i Report Issue No. 3 2005 - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

T H E L O S T G E N E R A T I O N
decided that the only way they
could learn to think critically
would be to show them where
exactly they were coming
from, and where they should
speak from, given the state of
the nation. I wanted to help
them realize that in everything
they said, did, or thought, they
were speaking, doing, and
thinking as Filipinos, whether
they liked it or not. With that
realization would come the
responsibility not just to speak
as Pinoys and Pinays, but to
be Pinoys and Pinays in their
analysis of everything from
soap operas to foreign critical
theories, from current events
to the clothes they wear.
Of course given that we all,
young and old alike, continue
to be messed up about our
identity as a people, I could
only ground them in certain
realities about our country that
we manage, consistently, not
to confront. Realities that we
keep in check because we can,
since we are not directly burdened.
The most basic of these
that needs to be acknowledged,
I found, is the fact
that we are an impoverished
country, never mind that we’re
driving the newest cars, or that
we have the latest cellphones,
or that we are not the poor. It
does not mean that everybody
else is as well-off—because
not a whole lot are. Only upon
realizing this can we raise the
question: Why are we poor?
A question that can only be
answered by history, hopefully
a Constantino history, which
tells of how we have been
oppressed for centuries and
by what, and how we have
always fought back.
A SENSE OF history is a good
beginning, I believe, for those
of us in this generation, students
and teachers alike, seeking
a reason for our existence
at this point in time. Because
we may be hi-tech and all, free
to make life choices, and liberated
in the way we dress, think,
and do things, but in truth, we
are misplaced and displaced by
a lack of consciousness about
where we truly come from in
the context of the country we
irrevocably belong to. When
the poverty is acknowledged,
our enemies become obvious.
Ours is a long history of
governance that has not had
the interests of the majority of
this country in mind, allowing
globalization to eat us alive,
allowing the elite to continue
owning more and more of this
country’s money and natural
resources for themselves,
allowing booty capitalism to
prosper at the expense of the
poor and hungry majority. And
then there’s us, the educated
middle class, some of whom
choose to remain complacently
uncertain about what we may
do, and some of whom choose
to take off, in search of happier
spaces.
But the space we search for
can only be here, in the one
country we are born to and can
truly call ours. Whatever we do,
whether we’re leaving or staying,
taking to the streets for the
masses or going to the countryside
and joining the armed
DOOMED GENERATION? Perhaps the
young people of today are condemned
to an endless process of searching for
the truths that will lead them toward real
freedom and genuine understanding.
struggle, whether we’re writing in
English or living up the Filipino
language, teaching in a university
or answering complaints at a call
center, we make our decisions
in the context of the state of
this nation, as we know it. This
is all the space we need, and
the space where we are most
needed. We only need to know
enough to see it.
Meanwhile, we wander
among the spaces we create
and wonder what it will take
to knock some sense into our
heads about the changes we
have the power to effect. Quite
possibly, we are a generation
doomed to an endless process
of searching—in denial about
this country’s truths, not ready
to give up our lives for the bigger
battles, uncertain of what
exactly it is we can do. Probably,
we are a transition generation,
finding and making spaces
in the strangest of places—be
it in the technology we so love
or in the bars of Malate, be it in
waging war or in observing the
peace, in writing or in taking to
the streets—living out our contradictory
lifestyles and values,
creating an open space for the
time when we may all agree
on what we stand for, and find
it in ourselves to fight the real
struggle for country vs. poverty,
enemies and all.
Hopefully we see that this
time can be now.
The author is currently doing
her thesis for an M.A. in
Philippine Studies at the U.P.
Departamento ng Filipino at
Panitikan ng Pilipinas. She
does freelance writing and
editorial work on the side. Her
passion is teaching.
34 PHILIPPINE CENTER FOR INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM I REPORT