On the independence of a young nation
June 12. The Philippines celebrates its 116th Independence Day which commemorates the struggle to break free from the Spanish regime during the 19th century. We freed ourselves. We lost many lives and each one has a story. But where did all that take us now? A hundred and sixteen years of celebrating the independence and where are we at the steps of progress? Sadly, we only moved an inch. We all moved that inch with the mediocre help of all the presidents who sat for the last hundred years. We established a government popularly defined as the government of the people. This government, as they say, listens to what everyone, anyone has to say. No. Fifty years or so of being democratic was all a facade to a new kind of slavery. We are still slaves. It was never abolished; it just involved all kinds of people. And it has a new name: democracy. Don’t take me wrong, I admire the concept of democracy founded by the Greeks. What I loathe is on how dumb fuckers make a hybrid out of it. Let me rephrase that: these dumb fuckers developed a new kind of system and they called it democracy. You are born, you go to school, you finish a degree program, you get a job for you to be a worthwhile motherfucker in your nation’s economy, you take insurance plans and all shit, you make a family, feed them, watch them grow and you yourself grow old, you retire, you still pay all bills and shit, then you die. Worse, there is nothing left to die. Charles Bukowski had this notion. Dumb fuckers didn’t live their lives. They shorten it every time they refuse to think of reality, of his purpose, and of his existence. HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, FILIPINOS. After all, our nation is still so young. Let us not rush her to grow.