It began when my colleagues and I passed by the Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial along EDSA near Quezon Avenue, depicting a woman raising one of her arms while the other is holding on to a slumped (unconscious?) man. The first thing that came to mind are our dometic workers abroad, majority of whom are female. Despite the glaring sexism and whether my interpretation was correct or not, what bothered me most is the labelling of Filipinos seeking greener pastures abroad as "bayani". While I certainly agree that they help a great deal in keeping our ailing economy from complete collapse, I doubt whether we should apply to them the greatest title a country can give its citizen. For one, they're probably in a much, much better place and condition than where we currently are, save for the many DHs who work under abusive and oppressive employers. And even if they don't exactly enjoy where they are right now, I doubt if it was the greater good that brought them there. I have never heard of a hero even from another country who's ticket to the history books is the burning desire to buy his or her family their own townhouse or a brand new car.
I mean let's thank them with all our hearts for sending us dollars, and let's sympathize with them that they have to leave their families behind just to earn a living. But I think "bayani" is more fitting a title to those who choose to work their butts off in this God-forsaken country, not because there is no way out, but because they simply want to.
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Just imagine my irritation upon seeing ordinary Ateneo students wearing t-shirts with a really humble and unmistakably modest print saying "Bawat Atenista, Bayani." I swear I could have laughed my shallow brains off, but annoyance engulfed me faster than I could muster enough courage to point to that Atenista and laugh at him while at, where else, what they call quad.
Since when did students who give a token what, semester or two, in the company of maralitas and then proceeding with their capricious and decadent lives after receiving their class cards ever qualified for the term? I sure didn't mean to generalize, as I have very good friends and relatives who are Atenistas, but the idea does. Notice the "bawat"? So pardon me if I do, too. I doubt whether these students really are up to offer anything for something greater, seeing how reluctant they are to give up even a few minutes of their sorry lives to vote in their student government elections.
It still amazes me where this institution - where I'm currently working - gets its school spirit aside from playing really good basketball. Sure, if I'm a university I would certainly get it from really good research outputs, which they don't really put out. I hardly saw any citation from this school by ISI-indexed journals when I was still doing coursework in my MA and undergrad research, and haven't read any studies from this school making it to the dailies' headlines. Spirituality- and formation-wise (I'll give this to them, even if I don't think any decent university here or abroad would really care that much about their students' beliefs), I don't see it as well, judging by its "exclusivity" and stratospherically high fees. I don't think Jesus would ask me eighty grand per sem just to hear his teachings. And then of course, there is the general snotty feel of the place.
I wish UP had great basketball players, too.
I must admit though, they produce really good talkers. And I must stop my envious blabbering before it turns into serious school bashing. Advanced happy sesquicentennial, ADMU!;-)
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