March 2nd, 2006
NEVER AGAIN?
Whatever happened to 'never again'?
First posted 11:47pm (Mla time) Mar 02, 2006
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
"NEVER again!" was the cry that arose after February 1986, a cry that might have issued from the hollow mouths of the Holocaust victims themselves. Martial law was our own equivalent of the Holocaust, notwithstanding that it did not carry with it stark images of smoke coming out of the chimneys of buildings where men, women and children had been. We have our own horrifying images of mass graves and maimed bodies alongside the grinning faces of those partying in the presidential yacht. Indeed, we have our own stark images of non-images of the faces of the disappeared, the obdurate presence of the absent, the people their loved ones would never see again.
The cry "Never again!" was so resonant it spawned entire groups dedicated to a dictatorship-watch, making sure one would never rise again. "Never again!" was even a forum in the Internet, meant to be an early warning device alerting all and sundry about the signs of a brewing tyranny.
Well, 20 years later, dictatorship is back, resurrected on the very day dedicated to commemorating its death. Twenty years later, martial law is back, raised up on the very day dedicated to its being toppled down. Whatever happened to "never again"?
As it turns out, many of those who shouted that line ferociously are now serving tamely the one person who is resolved to recycle dictatorship "ever and ever again." As it turns out, what they really meant when they said, "Never again!" was that never again would they be poor, never again would they be without power, never again would they suffer the discomforts of struggling against injustice and oppression.
History repeats itself, as they say, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. How very true, except that this one is a bitter farce, it only hurts when you laugh. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is truly a caricature of Ferdinand Marcos, but a most perverse one. At least Marcos won twice in presidential elections before he became a dictator and ruled the country with an iron fist. Arroyo has not won a single presidential election -- she was shoved into power by the very thing she has now decreed illegal, which is People Power, for the heroic act of hiding under the bed, or Cory Aquino's and Jaime Cardinal Sin's skirts; and she merely stole the presidency from Fernando Poe Jr. -- and she has the gall to plunge this country into the darkness of martial law?
What a pathetic people we are if we will just bow our heads and accept it. Or utter that monstrous phrase with abject weariness: "Let's move on."
Whatever has turned "Never again!" into "Ever and ever again"?
I can think of all sorts of sophisticated or convoluted explanations for it, but a friend of mine has hit the nail on the head with a simple one. "What the hell has happened to us?" -- she expostulated to me the other day. "Have we become a people without balls?"
That is the most direct, forceful and complete explanation for why, 20 years after we liberated ourselves from a dictatorship, we have fallen back into its clutches. No, more than that, it's the most scientific one. We've lost our balls. Or more accurately, we've allowed a small person (spiritual, not literal) who never won a presidential election to cut off our balls.
That is so in the sense of "balls" meaning pride and courage. We've lost our pride, and we've lost our courage.
The first has been unraveling over the last few years when we kept on beating our chests and ruing in doleful voices that beggars cannot be choosers, let's just choose the lesser evil, the iniquity is done, let's just move on. It's that plunging into the lowest pit of mediocrity, that settling for crumbs out of self-inflicted sense of desperation, that willingness to tolerate abuse and wrongdoing that has undone us. Beggars cannot be choosers? Choosers cannot be beggars! It's the mental prison of thinking you have no choice that makes you a beggar, not the other way around.
In any case, what idiocy should possess anyone to make him suppose Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the "lesser evil" to anything? Of course, that was how she advertised herself in the elections (the lesser evil to Fernando Poe Jr.) and that is how she advertises herself today (the lesser evil to any alternative). The lesser evil? Hell, a dog would be a lesser evil. At least a dog has virtues that commend it as man's best friend. You keep thinking you have no choice but to pick the lesser evil -- Raul Roco was hands-down a patent good in the last elections, even if his EQ was constantly at war with his IQ -- and you'll keep getting the greater hell. Look where we are now.
The second, which is that we've lost the fire in our bellies, is patent today. A phalanx of anti-riot cops attacks a crowd of marchers who are doing anything but rioting and the marchers run away. A checkpoint full of soldiers stops people from marching to Fort Bonifacio to come in aid of a "beleaguered" group of Marines, as Col. Ariel Querubin put it, and they agree to stand rooted to the spot. What has happened to this country's capacity to raise a fist at tyranny? What has happened to this country's capacity to defy dictatorship?
I joked before media friends last Sunday that better the crowd at Ultra, at least they had the balls to rush forward. The crowds that gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Edsa People Power I and to defend a group of Marines at Bonifacio a couple of days later had the balls only to either run away or be rendered immobile. Maybe, I said, next time we hold a rally we should announce that prizes in the form of house and lot, tricycles and cash will be given to those who stand their ground. Looking back, I don't know if that is a joke at all.
Forget about economic recovery. Let's just recover our balls.
First posted 11:47pm (Mla time) Mar 02, 2006
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer
"NEVER again!" was the cry that arose after February 1986, a cry that might have issued from the hollow mouths of the Holocaust victims themselves. Martial law was our own equivalent of the Holocaust, notwithstanding that it did not carry with it stark images of smoke coming out of the chimneys of buildings where men, women and children had been. We have our own horrifying images of mass graves and maimed bodies alongside the grinning faces of those partying in the presidential yacht. Indeed, we have our own stark images of non-images of the faces of the disappeared, the obdurate presence of the absent, the people their loved ones would never see again.
The cry "Never again!" was so resonant it spawned entire groups dedicated to a dictatorship-watch, making sure one would never rise again. "Never again!" was even a forum in the Internet, meant to be an early warning device alerting all and sundry about the signs of a brewing tyranny.
Well, 20 years later, dictatorship is back, resurrected on the very day dedicated to commemorating its death. Twenty years later, martial law is back, raised up on the very day dedicated to its being toppled down. Whatever happened to "never again"?
As it turns out, many of those who shouted that line ferociously are now serving tamely the one person who is resolved to recycle dictatorship "ever and ever again." As it turns out, what they really meant when they said, "Never again!" was that never again would they be poor, never again would they be without power, never again would they suffer the discomforts of struggling against injustice and oppression.
History repeats itself, as they say, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. How very true, except that this one is a bitter farce, it only hurts when you laugh. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is truly a caricature of Ferdinand Marcos, but a most perverse one. At least Marcos won twice in presidential elections before he became a dictator and ruled the country with an iron fist. Arroyo has not won a single presidential election -- she was shoved into power by the very thing she has now decreed illegal, which is People Power, for the heroic act of hiding under the bed, or Cory Aquino's and Jaime Cardinal Sin's skirts; and she merely stole the presidency from Fernando Poe Jr. -- and she has the gall to plunge this country into the darkness of martial law?
What a pathetic people we are if we will just bow our heads and accept it. Or utter that monstrous phrase with abject weariness: "Let's move on."
Whatever has turned "Never again!" into "Ever and ever again"?
I can think of all sorts of sophisticated or convoluted explanations for it, but a friend of mine has hit the nail on the head with a simple one. "What the hell has happened to us?" -- she expostulated to me the other day. "Have we become a people without balls?"
That is the most direct, forceful and complete explanation for why, 20 years after we liberated ourselves from a dictatorship, we have fallen back into its clutches. No, more than that, it's the most scientific one. We've lost our balls. Or more accurately, we've allowed a small person (spiritual, not literal) who never won a presidential election to cut off our balls.
That is so in the sense of "balls" meaning pride and courage. We've lost our pride, and we've lost our courage.
The first has been unraveling over the last few years when we kept on beating our chests and ruing in doleful voices that beggars cannot be choosers, let's just choose the lesser evil, the iniquity is done, let's just move on. It's that plunging into the lowest pit of mediocrity, that settling for crumbs out of self-inflicted sense of desperation, that willingness to tolerate abuse and wrongdoing that has undone us. Beggars cannot be choosers? Choosers cannot be beggars! It's the mental prison of thinking you have no choice that makes you a beggar, not the other way around.
In any case, what idiocy should possess anyone to make him suppose Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the "lesser evil" to anything? Of course, that was how she advertised herself in the elections (the lesser evil to Fernando Poe Jr.) and that is how she advertises herself today (the lesser evil to any alternative). The lesser evil? Hell, a dog would be a lesser evil. At least a dog has virtues that commend it as man's best friend. You keep thinking you have no choice but to pick the lesser evil -- Raul Roco was hands-down a patent good in the last elections, even if his EQ was constantly at war with his IQ -- and you'll keep getting the greater hell. Look where we are now.
The second, which is that we've lost the fire in our bellies, is patent today. A phalanx of anti-riot cops attacks a crowd of marchers who are doing anything but rioting and the marchers run away. A checkpoint full of soldiers stops people from marching to Fort Bonifacio to come in aid of a "beleaguered" group of Marines, as Col. Ariel Querubin put it, and they agree to stand rooted to the spot. What has happened to this country's capacity to raise a fist at tyranny? What has happened to this country's capacity to defy dictatorship?
I joked before media friends last Sunday that better the crowd at Ultra, at least they had the balls to rush forward. The crowds that gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Edsa People Power I and to defend a group of Marines at Bonifacio a couple of days later had the balls only to either run away or be rendered immobile. Maybe, I said, next time we hold a rally we should announce that prizes in the form of house and lot, tricycles and cash will be given to those who stand their ground. Looking back, I don't know if that is a joke at all.
Forget about economic recovery. Let's just recover our balls.
Posted by lefthandedrebel at 03:03 AM | gusto mo ba talagang malaman?
