An ant colony has a single queen, plenty of workers, and some alates or male ants. The queen, of course, does nothing but lie down and have kids. The workers maintain the underground chambers, collect the food, groom the queen, and feed the larvae. The drones fertilize the queen, and as far as I can tell, do nothing else afterwards but die.
The ant colony lives underground in a series of interconnected chambers and tunnels. Each chamber is dedicated to a certain function, such as food storage or nurseries. Ants from different colonies are aggressive towards each other.
Each ant has his own role. Perhaps there are ants who are assigned to guard the colony from attacks by other ants. Perhaps there are troublemaker ants who bite others without provocation. Perhaps there are lazy worker ants who sleep when they think no one is looking.
So it is with human society, whether they live in tribes or in cities. Humans co-exist to fulfill their needs within the group. Each member has his own role, and each one contributes for the continued existence of the group.
When I am asked to describe Philippine society, what comes to mind is the Lifestyle section of the broadsheets. Perhaps it does not give an accurate picture of everything that our society is, but it gives one a slice of what makes us what we are.
A society is largely dependent on its particular culture. One good thing about Philippine society is that due to the many cultural influences from the time of Spanish colonization to American and Japanese occupation, we have become like a sponge. We soak up and absorb influences from other nations and cultures, and make it part of our own. Back to the Lifestyle section: you see raving reviews of Japanese restaurants, where to buy the latest French fashion trends, and a dissection of Swiss watches or German cars. We embrace Korean telenovelas and the American Idol with equal passion. But we are not confused about who we really are. Look at us when Manny Pacquiao has a fight. We even have ceasefires in war-torn Mindanao so both sides could watch on tv.
You could watch documentaries until you're blue in the face and you will get a list of all that ails Philippine society. Crooked politicians, drug traffickers, child labor, people who kill cats just for kicks, prostitution… it goes on. What is sad is that Filipinos have this amazing capacity to grin and bear it. Ok, so we had a dictator. Took us two decades to throw that one out. So the President cheated in the elections? She apologized and the people let it go. The ZTE Broadband deal is just so much big words in the back issues of newspapers.
I ride "kolorum" vans to work. You ask, why don't they apply for a franchise? Because it's so tough to process the application. Why is it so tough? Because you have to go through so many people and get so many signatures, and by the time you finally ask for approval, it has been over a year, you have already spent a hundred thousand pesos, and then the officials get re-shuffled. What happens to the papers? Well, you have to start all over again, because now there are different signatories. And in the meantime, the kolorum vans play patintero with the traffic enforcers every day. They pay these officers a certain fee every month so that they will not be apprehended. The protection money goes all the way up to the bosses, so as long as the papers are not approved, these officers have a steady source of income. You hear all these, and you are indignant. But the drivers who make a living will say, "Talagang ganyan ang buhay." The officers who receive the money (and the occasional lechon or bottle of Johnny Walker) will say, "Talagang ganyan." The passengers shrug and say, "Talagang ganyan."
That's what's wrong. It's not "bahala na." It's the cheerful, almost careless acceptance that it is the way of life, and we take it because it is too much trouble to buck the tide.
The ant colony lives underground in a series of interconnected chambers and tunnels. Each chamber is dedicated to a certain function, such as food storage or nurseries. Ants from different colonies are aggressive towards each other.
Each ant has his own role. Perhaps there are ants who are assigned to guard the colony from attacks by other ants. Perhaps there are troublemaker ants who bite others without provocation. Perhaps there are lazy worker ants who sleep when they think no one is looking.
So it is with human society, whether they live in tribes or in cities. Humans co-exist to fulfill their needs within the group. Each member has his own role, and each one contributes for the continued existence of the group.
When I am asked to describe Philippine society, what comes to mind is the Lifestyle section of the broadsheets. Perhaps it does not give an accurate picture of everything that our society is, but it gives one a slice of what makes us what we are.
A society is largely dependent on its particular culture. One good thing about Philippine society is that due to the many cultural influences from the time of Spanish colonization to American and Japanese occupation, we have become like a sponge. We soak up and absorb influences from other nations and cultures, and make it part of our own. Back to the Lifestyle section: you see raving reviews of Japanese restaurants, where to buy the latest French fashion trends, and a dissection of Swiss watches or German cars. We embrace Korean telenovelas and the American Idol with equal passion. But we are not confused about who we really are. Look at us when Manny Pacquiao has a fight. We even have ceasefires in war-torn Mindanao so both sides could watch on tv.
You could watch documentaries until you're blue in the face and you will get a list of all that ails Philippine society. Crooked politicians, drug traffickers, child labor, people who kill cats just for kicks, prostitution… it goes on. What is sad is that Filipinos have this amazing capacity to grin and bear it. Ok, so we had a dictator. Took us two decades to throw that one out. So the President cheated in the elections? She apologized and the people let it go. The ZTE Broadband deal is just so much big words in the back issues of newspapers.
I ride "kolorum" vans to work. You ask, why don't they apply for a franchise? Because it's so tough to process the application. Why is it so tough? Because you have to go through so many people and get so many signatures, and by the time you finally ask for approval, it has been over a year, you have already spent a hundred thousand pesos, and then the officials get re-shuffled. What happens to the papers? Well, you have to start all over again, because now there are different signatories. And in the meantime, the kolorum vans play patintero with the traffic enforcers every day. They pay these officers a certain fee every month so that they will not be apprehended. The protection money goes all the way up to the bosses, so as long as the papers are not approved, these officers have a steady source of income. You hear all these, and you are indignant. But the drivers who make a living will say, "Talagang ganyan ang buhay." The officers who receive the money (and the occasional lechon or bottle of Johnny Walker) will say, "Talagang ganyan." The passengers shrug and say, "Talagang ganyan."
That's what's wrong. It's not "bahala na." It's the cheerful, almost careless acceptance that it is the way of life, and we take it because it is too much trouble to buck the tide.
No comments:
Post a Comment