When I was a kid, the society made me think that riding a plane and crossing the oceans to set down on a foreign land is the ultimate goal to get a handful of gold. This amazed me and made me look up to my aunt who was sending me chocolates and clothes. That time, I dreamt too to fly away.
As I grew up, I got a better perspective. Both of the songs by Gloc 9 and Nora Aunor are eye-opener, a hard slap of the truth, and an antidote for the poison that they made us believe. People called it perseverance and sacrifice – one thing Filipinos are known for, but it is more than that – it is heroism.
Maybe it is time to look behind the picture of gaining wealth by working abroad and leaving your family and homeland. Filipinos are all around the world taking risks and chances to survive while they aim to provide their families the kind of living they promised. Labor, skill, and intelligence are the products of our country and are sent to different places. But is it always win-win situation? I bet not because there’s one thing money can’t buy and it is time and not every Filipino worker had the luckiest opportunity.
This is the matter that our government continuously fails to address – the reasons why the countrymen need to risk their lives, like holding a knife with a blindfold and hoping that the lucky charms will work for them. They have to avoid hunger for their family, get a quality education for the children, and a safe and sound living for their loved ones, and to get it all, they gamble themselves in a strange so strange to them. If this doesn’t look burdensome, then you have to open your eyes where darkness exists.
Moreover, Gloc 9’s song “Walang Natira” is being represented at the time being as our country is elapsing in the occurrence of pandemic. The health workers are lacking but our nurses are choosing to apply and work abroad rather than to work here. In the middle of world crisis, they are more willing to leave their family in order to look for money to support them. What else is a horrible fact? Quite small number are left working and serving the Filipinos – a number that isn’t enough to handle the sick people our nation.
We’ve got time to change the way we see things. We are allowed to modify our viewpoints in life even if we are not directly affected to the problem. We could think of small steps that might help, like choosing the most appropriate and compassionate leader for our country – someone who would prioritize these concerns over greed for money and power. Philippines is a developing country with high rates of poverty and unemployment and while we see that these things are falling deeper in red, it’s not a blind spot anymore that most of the officials are laying on the public funds which should’ve been used for developments and life improvements of the people who are less fortunate.
Our country is in disarray. Maybe people are used to this kind of arrangement because they are privileged but may our kindness and heart be with the people who are fighting for equal rights, benefit, and protection from the administration for we are all citizens of this land. We all deserve to be heard, but for that to happen, we have to use our voice first. What truth have you found yet?
Kung hindi ka sigurado, mag-isip-isip ka na.
Special Notes:
All Other Images used in this article (without watermark) are Copyright Free Images from Pixabay and Unsplash.
This is original content.
This is the typical mindset that we have grown up with. Most of the people in my hometown are like these and they're even persuading me to follow them. But when I ask what are jobs of most of them here, it is being a DH and Caregiver mostly with a Php 21k monthly salary.
Then as I grow up, I start to ponder about these things and have a realization. I rather not. If that's what I would do by sacrificing my time and distance from my family, I'd rather be a farmer here in the Philippines. At least, we are living simply and peacefully.