A New Beginning

               

          Around 50 million people are being displaced and famished in all parts of the world. Unfortunately, only half of them get assistance from non-government organizations- mainly food, clothing, vaccinations – but it is always not enough. The other half of them- as we speak - are left in remote areas dying of hunger and sickness such as tuberculosis, malaria, and diarrhea. Sad to say, the meager supply of relief goods and medicines that are intended for the poor and the sick are being stolen by selfish people who sell it to the needy at a very high price. Where do people think ukay-ukay came from? Where do these rich merchants and pharmaceutical owners – secretly known as life-sucking thieves – get their goods and sell it at very unreasonable prices?

          When I was just a little girl, I would always pass by the Barangay health center every Wednesday and noticed that very few people – only a few lactating mothers asking for Oresol – would ever visit. I got used to hospitals since I was once a sickly child and getting confined is just like going on a two-week vacation with all the tubes and needles stuck in my veins and a thermometer on my armpit or throat (and Dr. Garcia, our family doctor, would always bring me toys and goodies so I would not get bored). Anyways, I knew that hospitals are always full of people – young, old, sick and wounded- nurses and doctors just can’t have enough of them. Curious as I was, I would ask my father this little innocent question: why don’t people visit the barrio hospital? And my dad – always ready with an answer, no matter how twisted it might seem to be – would tell me that the reason why people in Marantao never go to the hospital is because rarely anybody gets sick.

          So I bought the idea for a few years, even as much as trying to deny the fact that the health center is only open half day on Wednesdays, thinking that they do not have to open up everyday since people of Marantao are in a very healthy state and that they barely need medicines or vaccines. But as I grow older, I can no longer deny that I see every other family in our place that has a member who spits blood, turns yellowish or grows rashes all over their bodies.  I know something is wrong, but still, the health center is only open half day on Wednesdays, and there was nothing I could do about it.

          Now back to the present. Based on statistics, there are 90% percent unreported cases of Hansen’s disease (or what is popularly known as leprosy) in the Philippines in each year. The majority of which are situated in the Moro areas of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and Sulu. Despite the government’s campaign to eradicate the disease by informing people that being a leper is not something to be ashamed of – as it can now be cured by Dapsone and Rifampicin in a span of six months to a year – very few people step forward to seek medical assistance. And why is that? Can you blame these innocent, illiterate people who can never tell the difference between a rash and a rotting flesh?  Do they know that the cure for their malady is accessible from the nearest Barangay Health Center – absolutely free? Do health officials create campaigns for community awareness on various diseases and how to cure them?

          I know it is not that easy to educate naïve barrio folk on matters like health or disease prevention. What I am saying is, people enjoying the benefits that the government has provided should at least do their jobs and try their best to reach out to the needy people. What’s the use of them getting paid by the government anyway?

          On my previous visit to my hometown I have learned that grade school children are expecting half sack rice each from UNICEF as a part of their anti-malnourishment campaign. Seven hundred children – five hundred of which are legitimate students of the local elementary school – will be weighed and checked after the first month to see if feeding them will provide any improvement on their health. I would say that to declare more than the actual students the school has is an act of deceit, but they have their reasons. They gathered all possible children on five barangays, ranging from five year olds to freshmen high students from the nearby high school who could pass as sixth graders and provide IDs so they could get rice for their families. It was all but a little white lie, and despite how deceiving it was, they are only doing it for the good of the community. Sometimes, one needs to bend the rules to achieve what is good for the common welfare.

          On the day it came the teachers were expecting 350 sacks of high quality Thai rice delivered to their school. Instead, UNICEF arrived with 100 sacks of brown, smelly rice of low quality, saying that is all they can afford to give. The teachers were devastated - they asked their students a few days ago to bring big rice sacks and ask a family member to accompany them to school so they could have somebody to bring the rice back home with them. There were several fathers and mothers and a couple of big brothers and sisters waiting at the school playground. These parents were silently thanking their instincts for letting their little boy/girl go on the first grade despite the fact that they cannot afford to buy him/her complete set of notebooks and pencils. Some of them probably were thinking on how their little boy is now a breadwinner in his own right – all he needed to do is to show up in school every end of the month – as that is the time when the supply arrives. Since there is not enough rice for 700 people, students ended up with just 2 ganta of rice each. Still, they were thankful that at least they could survive for two more days before going back to that bland camote diet.

          And there was this one time – the first time the school received 100 sacks from UNICEF – when a truck full of bandits crashed on the eastern side of the school building where the rice is kept and managed to get ten sacks of rice before the townspeople arrived to investigate. For a company executive earning more fifty thousand pesos a month, ten sacks of rice is not something worth dying for, but for these local folks ten sacks would go a long way, and they would fight for what they think they deserve. So, to make the long story short, the next time they got their ration from the UNICEF, all able-bodied men gathered together and guarded the rice supply with their lives – bringing guns and bolos and knives with them to ensure safety. They turned shifts guarding the goods until the next day when they could distribute it to the rest of the people – this despite the fact that all they were expecting to get per household is only worth as much as a Grande double Macchiato from Starbucks or a Muay Thai session on Elorde Boxing Gym.

          In Ethiopia, an average person lives by 400 calories a day. Based on the US RDA, a person needs at least 2,000 calories to become healthy. On the contrary, Paris Hilton probably would eat a 200- calorie meal and vomit it afterwards. People from Ethiopia and Paris Hilton might have the same weight issues, but not the same health issues. Had she known that, she might have at least the decency to retain her food in her digestive system. My point is, people do not care about anything that they do not know anything of. Sure, we see children asking for help on TV all the time, but do we really feel their need? We tune in to CNN or BBC and witness the world on its most awful situation, but do we really care?

          Truly, an exaggeration is never needed in the situation of the people in the remote areas of Lanao del Sur and other third-class provinces of the Philippines. With so much corruption and red tape going on, it is no wonder our people still remains among the poorest of the poor in the globe.  Mediocre educational standards, faulty judicial systems, lack of work for everybody, heinous crimes everywhere – there are so much chaos out there than anybody can imagine. When does it end?

          I am not in a position to comment on these things – I reserve that to those who have first hand experience on battling the cause of poverty and instability in our country. But if may, I would rather be a first- class citizen in a third world country rather than become a third-class citizen on a developed and first-world country – and I do not have the further need to explain myself on this matter.   

         

It’s over, it’s done
I’ll turn my face back to the sun
Your love was tearing me apart
Your love slowly shredded my heart
I was wrong, I AM strong
I can put my heart back together
I never should have doubted
My senses were deepy shrouded
You were the one living in darkness
I was the one shining all the light
But my light was never enough
You have no hope, no peace
Even I couldn’t set you free
So it’s over, it’s done
I know you weren’t the one
I fooled myself for love
But when push came to shove
You left me crying and alone
But I am powerful on my own
I may not be perfect, but I’m whole
and you could never break me
You claimed you would always love me
But the last face I saw was hate looking back at me
You acted like all the blame was mine
Think that, go ahead, that’s fine
Whatever gets you through
Do what you have to do
Your true colors erupted and I saw something new
Fvck it man, you suck, and I no longer love you!