Death of/to Democracy

As a child, I learned in school that democracy is the grand manifestation of freedom and independence. It is also this wonderful relief the Philippines experienced after the twenty-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. In theory, democracy allows the common people who lead their lives as they choose. They have the choice to select competent officials to represent them in government. However, the success of democracy is dependent on several factors. The people should have the good judgment to distinguish a competent leader who cares about the common good rather than the pseudo-politician who uses cheap tricks on the people to put himself on top. Guess which of these scenarios is actually happening.

I seldom watch the news anymore. Whenever I watch the news, I feel angry and helpless. So when I start to feel the hot sensation in my chest I stop because feeling angry is useless when I can't do anything about it. Then, it occurs to me: What kind of democracy is this that the people literally can't do anything about the wrongs done to them by the people they trusted to make their lives better? Activists might be able to take to the streets, but the government doesn't listen to them. They also inadvertently disrupt the daily schedules of the people who would rather maintain their stable careers by coming to work on time.

The so-called intellectual class of Filipinos might take to the Internet and voice out their concerns in Facebook or Twitter or in news/blog websites like Rappler.com, Anti-Pinoy.com, or FilipiKnow.net, but the government doesn't change its ways. No wonder they don't: A vast majority of them are old men who don't even know how to use the computer. At worst, their spokespersons even silence naysayers by blocking them on social media, like the poet Angelo "Gelo" Suarez and his explicit complaint regarding the MRT.

The news broadcasting doesn't fare any better. Besides the fact that it displays the rather gruesome things Filipinos do to one another on a daily basis, much of its content is incredibly biased and tend to sometimes give people the wrong ideas about current events. This is called sensationalist journalism. It is why Cebu Pacific was pegged as a terrible air carrier after one [casualty-free] incident, which is their first since the fatal crash of Flight 387 in 1998. It is why Filipino Americans are hailed as Philippine representatives for achievements they weren't meant to share with the country they don't even belong to. It is why Filipino athletes and entertainers only get applause when they win when they could have used government support in order to do so. In other words, like Philippine politics, the local news media rouses the people's emotions just enough to give the illusion that the people has power.

But freedom of speech only goes so far. Yes, we can vote for the most competent government officials, but the vast majority of voters can be scammed into voting by handshakes, bogus charities, and last-minute infrastructure projects. That last one should have been taken from the taxes of the people, so politicians should not be rewarded for projects that should be their real job.

Yes, we can take to the streets and have journalists express public grievances, but free speech vanishes in the air as soon as it is spoken.

At worst, our own president uses the musings of a thirteen-year-old girl to protect himself from his detractors. This girl was brilliant to point out that Noy-Noy Aquino should not be the only one to blame for all the country's problems. For his State of the Nation Address, the President uses it as an excuse to blame the country's problems on his predecessors instead. News Flash: It's your job streamline solutions to those problems, SIR.

Stealing because they can, politicians show zero compassion by lording over the people instead of providing honest administration and service. I will not go into any more details because I will go into an unnecessary rage, but the bottom line is that, if it weren't for them, the Philippine would have been as self-sufficient as we were thirty years ago. If the country were economically stable, would the other problems in society be solved, too? I'm not sure, but if government agencies had the "funding" they so sorely need and their employees were humanely compensated, maybe they might actually do their jobs and raise the standard of living in the Philippines.

My heart breaks for the farmers and fishermen who don't get their share of the country's agricultural revenue. My heart crumbles for the OFWs who are forced to leave their families only to be mistreated by their employers because they are perceived as inferior. My heart burns for the middle class Filipinos struggling for an honest living only to be cheated by corruption, poor service in public sectors, and crime by the helpless poor. Something has to change, but I don't know where we can start.

Hercules and the Elusive Accurate Adaptation

If I were more attuned to Greek mythology when this movie came out, I might have become very angry. Disney's Hercules is one of those movies that were good movies on their own but were terrible adaptations. Here are some corrections:

1. This movie neglects the fact that Zeus has fathered plenty of children, including Hercules's ancestor Perseus and most of the other Olympians. In Greek myth, Hera was the villain in Hercules's life because she is jealous of his human mother.
2. Hades' real name is Dis; Hades is the name of the Underworld. Hades the god is also not an evil figure; rather, he is a neutral figure who just happens to be the Lord of the Dead.
3. Philoctetes was neither a satyr nor a "trainer" of Hercules. He was actually a PUPIL of Hercules who later fights in the Trojan War.
4. I like the movie's treatment of Meg, but in the myths, Megara was the Princess of Thebes and the wife of Hercules. Under Hera's spell, Hercules slaughtered Megara and their three children. Hercules's subsequent adventures were for him to atone for this crime.
5. The Titans weren't monsters that produced chaos. In Greek myth, chaos was already there before the world was created. The Titans were merely Elder Gods that were later overthrown by the younger gods, the Olympians. Some of the Olympians were the Titans' offsprings.

Despite all of this, Disney's Hercules manages to be a great film. Maybe it should have deviated from the Hercules story altogether and made an original story set in Classical Greece, which is what it really is. Here we have a guy who is shunned by society because he is different; he becomes larger than life when he discovers his divinity and makes the most of it. We have a great villain who wants to stop him, and a henchwoman who unwittingly falls in love with our hero. She is a great character on her own as well, and a better role model than many other Disney Princesses, for various reasons.

Aside from the 90s TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journey, no other adaptation comes very close to the Hercules narrative. I heard The Legend of Hercules was terrible. I hope the one with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson might actually be faithful to the source material, but the cheesy, Beowulf-inspired trailer makes me suspicious.