Who to Vote For..., Part II

So a few weeks back, I said I was waiting for a sign that would perhaps enlighten me as to who it is I should vote for in the polls this coming May. I was pleasantly surprised when my wish got answered so fast when I stumbled upon this blog post by Lourd de Veyra in www.spot.PH.

Like I've said, I've made up my mind to vote for Noynoy Aquino, but I also admitted that he's not my top choice. Either Gibo Teodoro or Dick Gordon would've been my bet. But Gibo's political allies scare the hell out of me while Gordon seems to be lacking in political support and machinery. So I'm choosing to put my vote on Noynoy instead, hoping against hope that perhaps if more people would vote for him, then perhaps the 'sane' side of politics would win and this country would not go down the same downward path we chose roughly a decade ago when the majority of this country's voters voted for Erap.

Besides, the Liberal Party - Noynoy's party - has been going on and on for years as to how this country should be run anyway. While some of their ideas may be sound (to me at least), I would rather that they are not just all talk. Okay then, I'll give them a chance this time and see whether what they are saying are indeed things of substance or nothing but air. Now seems to be a very good time to put these idealists and their ideas to the test and see if they actually measure up to anything.



Nevertheless, I'm afraid to admit that there is a very high chance of Manny Villar winning this election. He's shrewed, cunning, and definitely knows how to work the PR machinery in order to convince the poor masses into voting for him. It's quite alarming how quickly he managed to climb the polls and threaten Noynoy's once commanding lead. Yeah, I'm totally blaming his goldfish suicide-inducing political ads for that. That's not helped either by Noynoy's seeming lack of campaign 'charisma' which probably wouldn't have been going anywhere if not for his sister and the crazy things she says and does.

Manny Villar definitely has worked out a pretty good strategy here. If there's one sure way of winning the majority vote in this country, one should simply appeal to the poor. Because truly, this country's poor does not want to alleviate itself from its hellhole. It would rather convince itself that by being poor, it is entitled to being pitied and embraced by some kind of 'superhero' who would accept them for who they are and go as far as to even say that he is one of the them. To hell with the bourgoisie and the rich! No doubt this country is going nowhere. Its people have given up looking for their own social ladders to climb. They'd rather see goods in plastic bags being dangled to them from up high. Manny Villar realized these things and boy does he put them to good use.

And if that wasn't enough, isn't it scary how his political campaign formula seems to mirror Erap's strategy ten years ago? Not just the appealing-to-the-masses thing, mind you. There's also the use of artistas to boost his campaign, like for example Dolphy. Isn't it a little crazy that he's not campaigning for his good friend Erap but for Villar instead? If that's not one hell of a PR strategy to pull off, then it must be truly a miracle from God. Oh and even scarier: if anyone could still remember what Erap's campaign colors were a decade ago, wasn't it the very same color being used by Manny Villar now - orange? What the fuck is seriously up with that color? It hurts my eyes! Q_Q

If Manny Villar is subtly trying to project himself as the new 'Erap' then he's doing a good job. And like Lourd de Veyra in his blog post, I wouldn't be surprised if the new president turns out to be him. Is there anything I could do about it? Why, yes! Vote for Noynoy, the only candidate seemingly capable of winning against Villar, and hope that he wins. If Villar wins, what do I do then? Nothing. Respect the people's vote because that is how democracy works.

"We get the kind of government we deserve", Lourd said in his blog. And if indeed Manny Villar wins, then the Filipino people, represented by its Wowowee-crazed majority, deserves him.

Photo from gmanews.tv

Society...

...can go screw itself over with its rules, definitions, and standards.

I'll learn to conform with them on the surface.

But on the inside, I'll live life by my rules.

Yarrr!

Torn

Greetings, everyone! Yours truly is at the moment feeling very torn between responsibility and free will.

Uhh... say what now? Okay, here's the deal. I just found out that my brother - the very same one I mentioned in my previous post - has just resigned from his job. I finally know the reason why I have been seeing more and more of him these days (figuratively and literally). He has his own apartment where he stays during weekdays for work, but he still occasionally comes home during the weekends for one reason or another, one of which, I suspect, is for having the chance for some free meals.

But now that he's temporarily unemployed (I hope), I am feeling very mentally stressed. Yeah, I know you're thinking, what does that have to do with anything? Well folks, let me tell you something about an unfortunate thing which I prefer to call - the 'eldest child domestic responsibility mentality'.

One of the really weird traditional Filipino family values is the idea that if the child is the eldest, he or she needs to take responsibility similar or equal to a parent's. Of course, nowadays more and more families are deviating from this tradition and are more free in giving their eldest kids the freedom to live as they choose. Sounds great, right? But unfortunately, for me at least, no matter how much I convince myself that I am no longer responsible for anything but myself, there is and will always be that nagging thought at the back of my head that for anything that goes on, I need to be always be picking up the slack whenever it's needed.

Okay, okay, I know I'm just doing some overthinking again. But can you really blame me, especially with this 'family value' being so heavily indoctrinated that thinking otherwise has got to be wrong?

When my brother decided to take up the more 'normal' route by deciding to take up Engineering in college, I was happy. Being a bohemian and a free-spirit, nothing feels more boring than being stuck in an office job or practicing something as boring as law, engineering, medicine, - you know, that sort of thing. The fact that this country's traditional mentality sees such boring occupations as 'real jobs' as compared to less traditional jobs like being a writer, photographer, or musician, it made me even more wanting to deviate from the norm and do things that are more revolutionary and interesting. So what if my chosen vocation is out of the ordinary? Suck it up, suckers! Live the boring life while I do something more fun!

But being the eldest, I had to learn to grin and bear it and let myself be convinced that taking up Biology (ugh...) was the right thing to do. After all, what's wrong with being helpful to the family right? And indeed, if I decided to take up Medicine later, that means I'll give myself the chance of being a doctor. A practical way of life. Easy money. Easy living.

Of course, that decision turned out to be one of the worst decisions I've ever made. A semester in it and I found myself just wanting to stop existing altogether. Putting up with all the bullshit, trying to convince myself that I'm doing the right thing, wanting to tear my eyes out as I force myself to study things I don't even care about. Yeah, it didn't take long for me to break down. Did I regret the decision? Not at all. The lesson has to be learned. And quite frankly, there are so many people and experiences I wouldn't have met or experienced if not for that decision. But did it suck? Well hell yeah, it sure did.

So when my brother decided to take up Engineering, it was truly a breath of fresh air. I felt truly relieved that for once, the attention of people wouldn't be on me. Sure, some of my stupid relatives still continue to blab that as the eldest I should've done this or that, but frankly why should I care? Now that they were doting on my brother instead, I could finally live the life that I want. Besides, my brother had to put up with living in my shadow for so long, with me being the eldest, the supposedly more intelligent, the supposedly more promising. Kinda sucked to be him, right? And I was honestly very happy when things took a turn and he started getting more of the attention that was usually reserved for me. I felt good for him that people start recognizing his own talents and taking him for what he is, not just as the kid who is 'my brother'.

He graduated, got top honors, topped the licensure exam, got job offers left and right. It was great. Even more so because this is the life that he wants. Unlike me who was bullied into studying some bullshit course, he really wanted to do this. And seeing him having so much success makes me truly and sincerely happy for him.

I honestly don't know why he decided to resign. Like I said, he's a workaholic and him resigning just seem to be out of character. But then, I really haven't had the chance to ask him why he decided to do so and him not talking about it is something that I respect. He can tell me whenever he wants or he can even choose not to tell me. No big deal. But damn, the mystery is killing me, haha!

But with the situation as it is, I am now feeling once more that annoying spotlight that I have had the pleasure of not encountering for the past few years. With him being unemployed, it feels like my way of life is being put on the spotlight again, that because I am the big brother, I need to pick up the slack while my brother is in between jobs.

Bummer.

Waking Up on the Wr--- No, that's not it

My brother is a workaholic. He gets started on a project, he's willing to do overtime and work during holidays just to get the job done as quickly as possible. I used to often tell him that with his work habits plus with him being a smoker he's gonna get sick sooner or later. But I knew my words are just in vain, the asshat never ever gets sick anyway.

Fastforward to this weekend and I was pretty surprised when the front door opened and the big mass of fat stealthily wobbled his way (oxymoron, I know) into the house. Well okay, he's not really that big but it's been the running joke. I was like, "What on earth are you doing here?" He said, "What? 'Cause I want to!"

Okay then, so he got himself some things to eat. Went to my room to watch TV then had the gall to sleep on my bed. And knowing how tired he was, I'm pretty sure he's gonna be sleeping for 12 or more hours and there's nothing I can do to make him budge and get him and his fat ass to his own room.

So when it was my time to go to sleep, I had no choice but to share the bed with him. (Sigh.) One annoying thing about me, I can't sleep anywhere else but in my room and in my bed. You can't make me sleep in somebody else's house. If I want to sleep, it has to be in my bed, in my room, in my house. No wonder I don't like camping and sleepovers. Tsk.

I made him move to one side of the bed, took back my pillows he had been shamelessly using, and managed to squeeze myself in my other half. And being an insomniac, it took me a while to fall asleep. Not helped either by the fact that the person next to me was snoring like a mad truck. But eventually and (thankfully) I did fall asleep and was off to dreamland.

Eight hours later I woke up. My brother's still snoring. And I was on the floor.