Omens

It's only now that I’m feeling more confident in speaking out on my thoughts about everything that’s been happening. This happened after a small creative release burst out of me when #facebooklisten campaign happened. I made a couple of posters, and basically, I had a lot of fun doing it and all the frustration from MONTHS of horrific reality came out.

Right now, I’m feeling very frustrated still on what’s happening in our country...I’m planning to list down every disturbing thing that’s happening, but I don’t even know if I have the guts to write it out loud here.... Let’s see...

1. The COVID-19 cases in here is still not declining ONE BIT. If anything, it’s rising to a higher level. And if that doesn’t sound bad to you, the government and most city councils had the gall to open up the cities one by one. (....for the tax payment. Now that people have settled that, we're back to "quarantine".)

2. Obviously, our leaders are shit.

3. They passed a law that legalises cops and officials to arrest, harass, and detain anyone that is SUSPECTED of “terrorism”. Terrorism is on quotes because it’s not even primped and polished on paper on what it really is. SO right now, anything that you do or say that goes against the government is considered terrorism.

4. And the people blindly (and stupidly) following the same men who allowed this law to be passed are ACTUALLY terorrising people by creating dupes of their online identities and uses it to make the actual user look like an actual terrorist and get them detained. What's even harder is that even with all our efforts to report fake accounts, Facebook keeps denying our requests to take them down. #makefacebooklisten

5. That’s not all: Now our country is in a whopping 170 BILLION pesos debt—and the 275 Million peso budget allowed for COVID-19 is aside from that. And they didn’t even spend it on the ACTUAL pandemic. In fact, no one knows where it is. There has never been a transparency.

6. You think that’s bad, wait til you hear about how they QUICKLY released a memorandum that requires ANY online business—big or small—to pay taxes (probably to make up for that big debt lmao), meanwhile, POGOs (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators are online gambling firms that operate in the Philippines but cater to customers outside the country, mainly China) are allowed to freely operate even with their outshining debt of 5M.

7. Police killings here is officially worse than the US.

8. AND THE CHERRY ON TOP: They are making it illegal to protest or speak out about all/any of it.

I can’t believe this is my reality. And I can’t believe somewhere out there in countries that were governed properly by strong and wonderfuly discerning women are living a different one. I wonder what that’s like. (Wow, I never thought I’d end up saying that) Imagine living in New Zealand. Imagine living somewhere where the government isn't abusing their power, but instead using it to actually help govern the country responsively. Imagine having to live through a pandemic and be able to believe when you tell yourself "things will get better". Must be nice.

At this point, I don't think theres any driving force in e to live aside from the fact that my dogs need me. But other than that, my reality feels like hell—dying is actually better than living through this. But even as I say that, I can't help but think about the less fortunate, too. The ones that in the middle of a pandemic, they aren't given the right support by the government which results them to be forced to go out without proper protection just to get food and make ends meet. And now they are either wrongfully arrested, uncompensated, taxed, or even killed by the police without reason.

Before, I used to be so cynical about democracy and the power of people against the government, albeit being exposed to films that feature the same message. I always thought no matter who you elect, they will always get corrupted by power, hence cancelling out the idea of democracy (a little something like Daenerys going full Mad Queen, BUT THAT'S A WHOLE OTHER STORY but you get the gist). But a few years ago, I started to open up to the idea that maybe we can steer history. Maybe we have a stronger power together. Maybe there's a way out of the corrupt systems that has made me cynical all those years. And now, ironically enough, just when the world feels like its in its last chapters and I'd rather die than live, I have witnessed (and am witnessing) firsthand the beauty of people coming together and making a revolution. I'm a believer now. And if the world IS ending? At least I know we ended it with a fucking bang.