PROVOKED BY ARTISTAS

I tried to keep my distance with the brewing elections. The fever seems too hot and too chaotic for me. The circus is not just up to my taste. As a civil servant, I could very well say that it is just the private side of me that could speak up. Hence, the pregnant silence…

Still, this text message just provoked me:

FROM A TEXT MESSAGE: “Pls patronize pirated Filipino DVDs so the movie industry will die & we wil no longer have actors, actresses, or their spouses running 4 public office. PLS PASS”

I’m critical with the qualifications of our candidates. I’m well aware that sterling qualities in leadership and personal ethics are of prime importance to take this country out of the rot. I’m very cynical of people who maximized their popularity and exposure to gain more votes and mileage. But this do not only confine to actors and actresses. Conrado de Quiros aptly pointed out that traditional politicians gained the much-needed mileage just like anybody else.

I cannot fathom the contempt people have over that in show business. How can one ruthlessly eliminate the movie industry to make sure that non-actors and actresses would not run our country? It is not an assurance that our nation will be in the G-8 soon if these artistas will not win. I don’t need convincing otherwise. Just simply talk to my hand.

The classical problem of having traditional politicians winning the elections due to the feudal way we are run is a complicated situation. Personality-based vote is a passport to winning. FPJ almost made it due to the hero-like projection. Erap won utilizing the underdog image.

I am no fan of the two. However, I didn’t vote for them because they were just actors. I also didn’t vote for GMA because she was just a woman. I rooted for somebody else, more principled. I also didn’t vote for him because he was a lawyer…

We truly deserve the leaders we get if we are willing to kill the arts just to eliminate the ‘stupid’ ones or segregate the lesser beings from the enlightened ones. We can be so ruthless in dismissing these artistas. With the jokes and text messages going around, they qualify to be burnt at the stake.

We bash our heads and continue to tear our ashen clothes over safe issues. Yet, we whimper and keep our silence shout at important ones. Shit, the anti-terror bill just got signed as a law on a special session. We just whimper and pretend that letting these artistas run is the end of the world.

Come, gag me.