DIGNIFIED IMAGES WANTED

DIGNIFIED IMAGES WANTED

By Wilhelmina S. Orozco

Who takes care of the image of women? Who protects that image from being disrespected and downgraded?

Actually, the image of a country, and of women in particular speak a lot about how we are esteemed or ignored or disrespected by other countries. If we have a high image, then we can expect equal and righteous treatment from other countries. If we have a corrupt and selfish officials who only think of self-aggrandizement, then we are in for a long battle against poverty, against maltreatment of our OFWs of other countries, of being in that list of distrusted countries that do not deserve to be lent any money from the world’s financial institutions.

I have been mulling over the image of Filipino women and until now, I am still shocked over the turn-out of our movement to liberate them. I saw a picture of girls running from the earthquake shocks in their countries and they were wearing short shorts. I ride the jeepneys around metroManila and I  see on the streets, fat and thin, women of all ages wearing short shorts. Then my co-passengers are the same – some even smooch with their boyfriends inside the jeep.

I was feeling foolish one day and when I met a student at a university wearing the same costume, I told her, “Next year you will be pregnant.” She looked at me oddly, as if what I had just said was out of this world. How can that be when it is so real? Our population growth is reaching its 100 millionth in a matter of two or three years. “Hakbangan mo lang ang Pilipina, buntis kaagad.”

Then I rode a tricycle where the driver had his wife at the back and his child in front of him. The wife was had the same attire. Then I saw how her belly was so big and I knew that in a matter of months she would be giving birth. I told them, “You keep wearing that attire and you will be pregnant every year. You will not have anymore time but just to take care of babies all day long.” The wife had a long look and then bowed her head, while the driver was smiling, as if it was very normal for a wife to be staying at home all the time and being surrounded with babies.

It seems that anything that comes out of the TV programs is such high fashion. Nag-mini skirt ang isang TV host kahit na buntis, and what did the girls and women do? They aped her. Yung mga dancers sa noontime shows, kumendeng kendeng lang at initsa-itsa ang mga hita nila sa ere, ginaya rin.  

Chinese treatment

So now, are we anywhere nearing a dignified state? Are we respected by our neighbors? The treatment we are getting from the People’s Republic of China signified how lowly we are to them. You see not only do they control our economy with so many cheap and easily-wrecked goods like umbrellas and ball pens that conk out after being written on a few pages of paper. They also are shoving their way at the Scarborough Shoal, as if it had been theirs since time immemorial.

Actually, Folks, let me digress a bit. If that is the defense of China with regard to their bullying us, then we might as well remove all foreigners from our country including their own who migrated to our shores in order to escape from the cruelty of their communist regime. What kind of cruelty do they inflict but the worst kind – killing babies in the womb of those women who are into their second pregnancies and beyond. Why, from the very beginning, we had only the Aetas and then the waves of Malayan and Indonesian immigrants here.

That argument, that they have had the Shoal since time immemorial is untenable. All the countries of the United Nations have their historical roots of migration. Yet they have bonded together in order to have peace in this world, and so that no country would be acting as if it is the only master  that could dictate how the earth should be rotating on its axis, and how one country could only have the sun shining on it and nothing more.

Acting with dignity

In order for us to be treated as equals, I think that we should not act as if we belong to another country. We must act with our own self that has dignity, that is principled and that has a consciousness that life is valuable for everyone and not for a few.

How funny really when a relative of a high official lowers the dignity of his office. That relative is a commercial object, selling all kinds of goods, from cooking stoves to watches and even to condominiums. What happens when that thing occurs? The position of the official is demeaned. The position becomes equal to all other positions.

I find that rather opportunistic when a relative, uses his or her position  to wangle high modeling fees simply because by appearing as a model, then he/she is able to connote the product with the high position of the relative. I do think that we must have a code of ethics for high officials here, or we should improve it so that the dignity of the position is not marred by that and other similar acts. What is the point?

Code of ethics

The point is that there should be dignity accorded positions up to relatives of the third degree.  Commercial companies should not be allowed to use relatives of high officials to push or promote products in public since they are supposed to be officials for everyone, not for a few companies or individuals.

So aside from revising the code of ethics for public officials, we must also tasked the government, especially the education and local government sectors to implement a program wherein the image of public officials and the citizens shall not be trampled upon.

That brings to my mind those tarpaulins full of faces and soooo ordinary messages of officials to their constituents. Pasko? Merry Christmas! Valentine? Happy Valentine’s Day! Nagtapos sa elementary ang mga bata? Congratulations! Nag anibersaryo ang barangay? Happy Anniversary! Ah, eleksyon! Iboto si Bebang! Huwag kalimutan is Kasmot!

And those tarpaulins stay up there forever and a day regardless of whether they are current or relevant. Tapos na ang Pasko, ang Valentine, ang graduation, ang elecksyon, a piyesta, narun pa rin. Thus the barangay looks like a place for hanging tarpaulins, no longer a dignified place to live in.

What is a dignified place? One where there are no tarpaulins hanging here and there, where electric cables are properly wound through tubes and connected to homes, not like spaghetti that could snap at any time. It is a place where the people are not just standing by or drinking about but are busy cleaning up, doing business in order to earn a decent income or carrying on a profession, like haircutting.

Education sector

The problem with the education sector is that it is saddled with putting up schools and the quality of education rather than attending to issues that have a bearing on our image. It does not seem to matter to a religious school if its students are moving about in full regalia of the thighs of their female students. It does not matter to government officials if the ranking of the universities are falling down worldwide.

Now why is the ranking falling down? The question should be, what is it in the environment that makes the school not a place for learning anymore but rather one for “sosyalan” among the students. Students go to school simply because they just want to have a diploma and use that as a passport to work abroad, no matter how lowly

Now we go back to the image of our people. Our image physically is so low that even the aspirations of the people have become very low indeed. What jobs await our people abroad? The majority are lowly ones that would not even earn them a pension when they retire, and in worst of cases, make them alienated from their own families, that is, if it has not been broken yet by geographical separation for many, many years.

Look at our neighboring countries. When you say, Thai, or Malaysian, or Singaporean or Vietnamese people, we immediately imagine well-dressed and healthy citizens, busy working or earning a living. When we say, Filipino people, and of course, Filipino women, all sorts of images crop up, majority of which is centered on how comical we find life – remember, “It’s more fun in the Philippines!” theme. And what image of women do we see? Bah! Whoa!

Cheap to see thighs in the Philippines. Go to schools, ride the jeepneys, the buses, watch the sidewalks. Tourists you would enjoy all sorts of sizes and ages.

Cultural not just economic campaigns

No, our campaigns against poverty should not only be economic but cultural. We must bring back the dignity of the Filipino people, of Filipino women. We cannot allow the present set-up to continue. Media should be part of that campaign to rid ourselves of images that put our people down in the face of all foreign countries. We cannot afford to continue doing our thing now without minding how we look.

It’s so funny, how the intelligence group track me down from the house to all the public places that I go to. Right now, I have just told off one resident downstairs not to make noise by the side of my window as I am writing this piece. What kind of noise? Gargling and sniffing. Who has brought him there? The yard is so big in front but he had chosen to do his thing right beneath my window. How funny really.

Then when I rode this jeepney from Buendia corner EDSA, two elderly women were acting strangely. They were staring hard at me. Because of the big intelligence budget, the intel group must be coming up with different activities that would anger me in public places and probably make me lose coolness. I could only shake my head in disbelief at their antics. The people’s money is being used for destroying activist tendencies among the people. Right now folks, several motorcycles are passing by my place –revving up the engine to create noise and make me mind them instead of my ideas here. These people are planted to destroy my equanimity in order for me not to come up with political ideas that would, to their polluted minds, rock the boat.

“Tuwid na daan” papunta saan?

Is it rocking the boat to point out where our country should be directed? PNoy talks about “tuwid na daan.” But when you talk of such paths, you need good directional tools. By the way, we could ask the local governors, what is the matter with your street signs? How can the people know the right directions when the street signs are either dilapidated or do not exist? At one time, there were even two streetname posts with different designs in several corners of our barangay yet carrying the same names of the streets. In Manila, the street names are peeling off the tablets, showing us how corrupt the officials who had ordered them.  They had accepted poor quality sign tablets just so they could rake millions from all the purchase streetsigns. At one time, I saw a post with a name pointing to the wrong street.

The wise guys in the barangay must be having a heyday making fun of those street posts. They want the people to lose their way as they themselves must have lost their way through all the years of neglect.

Directional tool

So what is the directional tool that we need? DZFE, the Christian radio station,  would say the Bible. We can be very religious and spiritual but we must also tackle the material life. First of all, we must be aware of what image we are showing the world.

Secondly, the educational sector must put its foot down and remove that laissez-faire attitude towards how the students look. The students must be taught that the school is a place for learning with dignity, not for loafing around in shorts and slippers. Most of all female students must be taught that they have a role to play in making their male classmates achieve high intellectual learning. They should not use their gender for creating situations that would only result in physical contact, but rather an intellectual relationship that will make them worthy citizens in the future.

Thirdly, local governments must cite what are important streets in each barangay. Those fronting the barangay halls especially should be a site for dignified activities – not for selling this and that product, or servicing this and that machine on the sidewalks.

I know the effect of a respectful treatment of the people in Tondo. The Robinson’s Corporation donated tarpaulins for the use of the Smokey Mountain relocatees in their community office in order to serve as roofing materials. Today, the community leader-volunteers dress up well, have an office that is a hub for so many activities serving the people, and the people themselves act from a higher moral ground. The leaders have just chastised one member who had tried to milk the people through dubious means although the project was educational in nature.

Moving and acting as one

The fact that our people are leaving in droves at the airport signifies that they want a decent livelihood, a decent lifestyle. They do not find that in our country and so they look for it elsewhere in this planet. Anywhere but in the Philippines. Sure, “fun” we can have but in terms of serious thinking and making lots of moolah, leave that to the telcos. By the way, aren’t we the top texters of the world?

If only the officials would be sensitive to what the people truly want, then our people would be moving as one with them. We would not be sitting around and just waiting for manna to drop from heaven. We shall act with them.