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An iPod away from the coup(Philippine Daily Inquirer Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MY SON GOES THROUGH MUCH OF THE day with his iPod plugged to his ears, just like you perhaps. Todays kids wander around with ear plugs. They are tuned out of their surroundings and wired to their sounds. The podcast is their world. I suspect the iPod, MP3 and the like were made just for a conspiratorial purpose: to shield young people from the mess weve made around them. That thought crossed my mind as I watched the Marines standoff on TV and glanced back at my son whose eyes were glued to the TV and ears plugged into his iPod. What an ironic juxtaposition of technologiesand of realities. He asked what was going on. I told him, and he had no comment. He is an Edsa 1 baby. I remember that day as the day when the soldiers advanced threateningly to our office, the then resurrected Manila Times, and the exact day I stopped breastfeeding. Like many assiduous moms, I would go to work, store my milk in bottles and keep these bottles frozen in the office ref. That night the soldiers made an attempt to take over the Manila Times, my milk dried up due to stress. That was my sons biological linkif you could call it thatto Edsa. Today hes 20 years old, has just graduated from college last month, and what kind of world did all our Edsas set up for him? In their despair, many have been writing off our kids future in their own country. Im not one of them. I dont think my kid would easily land a job, perhaps he would not as easily land a job as I did. Like many his age, hes open to odd jobs. Barely a month after graduation, he and his friends landed a part-time job of manning gaming stations and marketing video gamesbecause they enjoy playing them anyway. But thats not long-term. Since hes almost 6-ft tall and, in my biased view, rather good-looking, he can be a model perhaps. In case you havent noticed, kids today aspire to be models or starsquick buck. My son isnt hot about it, but hes open. Or perhaps, he tells me, he can go to his tito in California and do odd jobs while hes young. I am not despairing for my Edsa baby, not yet anyway. Even if the country is a mess, I am not about to tell my son that he has no future here. He has about as much chance to feel fulfilled here as he has elsewhere. Here or anywhere, he just has to know honest, hard workto be productive Christian gentlemen, thats my dream for my sons. I sometimes think that my moms and dads generation messed up this country really badI was convinced of this, especially in my student-activist days. But then, looking back, I also realize that their generation fought and died in the War. They endured the Occupation and fought starvation. Theyve paid their dues, even if the country they handed down to us wasnt much. Now, is my generation messing up as well, leaving not much for our kids? Honestly, you feel that way more and more, especially when you see the grime everywhere, literally and otherwise. But then you can also tell your son that many of your friends and classmates lost their lives fighting the dictatorship and gave up their affluent lives to live and fight with the masses. Your generation too has paid its dues, even if some of them are squandering yet again their chance at enlightened governance. My point is, for every scoundrel, there is the equivalent of people working relentlessly to make this a decent place. The wave of migration doesnt give me anxiety attacks, because I know that one doesnt lose ones sense of home and childhood easily. Overseas Filipinos have had a way of giving back to their country, if they dont come back here themselves; you dont have to be in real-estate development to know that. We just have to keep at it until we get this country right. This hard, honest, vigilant effort of salvaging a country should be good enough for our kids. Besides, their turn will come to clean up this mess. When it does we should have at least trained our sons and daughters not to run away from a good fight. Making a difference Talk about people who try to make a difference even from their comfortable perch. How ironic that Pitoy Morenos birthday is Feb. 25ironic because Pitoy has always been a good friend of the Marcoses, who had to flee Malacanang on his birthday 20 years ago. This year, on the eve of the 25th, as rallies broke out in Makati and Ortigas, friends of Pitoy gathered at the awesomely beautiful penthouse of foremost interior designer Gerry Contreras not only to celebrate his birthday but, more important, to introduce the recipients of the J. Moreno Scholarship Foundation this year. Not known to many, Pitoy has been giving these annual grants for 25 years. Fifteen years ago, his good friend Imelda Cojuangco offered to share in giving the grants. That night Ms Cojuangco showed up and it was nice to see how good and healthy she looked. Apart from his penthouse, Gerrys glass-and-concrete house on the rooftopstanding cheek by jowl with Mandarinwas something else. But thats for another day. |