the military but only to keep an eye on him. A and B's affair was later discovered. They were tried at the gods' court and was found guilty.

Chapter III: The Pit of Immortality and The Origin of All Things Transient

I plan to make this the first climax; one of the most dramatic parts of the story. 

B was sentenced to be thrown into Outer Space, the infinite prison of emptiness. As he was dragged in the streets,  A escaped her guards and ran after B's captors. B was thrown off the cliff of immortality. As he fell, his size was greatly reduced his godly attributes were lost  She arrived at the cliff when B's captors were just leaving. As they restrained her, she reached her hand over the cliff and with all of her might, scattered rocks across the void. This became our galaxy. As B descended to earth, A was unconscious on the cliff, drained of all powers.

Chapter IV: The Dirge of Orion

"Dirge" means funeral song in old english. This chapter is bound to be the longest.

The gods, upon knowing what A did, built a wall enclosing the cliff that stood six thousand feet from the ground. It imprisoned her. Each year, a new layer is added to the width of the wall, pushing her closer to the cliff. She can not jump off because if she was locked in the Pit of Immortality and the gods sent B to Tartarus, they would forever be separated. 

The gods let out from Tartarus Ursa Major, an evil bear of immense age and wisdom who was part star and part god, to destroy Earth. Meanwhile, B saw the birth of civilization on the planet held up by Atlas. He saw how Prometheus stole fire to aid humanity and how he was imprisoned on the Pit, too. He saw how humans created empires and waged war among themselves, all the while, suffering from his separation from A.

The gods smoldered some kind of device on Ursa's eyelid. It contained Medusa's head that would face Ursa and turn him to stone should he do anything against the gods' will. But Ursa created a mirror image of himself--Ursa Minor--to confuse which way Medusa would look. The gods heard of this and sent Orion, the god of hunt and B's father, to kill Ursa Major. In battle, Orion rained thousands of arrows that damaged Ursa heavily. But Ursa came close and his mirror image appeared behind Orion. Medusa looked upon that direction and Orion turned to stone. There was great weeping in the land of the gods that day as Ursa Major was left forever to wander in the Pit of Immortality.

Chapter V: Northern Lights

Thousands of years have passed. A and B were still separated. A, barely clinging on to holes she drilled with her fingers as the wall was already stretched beyond the cliff, cried in hopelessness. Her tears went down the cliff and somehow found their way to Earth. It entered the Earth's atmosphere and became the Northern Lights--spectacles that appear only in the coldest, most isolated  corners of the planet. B saw these and understood that it was A's message that she was about to let go of the wall; that they should just accept their fate. It was also a message that to B that he should love the Earth as he loved her.

And that's it. This is the plot so far. I still can't think of an ending, plus I don't think I can actually write a book. I asked a classmate, Kent, to co-write it with me but it's completion is still far off.