People power – 25 years and counting

I woke up on Saturday morning from a strange dream - that I hopped on a taxi in Dubai and then suddenly forced to board the “Bicol Express”, you know that old tram that runs from Paco to Bicol, then taken off to a dingy clinic in a rural town in the Philippines to get immunity shots for an unidentified virus that deletes memory.

The People Power Revolution (also known as the EDSA Revolution, the Philippine Revolution of 1986) was a series of popular demonstrations in the Philippines that began in 1983 and culminated in 1986. This case of  non-violent revolution led to the departure of President Ferdinand Marcos and the restoration of the country's democracy.

Feeling strange, I did not realize what all of this meant until I sat down to check what my friends 8000 miles away are up to, only to come across a youtube video of the Coca cola Happiness truck moving around Marikina giving out sweet little things, roses, coke, pogo sticks, folding chairs and teddy bears.

I started the year caught up with "Dubai’’, the parties, the clubs, the arena concerts, the shopping festival, Friday brunches,  shimmery eye makeup  -  sparkling, extravagant, often exaggerated- Dubai, and it left me setting the bar higher, wanting more and more things for myself and my family.

Seeing the Coke truck move around Marikina was like a shot in the arm. Memories came flooding back, of happy summers spent with friends, eating fishballs and drinking coke from a plastic bag. The dream was real. The video reminded me of simple joys back home and how, considering all the shit that’s going on, pinoys are really some of the coolest people you’ll ever find in the world, cheesy sentimentality aside.

The rest of my afternoon was spent watching this brilliant BBC documentary where a London Bus Driver tackles on the task of a Jeepney driver in the Toughest Place to Drive on Earth - Manila . It turned out to be more than just a story of taking on a dare, but an accurate portrayal of our lives as Pinoys, which can all be summed up in one word – STRUGGLE.

If you look at it from a foreigner’s perspective, what Pinoys consider as norm, to them is a great Injustice. Yet we remain cheerful, persevering, resilient, rolling along the punches and bearing our crosses with the tough determination of a jeepney driver or a boxer.

 To foreign eyes, we were handed Lemons, to us these Lemons are better than nothing and you just gotta find a way to survive.  We spent 1000 hours stuck in a traffic jam every year, but there’s nothing else we can do but grin and bear it. So when a red truck pulls up in the neighbourhood to hand out free soda we can’t help but smile. What joy, what relief it must be to be given something you didn’t particularly had to work hard for.   

It is no wonder why the Philippines stop for Manny Pacquiao.  It is no wonder we proudly claim every talented pinoy singer who makes it big abroad.  It is no wonder we put  on 3stars-and-a sun stickers on our cars, or wear poloshirts with the Philippines map on it.

We are all in desperate need of heroes and the slightest signs of hope for a country that seems to have already been taken to the dogs.  Living in the Philippines or having a family in the Philippines, meant being in a life-long Survivor Challenge that you just feel you earned the right to wear a shirt for it, to celebrate your sacrifices.

At the wake of 25 years anniversary of the EDSA revolution, where the world first got a glimpse of how truly great we are, it seemed to me we all need a shot in the arm for a virus that is spreading quickly - erasing everything we learned, everything we stood for, everything we had been fighting for.  

Twenty five years and we have nothing much to show.  In the BBC documentary, Rogelio the Jeepney driver speaks about his frustration, how no matter how hard he works everyday his circumstance never change, on the other hand the fithy rich become richer and filthier.

Somewhere along the way those of us who have found better lives, those of us who were lucky enough to get a taste of sparkling, extravagant, exaggerated good life,  somewhere along the way we forgot that we have been handed a responsibility, a responsibility that is rooted in the faith that we have all been raised to believe - to love one another as much as you love yourself.

25 years and we have nothing show. Its easy to point fingers, to complain, to throw in the towel, take your family and leave, but we all seem to have forgotten that 25 years ago we had the courage and capability to take it into our own hands, to stick the finger to the man and get what we wanted.

I realize I am just one person, but if by pouring my brains and heart out to people who would listen would help me inspire others to go D-I-Y and pay it forward then maybe I can make a dent. Maybe its time we stop complaining and just do what we can to help, in whatever way. 

We may have limited resources,  we may come from different backgrounds, records show there is strength in numbers. Maybe its time we stop thinking of  People Power as Marcos vs. Aquino thing, Red vs. Yellow, and stop debating whether the ex-president should get a heroes burial. He’s dead anyway. We 80million strong are not. 

I am sorry for the long post, and if you are still with me, thank you for taking the time.

I realize that me and my peers are now in that stage of our lives where we are actually capable of doing something, but if we let it die, the dream will die with us. I don’t want to forget, I don’t want to give up without trying and I believe there are others out there like me who just need a shot in the arm to remember how really, uberly cool it is to be Pinoy, cheesy sentimentality aside.