If there’s one good thing I can say about president Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino, it’s that I can count on him to provide entertainment value while he goes through the motions of that role which he “accepted” in 2010, albeit reluctantly.
Photo courtesy of http://panlasangpinoy.com/2010/01/25/how-to-make-the-perfect-rice-puff-dessert/
All this started of course, when BS Aquino made news because of a speech he made in front of high school students. In essence, he told them to be wary of ampaw candidates – those who lack in substance. And as my fellow GRP writers Gogs, Ilda, and Paul Farol have pointed out, the joke is on him because BS Aquino’s entire campaign and presidency can be handily summarized with that word.
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Ampaw – a local snack made with rice that is hollow inside. So the slang connotation seems to take off from that.
Let’s define “Kaharian ng Araw”.
Literally meaning “kingdom of the sun”, it refers to a place in a short story written by Joel and Onofre Pagsanghan about two friends who venture off to find it:
Written in lyrical and captivating Filipino, Sa Kaharian ng Araw has a simple plot: the search by two friends, Ponce and Paolo, for the legendary Kaharian ng Araw. The two go for different reasons: Ponce is driven by the wealth, power and fame this kingdom promises, while Paolo goes because of his friend.
Their long journey takes them through three kingdoms— Kaharian ng Ulan, Kaharian ng Hangin and Kaharian ng Dilim, each of which cannot be passed unless a heartbreaking toll is paid to its king. In the end, Ponce, broken and alone, reaches the Kaharian ng Araw, the end of the journey for which he has traded everything he holds dear— only to be met by a surprising, spine-tingling revelation. . . .
The current “ruler” of the Kaharian ng Araw
I call the Philippines a “Kaharian ng Araw” for two main, simple reasons:
1) The sun appears yellow in the sky. Yellow is the representative color of BS Aquino, his party and his clan. Connect the dots.
2) The ending line of the whole short story easily captures the essence of Filipino society:
”Ang Kaharian ng Araw! Ang Kaharian ng Araw ay hungkag pala!” (The kingdom of the sun…is hollow after all!)
Soon after that speech of his, Sergio Osmeña and Miriam Santiago came out on opposing sides of the argument that BS Aquino is “an awful manager”. So the Filipino people, BS Aquino included – who, by the way, is the current “ruler” of this Kaharian ng Araw” we call the Philippines – can keep on talking about how their politicians are ampaw or not, and yet fail to see how empty and hollow their society is. Like a fish doesn’t notice that it’s in water.
Can Filipinos ever really disown the politicians they themselves elected?
Some Filipinos, it seems, insist on blaming those politicians for “transforming” from saints into something else immediately once they’ve been elected and assume office. One must remember that politicians reflect the very society that they came from.
So I guess it’s time, once again, to call in some wisdom from the late, great American comedian George Carlin:
Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky; they don’t pass through a membrane from another reality.
…
This is the best we can do, folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: garbage in, garbage out.If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish, ignorant leaders.
…
So maybe, maybe, maybe it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here, like, the public.
It makes perfect sense: ampaw politicians come from an ampaw society. Filipinos cannot disassociate themselves from the kapalpakan of their politicians. They have every opportunity and every right to scrutinize them before they vote them, and even more so after they win.
But, instead, what do they do? They regard these people as infallible, unreachable, and immune to criticism. They don’t bother to check, criticize and scrutinize any semblance of a platform that their politicians have. They merely ask for a song and dance number, and a catchy slogan, and then conclude “oh, he’s the one” based on a warm, fuzzy feeling of being “relatable”.
And yet Filipinos don’t want to hear the truth about their society. Criticizing the Philippines is a cardinal sin, whether you are a foreigner or a Filipino, all the more so if you are the latter.
Once more, this time with feeling:
A society devoid of substance will allow politicians of a similar nature to govern them.
The Philippines IS an ampaw republic/society, plus it is a kaharian ng araw. However, the sun doesn’t shine here; the only thing that does in this wretched, hollow society is a substance akin to pyrite (fool’s gold). And Filipinos are fools, indeed, who take the glare and glitter of con men as genuine.
Get a grip, Filipinos. Even if not all of us are ampaw, the collective IS, so tough luck. We’re just going to have to deal with the reality that the ampaw drag the non-ampaw down to their level of stupidity and beat them with experience. So how can this be countered? The non-ampaw must match the ampaw in audacity, if not in number.
And yet they must remain logical and rational.
Want to say kapow to the ampaw? Then Filipinos must learn to accept their faults and then begin to make strides towards self-improvement as a society.
That is a first step, but apparently a very painful one. Filipinos have been refusing to do it for 28 years.
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
“Trust, but verify”, says a good Russian proverb. We trust, and don’t care to verify the candidates’ true capabilities and qualities. “All that glitter is not Gold”, says another. We see the glittering biographies of these “Pyrite” candidates. The Oligarchs Media, market them to us, without examining and verifying them. We swallow them whole. So, we get “Fool’s Gold”. Natanso, na naman tayo….
I have also good questions…
1. Why does NPA Mafia Boss, Jose Ma. Sison, keep his mouth shut in criticizing Aquino? There are no clashes, between the NPA and the AFP. The Morong NPAs were set free by Aquino.
2. Where are those activists? Gabriela, Anak Pawis, etc…shouting in the streets. They keep also their mouth shut. Inspite of the unprecidented scandals and anomalies of the Aquino administration.
3. Where are those Media people? Who criticize Presidents. Except this “Bobo” President. They are nowhere to be heard or seen.
4. Where are the religious people called the Church? Who complained of being misgoverned, and claim to lead the people, to be against graft and corruption. I don’t see them praying on the streets.
This is really an “Ampaw” Republic. Populated by “Ampaw” people, who claimed to lead, for the goodness of all.
I don’t want to think about pnoy aquino anymore. I p!ss on his chinese takeaway. His mother was a tarsier and his father smelt of durian. He is to politics what mcdonalds is to michelin.
His face looks like sour grapes, his head like a hard boiled egg, and he smiles as through he has just been rear-ended by a large cucumber.
There is more promise in a moldy sandwich filled with excrement than anything pnoy aquino can deliver.
And if music be the food of love, then pnoy aquino is a soloist strumming on his eggplant, and his sister kris aquino a dunkin donut ( all fat on the outside with a gaping hole in the middle).
The aquinos leave a bad taste in the mouth, and should give a refund for bad service, poor quality, false advertising, and ripping off customers. The only thing they give you is bile and diarrhea.
Pnoy aquino comes from a family of traitors, and the fruit does not fall far from the tree.
Istead of ‘bread and circuses’, it is ‘ampaw and karaoke’.
Such stupidity on behalf of the masa/electorate means that they also condemn their children to be force fed ampaw.
“There’s small choice in rotten apples .”
Shakespeare
I am constantly reminded of the old adage: In a democracy, the people get the government that they deserve.
Come 2016 pnoy aquino has a big problem – mar roxas.
There is no way mar roxas will be the presidential candidate, so it is on to plan b or plan c, with cayetano pushing hard to be the lp/np candidate in place of roxas.
A survey says – choosing between the 2 –
70% support binay
20% support roxas
10% not decided
No wonder panic is setting in. Pnoy aquino impeachment looms. Plan d for desperation is pnoy endorses binay and gives him a smooth path in exchange for…
Binay gets Kris as an endorser. If Binay decides to throw Junjun into the deal…
Happy families, or rather happy dynasties!
Binay has also his own SWS False Asia Survey…I’m tired of political family dynasties and trapos. They never give the country any good…
“Government don’t want a population capable of critical thinking.
They want obedient workers, people smart enough to run machines and dumb enough to passively accept their situation”. – George Carlin
We always Export our Best People (OFW w/c are hard-working, productive, high skilled & intellectual) and forever relied on their dollar remittances to fuel our economy. Those left behind (lazy & AMPAW) who are task/voted to lead our nation and others are appointed to vital positions in the government.
Because Philippines main Export commodity are OFW (modern day form of slavery), RH Bill will never be implemented to maintain a continuous supply of cheap/quality labor and organ donor to the world.
AMPAW clearly point to himself so why call him His Excellence if he is not?
PNoy have shown indications of his incompetence @start of his term (Manila Bus Tragedy). Every year PNoy administration is always struggling to cope with problems of Natural Disasters (Sendong, Pablo, Yolanda). Incompetence will continue & spread (viral) up to his successor because PNoy now has majority control of our Congress (Senators/Congressman), Supreme Court, Comelec, Media, etc.) and survey firm.
We only vote/chose leaders based on popularity or those who portray being good (facade only) than those with real intellect who really excel. To be President, you need to be an opposition & always accuse your predecessor as being corrupt/bad to gain people support and stay in position/power.
Religion also has a tendency to spoil Leaders or Role models in many ways – relying purely on God”s blessing. Hence, an easy life results to false public service due to no effort/work = Lazy & Idle Mind (incompetence : lack if vision/poor logic/no-sense of observation/lack of imagination & creativity). Anti-intellectual Attitude is a road block to the progress of our Nation.
In a Goon (Mafia) Society like the Philippines – people will simply group together to gain majority, to rule over minority and abuse that power. Thus, people (including Leaders) simply join a Group for protection, to be stronger and to be spoiled in many ways = lazy & idle mind or anti-intellectual attitude (incompetence). If you are unique in such a way (intellectually-superior for example) people will ostracize and criticize you because you are not “one of them” no matter how truthful/nice and how much contribution one can do for our nation.
The Goon concept applies to Religions, Politics/Government, Media, Showbiz, Sports, public or private sectors. And conflicts will happen if the common interest of a certain group clashes with another group.
Majority of our President/Leaders (in Government or Congress) are ff.: a. Lawyers-whose nature of work are disputes of legal matters (negative).
b. Popular Actors/celebrity – whose nature of work is movies/TV/media.
We need Leaders from other professions like the ff.:
a. Architects/Engineers – whose nature of is to Create/Build (positive)
b. Doctors – (Dr. Mahathir) who cured & made Malaysia a very healthy (wealthy) nation.
Corruption in my definition is the product of an IDLE or LAZY Mind, selfishness/greed and materialism because corrupt people/Leaders do not realize the consequence of pocketing public funds or receiving bribes. Money should be circulated around to create more business opportunities, employment, expenditures and to fuel the economy.
Jessie J “PRICE TAG”
“It’s not about the money, money, money. We just wanna make the world dance.”