Peace and security

Netnet Camomot

THE Marawi residents have something to look forward to amidst the siege: the city’s multi-year and multi-billion reconstruction. Which, by the way, could have been avoided if this man-made catastrophe has not happened.

But it happened and is still happening, making peace as elusive as the Yolanda survivors’ wish for new homes.

Mosul, on the other hand, is now about to declare freedom from Isis. The news says that’s the main reason why Isis’s fans attacked Marawi in the first place, because they’re already losing control over Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, and controlling Marawi is their way of saying, Hey, your fans here are still alive and able.

I get this feeling, though, that we should not rub it in. I mean, their loss of control should not be announced as banner news again and again until the Isis and its fans would go mad over the fact that they’re losing control. Because the more it’s rubbed in, the more they’ll probably want to regain control. Insecurity has always been proven to be a bad thing. It destroys sanity, destroys relationships, destroys friendships. Simply because someone is insecure and his insecurity needs to be assured that, hmmm, it doesn’t exist. So, he and his minions start to put down the person perceived to be secure, and make the latter look bad, to make the former look good. They waste precious hours putting down people and, as a result, they forget to improve themselves, because their focus has shifted to destroying other people’s lives.

Innate character and talent can never be “falsified,” er, disproved, hidden, locked in the dungeon. That character and talent will always manage to be present, alive, and kicking. If both character and talent are good, then, good. If both are bad, then, bad. Because something that’s innate is there, right there, and can’t pretend to be absent.

The character that’s easily persuaded to join the other side is weak, with no spine to hold on to. Imagine removing a notebook’s spine, guess what happens to its pages? Kung sa Bisaya pa, walay baruganan. Like a leech. Wait, that’s an insult to the leech.

A leech is born to be a sucker—that’s its life’s purpose. At least, it has a purpose.

The secure person may say, Don’t me. And believe him when he says that. Be afraid, be very afraid.

When the insecure person says the same thing—Don’t me—you have to wonder what “me” he’s referring to, for he doesn’t even know who he is.

The insecure person will always suck on the incomplete story, and use only the parts of the story that are beneficial to him. Bits and pieces. He won’t even care to ask what the whole story is. Once he hears a part of the story that he thinks he can use for his own infamy, er, make-believe popularity, he will keep on repeating that part to his fellow insecure listeners who will also suck on it like a leech. He’s desperate for attention, craves for it.

The insecure person will of course try to appear secure. They pretend to be secure. They act secure. But there’s always that moment when he’s finally proven to be false. Well, only the psychiatrist can tell the truth about the history behind this. The rest of us madlang pehpohl are better off savoring the yummiest blue marlin dish in Cagayan de Oro. Yum!

Whenever I have to deal with all sorts of people, I always remember my Lola’s words: Kalibutan pa ni.

There’s this picture of a line of skeletons, with each of them representing a person who’s still alive and kicking: tall, short, fat, thin, child, adult, male, female, gay, lesbian, transgender, saint, imam, priest, nun, criminal, terrorist, extremist, in other words, everyone that lives in this world. But reduced to a skeleton. Guess what: all of these skeletons look more or less the same. Except for the tall and short, which could mean they’re giants or dwarfs, adults or children. Still, they’re all bones. But that’s not who we are, but what we are: bones with flesh and skin and a pair of eyes, ears, hair… As to why there are people who try to destroy others, there are people who know the answer to that, and it’s this: envy.

If envy is indeed the answer, then the issue should be on who has more bones, because that’s all that’s left in the end.

So, who has more bones? The tall ones, of course. They have more bones! Why do they have more bones! It’s unfair!

But a doctor and anyone whose profession required years of studying the skeleton may tell you that the number of bones becomes fewer as you grow older. So, if life’s contest depends on bones, then, any child can tell the adult, Hey, I win, I have more!

Adults have fewer bones since they fuse together as we grow older. Interesting, huh?

There’s this video of children who are friends and they’re grouped into pairs for the interview. The black child was paired with a Caucasian child, etc. The video had black, Asian, disabled, Caucasian, a special child, a Hindu—different races, different cultures, obviously different from each other. So, they were asked what made them different from each other. And they had a hard time answering the question, probably too polite to state the obvious, because it’s not nice to hurt their friend. But the video’s viewer could immediately see the difference: one is disabled, the other is not, etc.

Once they become adults, though, there’s a possibility they won’t be careful anymore when it comes to hurting a friend.

I’ve had a hard time understanding envy. Why people envy other people. What’s the motive behind envy. Is that connected with one’s upbringing? To focus on the grass that’s greener on the other side of the fence? So that they grow up green with envy? And, so, there’s the terrorist and extremist who want to control the world, and end up controlling, what, bones?