The article that was nothing

It's been a long time since I've come around. Haha, Lady Gaga is the peg.

Actually, I don't have anything to say right now. :D I mean, so many have happened and I wanted to talk about them. It's just that I'm more of kuwento person. Like, I can tell you a hundred stories and I'll never get tired or bored. But each time I thought of writing, just anything, the idea of putting into grand words the simple, funny story is a lot of pressure and thus, a lot of motivation is critically needed.

Take for instance, it's raining outside. The common feeling is somber, laziness, sadness. There's a perfect opportunity to just stay at home, use the water-streaked window pane as your psychologist and maybe read or write. For me, it's one helluva opportunity. I'm moody (and I think most creative people are) and I just write whenever I'm motivated or the situation is good. Simply, I write when I feel like it.

Then there's the topic. Ok, I want to write, the moment's perfect, the surrounding is cooperating, but if I don't have a topic to talk about, I'll just end up blurting out words that do not comprehend a single topic. So I feel like writing but what should I write about? Actually, there are a lot of topics in this universe to choose from (and I think the word lot is an understatement pa nga) but it's hard to find the one you want to talk about in your article. I mean, the enough amount of affinity for the topic for me to write about it is just like my mood, it comes and goes. The other day, I was so frustrated about a guy I dated because he's, pardon for a lack of better term, an asshole. I was so centered at that feeling that I was able to construct a free prose in my head, about dating, guys in general, love and its psyche, relationship, commitment and everything related. Only when I faced my laptop, only a blinking line was facing right back at me.

Writing is not as easy as it looks. It's like film, television or theater - there's an audience you need to please, affect, and solicit action from. The only difference with writing, our stage is the reader's imagination. We can be as explicit as we wanted to but the reader can extend that further; the enjoyment is not spoonfed. It's not suggestive like that of film or television.

But of course, to paint a story or prose where readers can infer and paint their own pictures is one goal of the author. It can be easily done but those that stick and matter are diamonds in the ocean. The author must meet the motivated version of him/her, the involving topic and the creative reader to craft a perfect piece.

So where's mine?

Pu(li)tik(a)

Politics has never been a black-and-white field, especially in the Philippines. Come on! Political dynasties. Mud picking of reputation. Illegal moves, which seems legal. Too many candidates. False promises. Both sides claiming they're better than their opponent. And the grand finale, nobody loses.

Haven't we learn much from history? The Aquinos, the Arroyos, the Marcoses, the Estradas and the rest of the candidates under the umbrella of a single surname. It's a repetitive cycle. Vengeance after vengeance that only serves personal interests. It's as if public service had become a Family Feud episode.

Politics has been dragged to dirt. It used to be a neutral and informative term. Now, politics is just another business for the rich and famous. It's not serving the people anymore.

Tell me, how come some bills, which can't be passed before for a very long time, can be railroaded to be passed within months while other pressing bills, if not the more important ones, remain in the benches? Why some of the cases receive justice swifter than ordering a meal at a restaurant while those that sit in the dusty desks remain full of dust?

People must realize that politics has been about power. The power realized from EDSA I was taken back again from the masses. People must realize that they are the ones paying taxes for these politicians to use for projects with purpose almost negligible beside their huge faces and names. People must realize that they are the ones who elected these politicians and the gratitude and service should be unto them and not to a selected few sponsors. The people must realize that, in a way, they are hiring these people to lead the country and service the Filipinos worldwide, always think of the country's interests first.

But people are more engrossed with when Maya and Sir Chief will kiss or if Marian Rivera is pregnant. We got more active discussions regarding Ricky Lo's Anne Hathaway interview rather than the Tubbataha Reef incident or the sainthood of San Pedro Calungsod. Not only learned people should be vocal, but through their cause of information dissemination, the mass must be aware and act as one just like what we did in EDSA I. The people power, termed as such, is rooted on the people, the mass, the Filipinos.

Which gives us a chicken-egg situation. Politicians behave that way because the people seem not to mind. Have we forgotten the "I am sorry" incident of Congw. Arroyo? Why is she still elected? Didn't Estrada resign by the clamor of the mass and didn't he promise, as part of his clemency, that he will not run again? Not only did he try to be president again, a post he resigned nearly a decade ago, but he's now running for mayorship in Manila, when everyone knows that San Juan is their long standing balwarte.

But also, people seem not to mind because they got tired of meddling with politics. What the people would be fighting is a system, and a rather old but crippling one. How many rallies, movements, clamors for change, talks of how to improve the status of the country have gone ignored and unnoticed? What happened to the message inside the three paper boats that cruised the Pasig River? How many voices have been drowned by clanking of glass wines, chewing of thousand peso worth of dinner and engine sound of million peso worth of travel? How many people mind their own daily source of water, food, and money to barely meet their expenses instead of commenting on what was happening and taking back the power that controls the country? The people have immediate problems the answers of which could mean their survival that they can't handle anymore the predicaments the government brings.

But that is the solution. Information dissemination. Inform everyone of the truth. Make those who lie sink in their places as the truth is being set free. Make everyone feel they have a stake, because they have. Make everyone know that all these survival problems is a tip of the root problem: power ownership and sense of responsibility. Take the mass as a single unit, fully aware of its powers and responsibilities, and use this power to take control of its hired leaders so they will function according to the best interests of the people. It can hire and fire the people it likes or dislikes. It can destroy people who would do no good to the people and it can reward those who really will selflessly serve for its good. The people has the power to implement what it wants for the people. Only with full actualization of that power can the country be a prouder democratic state.

The question now lies on who has the right information.