Respect is cool

Netnet Camomot .

IT was the last full show. The Lupang Hinirang began to play onscreen and we stood up. But young viewers a few rows below us remained seated, so, I asked my sis why, and she said, Because it’s not cool to stand up.

This was a few weeks ago in one of the cinemas in downtown Cagayan de Oro. I waited for a guard or a cinema employee to reprimand the “cool” viewers, the way a guard warned an audience member to stop taking a video of a movie as what happened in another downtown cinema months ago. But no one approached them.

Should have asked them to please stand for the national anthem, because their disrespect bothered me the whole time. If they’re the Pinoy youth of today, what’s in store then for the Pinas of tomorrow?

On Sept. 5, finally, 34 people were arrested for not standing up for the national anthem at a cinema in Batangas.

Section 38 of RA 8491 says that not only should one “stand at attention” but also sing the anthem “with fervor.”

The bad news in Pinas does not mean it’s now cool to disrespect the national anthem. No matter what happens, the Pinoy is Pinoy and nothing can take that away from him—respecting the Philippine flag and national anthem is a way of honoring the country and its heroes and history.

But we now understand how fake news can go viral. If the Pinoy can’t even stand up for 53 seconds—yes, that’s how long the national anthem is—then, he won’t have the patience to find out if the news he’s about to share on social media is the truth and nothing but the truth. He wants everything to be as fast as fast food, instant noodles, instant coffee, he has no time to wait. Like as if he’s always in some kind of competition, which a business owner may feel when he hears the line, survival of the fittest.

My mother would then ask, The fittest for what? Let’s go back again to this story about a fisherman who’s sitting by the seashore, staring at the sunset. A businessman happens to pass by and he asks the fisherman, What do you do? Upon learning that he fishes, has been able to sell enough for the day, and is now waiting for dinner which his wife is preparing at their house nearby, the businessman then shares with him how to increase his catch and sales which can finance a business expansion until he’s so rich, and then he can retire and watch the sunset daily. The fisherman then replies, That’s what I’m doing right now. Of course, he’s referring to the sunset.

As for the money, well, the more businesses, the more headaches, er, challenges. Much like, the more friends and acquaintances, the more chances for gossip and intrigues. So, keep your circle small. And keep money matters small, too? Hmmm.

A business does tend to become bigger because its nature is to grow. Rare is the business owner who wants to keep his enterprise small. The fisherman in the story is the exception to the general rule of having it all. And, so, there’s Pinas’s rice crisis, multi-billion shabu shipments, smuggled cigarettes. There was a time when a lone lechon manok stall could attract competitors until there’s a street solely dedicated to lechon manok.

Now, there’s a street for restos and bars, a street for hardware and auto spare parts, and even a neighborhood for malls, with Gaisano, Centrio, Limketkai Mall and SM CDO Downtown Premier converging at the flood-prone area in downtown CDO. Definitely a test for survival of the fittest.

The business owner now has to think outside of the box if he wants more customers. Should he advertise, or train his staff to be friendly and have more public relations skills, or hire pretty young things to promote his product. What does it take to be the fittest. Or should he compete instead with his own business’s past sales. If sales and profits are increasing each year, then, there’s no problem, he can now watch the sunset at least on weekends. But would the 6.4-percent inflation rate in August convince him otherwise? Hmmm. Esep-esep.

If a business’s nature is to grow, the young ones’ nature is also to grow, hopefully with respect included.

It’s no wonder then that one of Aretha Franklin’s songs is, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T/Find out what it means to me.”