Rhona Canoy
SO... Part of a social media comment by friend BenCyrus Ellorin caught my eye: “...We do not need a saviour in a single person. We need to grow as a people. But until then, hala ra djapon ta sa hangad hangad.”
Initially, it made me happy and hopeful that there are people out there who feel this way. It would be nigh impossible to move forward and upward without this realization. But then I find myself looking around at how deeply rooted this hangad-hangad mindset is, and my irrepressible optimism starts to repress.
Our expectation that some superior divine intervention will cure all our ills is reaching manic level. Check your Facebook newsfeed and tell me I’m wrong. Pictures of wads of dollar bills, with statements like, “If you Like and type Amen, and Share this picture 4,000,000 times, you will receive a dumbtrack full of peso coins within three days...” Really?! I’m still waiting for that singular post that will declare, “I was mindless enough to do what they said and now I’m so rich I have to hide from my relatives and friends who are no longer my equals. NAG-LEVEL UP NA PO AKO! Thanks God!!” That’s when I start typing “Amen.”
Prayers, supplications, intercessions, novenas have all found their way to social media. Please don’t start lecturing me about faith. If you had any sort of faith in The Great One, your prayer of entreaty would have found its way into the Holy Inbox even before you opened your Facebook. I don’t fault my friends who feel the need to express their requests from God on the Internet. After all, different strokes and all that jazz. So please don’t fault me for my reaction. I’m just as entitled. I do remain respectful of you so I refrain from Liking or commenting because you would unfriend me in a flash. And that’s saying a lot. Ask me to help you pray, though, and I will. But not for money. Or a fancy car because... hahahahaha!
And then there are those who looky-looky up (hangad-hangad ba) to mere mortals assumed to have power to fix whatever needs fixing, or open doors that need opening, or grant favors to those who need favoring. This could be in the form of a letter of recommendation from someone who doesn’t know you from Adam, a request for a job for somebody who may not have skills, or waiving a fine or penalty because you think you deserve to be exempted because uhmmm... you’re special.
Our poorer brothers and sisters have jumped on this bandwagon with gusto. And our government has certainly indulged them. The concrete house you built on someone else’s property without permission is getting torn down after a month’s notice? Stand in front of your trespassing house and demand money to build a new house on a relocation site of your liking. From the powers that be. I’d like to get on that list. You are being asked to move your vendor cart because it’s blocking traffic on a busy market intersection? Wave your fist and get pissed because you’re poor and trying to eke out a living. So you should be allowed to set up shop on a road meant for moving vehicles, and get more pissed if you cause an accident. You’re sick and should be given free quality medical care and free medicine? Ok, I’m totally with you on this one.
I suppose I could go on and on and on, but that wouldn’t solve a thing. Until we are all empowered to want to be functioning and contributing members of our society, we are going to keep looking up because it’s easier and we don’t have to be accountable for anything. And we will continue to be beholden to and enslaved by the powers that be.
As for me, I enjoy looking up. Because there are so few people who are a lot taller than me.
