 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| The Sicilians of Asia? By Antonio C. Abaya Written August 07, 2005 For Standard Today, August 09 issue Round Two to Ping Lacson. Not that I am keeping score on the endless quarrels that go on in our hyperactive political arena. But I did write an article titled �Round One to Ping Lacson� on December 04, 2002, noting that he alone among the presidentiables then spoke out in favor of a population management program to reduce our population growth rate, at the risk of incurring the ire of the Catholic bishops. I considered, and still consider, that a positive leadership value. In the campaign towards the presidential elections in May 2004, Lacson ran the most serious, no-nonsense campaign among the top three candidates (the others: GMA and FPJ, of course), abjuring dancing girls and showbiz gimmickry on the stage. Which may explain why his ratings in the surveys did not change very much from 10-11% from January to May. But at least, Lacson showed that he was a political force to reckon with. He came out third in a field of five. I write that Round Two goes to Lacson because in a pair of surveys conducted nationwide by Pulse Asia in June and July 2005, he came out a strong second, next only to Noli de Castro, when respondents were asked which person they considered the best to lead the country. See my article �Romancing the Middle� (August 02, 2005). Noli de Castro�s rating actually dropped from 30% in June to 26% in July, as did Joseph Estrada�s from 19 to 11, Eddie Villanueva�s from 4 to 2. Susan Roces got 10 in July, but had not been included in the June survey. Rodolfo Biazon � I don�t know why he got into the survey in the first place � was steady at 2% in June and 2% in July. So was Fortunato Abat, who got zero in June and zero in July. By contrast, Lacson was the only one in the survey whose ratings actually went up, from 16% in June to 21% in July. It would be interesting to see how he does in August and subsequent months. Even more interesting is the fact that his ratings were almost equally high in all five socio-economic classes, ABCDE, while De Castro�s, Estrada�s and Roces� highs were mostly in the DE low income classes. What this means is that, for now (at least), Lacson is the only public figure who is scoring well with the politically important BC middle classes. This despite the pending and unresolved charges and allegations against him for perjury, wire-tapping, money laundering, kidnapping for ransom, drug trafficking, multiple murders and kicking screaming women out of an airborne helicopter. If only 10% of these allegations and charges were true, he would still be quite a��..guy. And now he is being connected to the testimonies of self-promoting stool pigeons ratting on alleged jueteng payolas to Mike and Mikey as well as to Comelec officials, as he earlier was to the actual wire-tapper of the Garci tape, S/Sgt Doble, who has admitted to being a member of his (Lacson�s) anti-organized-crime task force when Lacson was head of the Philippine National Police.. Why anyone with such a checkered past would register high marks with the BC middle-classes can partly be explained by the apparent absence of anyone else to believe in, so morally bankrupt is our political system. At least Lacson had the good sense to stay away from Jejomar Binay�s and JV Ejercito�s phony revolutionary council, joining which seems to have backfired against Susan Roces, Brother Eddie and Gen. Abat. The other �Jojo revolutionary,� Renato de Villa, is not even on the radar screen. Another reason for Lacson�s high marks may be cultural. Consider the following: Are we the Sicilians of Asia? Rightly or wrongly, that dented-tin-can island called Sicily which is permanently being kicked by the leg that is Italy has long been associated in the popular imagination � a bias perpetuated by Hollywood - with endemic violence, organized crime, wholesale corruption, bloody family feuds and unforgiving personal vendettas. Are we Filipinos the Sicilians of Asia? In the 1963 film The Leopard by Luchino Visconti, based on the novel Il Gattopardo by Giuseppe de Lampedusa and set in Sicily in the 1860s, long before Italy became a unitary republic, an ageing Sicilian aristocrat, Prince Fabrizio of Salina, is courted by an envoy from Torino to agree to becoming a senator and represent his island in the new government being formed in the Italian mainland. (The Leopard is not yet available in globalized DVD. I purchased my copy from amazon.com.) The envoy, Cavaliere Aimone Chevalley di Monterzuolo, tries to convince Fabrizio, implausibly play by Burt Lancaster, to join the Senate, �the highest chamber in the new kingdom, which passes, suggests, proposes and rejects new laws for progress.� Fabrizio declines, saying �I am a member of the old ruling class, hopelessly linked to the past regime and tied to it by chains of decency, if not affection. I belong to an unfortunate generation, straddling two worlds and ill at ease in both.� Chevalley cannot believe that Fabrizio would refuse �to do all you can to alleviate the physical squalor and the blind moral misery in which your people live.� Fabrizio explains that �for 25 centuries, we have borne the weight of superb civilizations that have come from the outside. But it was never our own creation, never one that we could call our own. For 2,500 years we have been nothing but a colony�..We are worn out and exhausted.� But, Chevalley argues, �Sicily is no longer a conquered land, but a free member of a free state.� Fabrizio replies that �sleep, my dear Chevalley, a long sleep, that is what Sicilians want. They always hate those who wake them up, even to bring the most wonderful gifts.� �Here in Sicily all expression, even of the most violent ones, is a desire for oblivion. Our sensuality is a longing for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, the penetrating sweetness of our sherbets, is a longing for voluptuous immobility, that is death once again�� (It sounds so mellifluously poetic in Italian.) �But aren�t you exaggerating, Principe? I have met Sicilians in Torino who are anything but asleep at all.� �True, a few of us, once off the island, wake up. But they have to leave while still very young. After the age of 20, the crust has already formed.� But surely, insists Chevalley, Sicilians must want to improve �this atmosphere, the violence of the landscape, the cruelty of the climate, the constant tension in everything�.� Fabrizio replies that �Sicilians never want to improve. They think of themselves as perfect. Their vanity is greater than their misery.� He suggests some other person for the position he is offered. Someone who has �prestige and power, who, instead of having scientific ideas, is more clever than I to create them when needed�.�. But Chevalley counters that �if honest men like you withdraw, the way will be open for other men without scruples, without vision, and everything will be as before for centuries to come. Listen to your conscience, Principe, ��..� Are we Filipinos the Sicilians of Asia, �longing only for oblivion, for voluptuous immobility,� .�.unwilling to �alleviate the constant tension in everything or to improve ourselves because our vanity is greater than our misery,� �..and permanently traumatized by the realization that for 500 years �we have been nothing but somebody else�s colony,� �..and so we readily accept as our leaders �men and women without scruples, without vision� �..that is why �everything will be as before for centuries to come���.? How sad! ***** Reactions to [email protected] or fax 824-7642. Other articles in www.tapatt.org |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �The Sicilians of Asia?� Thanks. Yours is the only news I read. Please keep it coming. I'm now in New York. I'm still afraid of going home. Maryann O�Connor Rodriguez, [email protected] New York City, August 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Sicilians of Asia? Now that's a thought. Regards. Johnny Mercado, [email protected] Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I try not to believe that. There is someone there who has the moral authority to lead this country. But I know that things will get worse before it starts getting better and better and better. I know I may be lone wolf , but I am a person who will never allow or support a leader who has committed moral transgressions mainly allowing corruption or worse being corrupted. I know the country will suffer if we keep on changing leaders due to what I have mentioned, but its the only way I think that the right person will eventually come out. Again, it will get worse before it starts getting better. Bombing Moll, [email protected] August 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, It does seem tempting to answer yes to your question: Are we Filipinos the Sicilians of Asia? The reference pertains to the Sicilians of the 1860s, who remained in Sicily. However, there was also the migration of Sicilians to the USA to "create their own destiny in the Land of the Free and the Brave" that should also be taken into consideration for a balanced view of the "Sicilians". We have our own OFWs, estimated at about 8 MILLION and the Filipino migrants who should be looked at as the counter-part of the Sicilian migrants to the USA. Most importantly, there is a growing number among us locals who are awakening from political indifference and stupor. We will in a just a few more years, perhaps less than 10 years, reach a critical mass to trigger a snow-ball effect in politicizing the Filipino. At present, we may not be as visible as the "street parliamentarians" with the political spectrum from extreme Left to the extreme Right. But sooner than what you may think, our voice shall be heard to help shape the political directions of our Motherland. And before the next 10 years will be over, there will be many of us who will be ready to take the lead roles for the political destiny of the Philippines for the benefit of our own descendants. So, I have to answer NO to "that is why 'everything will be as before for centuries to come'?" Joseph Midar, [email protected] August 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Brilliant analogy, Tony! Excellent comparison and so true it hurts to admit it. I am leaving this country at the end of the month and taking my Asawa and two Anaks with me. I am joining the throng and getting out of Dodge. Why? The answer is simple and just the same as for why dogs lick their genitalia........ Because we can! If I were to stay here for ten years and learn to speak fluent Tagalog and was granted Filipino citizenship I would never, ever be accepted as a Filipino. I would always be a Kano and treated as such. Held in some kind of ridiculous Hollywood awe by the D's and E's, chased as marriageable material by C's half my age and despised for my ability to travel, make money and escape at will by the B's. The A's? They don't even know I exist and are so privileged here it wouldn't matter to them if they did. The current government is morally corrupt to say the least and there is no-one to replace them. How about one of the stars of the cult of me as perpetuated by anyone with a hankering for public office and a love of the microphone? Take GMA's Visayan fan club leader, Osmena-Bin-Laden. Where I am going to he wouldn't last two minutes in office after just one of his "follies". (All of these are supported by reports in the Cebu SunStar and other collections of crappy grammar) Condoning murder and vigilantes! Sacking 77 casual government employees because they live in Talisay and, in his own words, can't vote for him so why not give their jobs to Cebu residents who can! Evicting Talisay residents who have stalls at Cebu city market simply because they come from the city where his personal nemesis holds office! And his lovely lock down the Coast Road to force his Talisay opponents into not trying to grab some of the money, er... I mean land titles for reclaimed land. Use a phoney excuse, misuse police to enforce your edict and do it on a National Highway you don't have the authority to close but who cares because your name is Osmena and this is your town, you have charm (his own statement!) and so on! He is indicative of the standard of trapo you have to choose from! The cult of me! There are Tommy Boys all over this country. One family member will be Mayor this term, the other will be Senator, another Governor and the other one can be a Congressman. Next election, all change but keep it in the families. That way they save the public thousands as you only have to repaint the first initial on the name plates in the reserved parking spaces. They are a joke but nobody dares laugh at them and the same goes for whoever holds power in each tiny corner of this fragmented former colony ruled by a privileged colonial aristocracy, governed by a kleptocracy and policed by the catholic church inc. and armed thugs. The lower classes are too busy surviving to notice and they are easily fooled by the glamour and glitz of celebrities and the mumbo jumbo of the ruling house of myth and superstition. If they get a bit toey the rulers tell the friars to flog them some salvation or the odd fiesta and all is well. Bring down a Revo full of Artistas to sing and no more problem! The rich don't want it to change and who can blame them? Those in the middle have no unity, no leadership and so they see only two alternatives. Speak up and be singled out and dealt with, or shut up and work on your visa! Even those who protest outside the US Embassy are really saying "Yankee Go Home......and take me with you!" For me the big reason not to remain here is simply the death grip the churches have here on every facet of life. Unless you have the big money to buy an International School education you can't escape rabid religion. Outdated dogma means millions of hungry mouths. If they sold off their churches and turned them into soup kitchens and bed spacers and handed out free condoms they would solve the homeless and the hungry in one fell swoop! Instead of teaching myth and magic they should teach Filipino's to count! I haven't met one yet that can do mental arithmetic, without a calculator or cell phone they are stumped! I asked 23 graduates of UC's Bachelor of Science class earlier this year how many centavos in a peso. 5, 10, 20 or 25 were the usual answers, not one got it right! These are graduates! The English majors were a disgrace, an absolute disgrace. Most were too shy to speak English to me and the few who did were atrocious. How are they taught English? In Tagalog or Visayan with the only English being the odd term like "noun", "phrase" or "adjective". They get the ok from the government and celebrities speaking Taglish. If even GMA can't stick to one language for the entire sentence or sound bite why should anyone else? This is the quality of education I can expect for my girls? After two years at school my eldest can cross herself silly but can't read! I could read at four better than she can at nearly seven! Sicily is a good analogy for this place. This country is falling apart with little to hold it together, the very culture splits us apart! Pakikisama alone ensures nothing gets done and utang na loob means corruption and cronyism are officially ok! What happened in Sicily? Everybody went to America! The only ones left were the very rich, the very poor and the too slow to know when to quit. I will be pilloried for this, no doubt, but I remind all the bristling Jose Rizals out there that I married into the Filipino gene pool, I live on in the shape of my children and they are half Pinay. I just hope in the future, when they tell people, that the response isn't gales of merciless laughter. Keep up the good work, Tony, you are a voice in the wilderness, but you are being heard. Hopefully it is not too late. I would suggest you take up the falling Standard but what's the point? The system wouldn't let you live longer than a day once you actually tried to change anything and we both know that, am I right di ba? Regards, Perry Gamsby, [email protected] Cebu City, August 10, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Copy furnished) Hi Leny, There is so much food for thought here. Are we really the Sicilians of Asia? Linda Nietes, [email protected] Rancho Palos Verdes, California August 10, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Sir: I read your wonderful article with great interest. Concerning THE LEOPARD, you may wish to also read the novel which ends many decades after the last scene in the movie. The movie is more sympathetic to Don Fabrizio and the novel reveals a deeper irony not only about the narrative, but also about life. N. Abu, [email protected] August 10, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reflecting on those words that you have quoted, as they apply to the Philippines today, it is indeed truly sad. Cesar M. de los Reyes, [email protected] August 10, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Idol mo naman pala si Ping Lacson. Among the personalities you have written about you wrote your column with title "Ping Lacson" on it 5-6 times. Number one among your many. He is the next leader of the Philippines, you bet Bruce Carolino, [email protected] August 10, 2005 MY REPLY. Just because I have written �five or six� articles about Ping Lacson does not mean he is my idol. I have written more articles about President Arroyo, Joseph Estrada and FPJ. They are not my idols either. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Indeed! Lydia B. Echauz, [email protected] President, Far Eastern University August 11, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tokayo, Greetings! This is a belated expression of gratitude to you for including me in your e-mail list. Your insights greatly help to in-form my judgment of current issues. Since I am now and then contacted by church leaders on topics like agrarian reform, human rights, church-state relationship...your writings provide me with an enriching perspective. Thus, my deep gratitude to one whose love of our country has been unswerving all these years. Angelita likewise sends personal greetings and warm regards. Tony L. Ledesma, [email protected] August 11, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Thanks for that Visconti piece. Amazingly, it mirrors our society and its resistance to social change. The trapos, big business, the left and other reactionaries should see that DVD. Do you have also the Damned and Death in Venice by Visconti ? There is one Italian film I'm looking for in DVD, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, do you have it too ? How about Burn by Gillo Pontecorvo ? Auggie Surtida, [email protected] Tigbauan, Iloilo, August 11, 2005 MY REPLY. Sorry, the only one in your list that I have is Death in Venice. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |
| Dear Sir: Concerning your article "The Sicilians of Asia?", the following quote may be of interest: - Countries under foreign command quickly forget their history, their past, their tradition, their national symbols, their way of living, often their own literary language. (Slobodan Milosevic) N. Abu,[email protected] September 16, 2005 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
Dear Sir: As an incentive to read the novel THE LEOPARD, it may be of interest to know that the NEW YORK TIMES Reading Group has selected it to be discussed in February: (After clicking on link below, scroll down the page a bit) http://www.nytimes.com/ref/readersopinions/reading-group-picks.html N. Abu, February 02, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |