Peacethan 2008

ambivalence and directions

"We believe that politics is the way you live your life, not who you support. It's not in terms of rallies or speeches or political programs. It is in terms of images and in terms of transforming people's lives."

-ABBIE HOFFMAN, 1968-

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR 46-ARTIST ANTHEM ENTITLED,

More than a political statement, “Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA” addresses what is beneath this political mess. It is a coming together of creative forces, reminding all of the core Filipino values taught to us by our own history and those who came before us.

Without ignoring our different views on the present political situation, the 46 artists came together in agreement in the form of this song. Written and composed by Mr. Noel Cabangon, “Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA” is a firm culmination of what we discovered common among us. We are all hungry for change, thirsty for transformation. We are artists, this is our expertise. We state our message through our craft.

Over a year in the making, the song’s production was finally completed this month. Independently produced through small contributions from the community of artists and volunteers, “Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA” is a creative co-op of musicians and believers. The song will speak for us – over and above the din of political rhetoric.

Bob Dylan said it best, “Music should not reflect culture, it should subvert culture.” Sa Filipino: Ang musika ay hindi lamang nagsasalamin ng ating kultura, musika’y naghuhulma ng kultura. This song is our loudest voice. Our collective stance. We are artists, this is our expertise, therefore we say our piece on this stage. Listen.

“Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA” is not a mere reaction to the political mess. It has been an ongoing project meant to shape the “values-direction” that we believe we should take. This is simply a magnificent assertion of what we already know and what we have been taught. We know that we are truly a brave, honest and efficient people; that is what we are. If through generations we have forgotten our nobility, let this song remind you, “Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA.”

More than just a song about nobility: this is a song about OUR nobility.

Listen.

Kaya Mong Maging DAKILA!

The idea of heroism sounds a little daft in a culture of game shows and celebrity video-phone scandals. Irony has become such an accidental virtue that it has swung back to hit us in the head. Calling someone a “hero” is to invite sarcasm and self-righteousness. So here we are now, living in a time tragically bereft of them.

Heroes are products of circumstance. There are those who have become so through sheer will, but there are people who become heroes after being pushed to a dead end.

A wise man once said our past shapes our response to the present. This nation was formed on the sacrifices made by martyrs both immortalized and anonymous. A country need not be a colony of a foreign power— it can also be the fiefdom of its own leaders. We are a heroic people, but we can also be shackled by our own pessimism and apathy.

A hero resides in every one of us. It begins in the mind, with one thought that says it can be done. To do all things with pride and dignity, to learn from the lessons of history, to realize that the deeds of our heroes are not hackneyed fables but real, breathing examples of how to live our lives.

This is a song about nobility. Listen.

Simply Not Enough

The controversial NBN-ZTE deal sprouted into a multitude of issues ranging from the obvious anomalies to the in depth exposes on the rule makers of this ballgame. Like the Pandora’s Box, it has opened all sorts of evil that have been trying to evade the public eye for so long. The country has been witness to revelations of all sorts. We shook our heads when we learned that the $262M project cost ballooned into a $329M loan. We crunched at the thought of the shady cover ups of opposing camps in a tight race to swing public opinion. Spin doctors make remedies resorting to published wire tapped conversations, revelations of dirty laundry, blemished credibility even to as far as shattering friendships of innocent children. We feared for the safety of a witness ready to tell all and watched in the same interests with our favorite telenovela the Senate hearings that feed our curiosity with blow by blow account of a true to life mixture of action, comedy, horror, drama and fantasy unfolding. We groaned in disgust on the extent of greed that spans wide from the small fishes in the tank to the whales of the ocean and realized that the whole ecosystem is in fact contaminated with stinking corruption. We grew watchful and conscious of text messages, phone conversations, security cameras after having learned that the government must had too much of methamphetamine hydrochloride.

And the camera continues to roll. And we, the movie audience grow more confused as the plot thickens. While the church remains divided into where to lead its flock, the opposition and militants dance together into another “ouster” tune. Just as right wing elements and adventurers in the military attempts to win the crowd with patriotic agitation of their messianic intentions, the veteran players of traditional politics competes to hog the spotlight with brilliant posturing and statesman like images tailor fitted for 2010. Joey and Jun like carnival stars packaged as modern heroes are being paraded in schools and civil society functions to court movers of another attempt at Edsa.

The nation is in frenzy. Calls for ouster, snap elections, caretaker government, and kabayan for president barks at every street corner yet the broad masses remains in the sidelines. We remain spectators.

Some call it apathy while others see it as cynicism. Ideologues theorized it to people power fatigue.

Whatever you call it, the common folk would simply comment, “Pare-pareho lang sila (everyone is the same)”. I would rather use what my friends would term it, “different ass, and same shit”.

Unless concrete reforms that deal with the real issues of the people are raised and confronted, all the efforts will serve a lost cause. Unemployment. Rising Cost of Education. More classrooms and textbooks. Starvation Wages. Hunger. Extreme Poverty. Regressive Taxation. Embedded Corruption.

From the way things are going, it will not be different from the past Edsa that merely changed the moustache of an Asiong Salonga to the mole of a Nora Aunor. What remains are options to install a “kabayan” speaking moron or a pack of vultures waiting to feed on the nation.

Let us hope that the objective condition will not be cruel to limit us with a choice between evils. May we have the opportunity to write history with genuine freedom to choose what is truly beneficial for our country.

While everybody’s busy ousting a President, nobody is talking about the real issues.

Don’t get me wrong. I would party in the streets just to see that evil bitch fall but not to hand over on a silver plate a rod to the salivating monsters ready to beat the hell out of another generation of my country men.

-leni-
disturbed on a friday night