Last night, while fiddling around with the Registry Entries of my home PC, I overheard the dialogue and basic plot of my mom's newest fixation. It was a local TV drama centered on the misery of a group of children who were left out into the streets, taken in by cruel adults and generally subjected to all sorts of abuse.
I wasn't paying too much attention to it, as most of the dialogue and plot seemed to sum up as:
Evil Situation 1 happens.
Kids Cry.
Evil situation 2 happens, making things worse.
Adults get angry, beat up kids.
Kids Cry.
Evil Situation... well you get the point.
Given a chance to mull about the situation while watching the a status bar counting percentages, it occured to me that given the nearly religious hold that Media has in this third world country, is this a factor in the lack of motivation displayed by the common Filipino?
It's hard to say what is the cause and what is the effect. But to put it in Mage terms, something becomes real only when enough people believe in it. Given this possibility, it scares me to see what's been going on.
There are no TV shows here that actually show a competent police force, oftentimes relegating them to the role of deus ex machina when they are in need of somehow freeing a kidnapped group of teenages for example. Otherwise, the police are extras, showing up only to oppress the poor or to generally act incompetent.
The poor are never shown to improve their lot without an act of deus ex machina or crime. There is no progress, no means of working your way out of the slums. The poor are portayed to be happy to wallow in their situation, to be thankful to God that they have not suffered this particular day.
The rich are always evil. To have money is to be a self-serving and evil individual. There are no stories about good rich people, and even if there are, these are exceptions. The only good rich people, are those that fall in love with poor people. Everyone else is a spineless old man with no ability to chastise his evil heir who tortures poor people.
After all of this, is it any wonder that people here don't have any hope? They get brainwashed by images of hopelessness, messages of trusting their fatalism and passive acceptance over self improvement. Rather than learning to plan for the long term, they are reduced to being happy about their hand to mouth subsistence.
There are victories in life, and it isn't in dwelling in the drama. There are things that can be achieved, and dreams fulfilled. We all know that life sucks, but it's not an excuse to stop and feel sorry for ourselves.
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2 comments:
the fact that there are just waaay too many dramas (Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, you name it) only proves we've got waaaay too much free time on our hands.
the only reason my dad and i watch telenobelas is to make fun of them.
some are good (relatively), but others are just plain...graaaah. there's no word for it.
but i guess they can't help it. the issue of rich and poor is probably the biggest and most in-your-face. the poor are so complacent because they are being cast as "heroes" on TV, while the rich are the "villains" because either they or their parents broke their backs working for their wealth.
the poor have become mayabang and the rich have become bitter. you see it everyday! -____-;;;
media truly is a powerful tool. too bad it's under the control of a bunch of people who want nothing else but to make a lot of money off of formulaic, tried-and-tested but meaningless shows.
What bothers me the most about this is that poor people suddenly go, "Oh this is my lot in life, and abuse is fine... I should expect no less until a Fairygodmother/ FairyLottoTicket/ Etc. comes by" It's an exercise in stupidity.
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