inalienable responsibility

The summit of world richest nations to fix the global economy in the United Kingdom last April 2009, brought multitude of activists to the streets of London. The number of people rallying against the excesses of capitalism organized themselves neatly, making sure their voices heard.

One of the placards I’ve seen on the cable news said, Democracy Ends after You Cast Your Ballot.

There is an appealing candour in this line, especially now our country has less than of a year to change leadership.

In the Presidential election of 2004, I choose for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. So I voted for her.

It might be unfair to Fernando Poe Jr. but politics was a dog-eats-dog game, personally I don’t want a movie actor running a country. I do like his movies kasi.

Voting for and experiencing the management skills Mrs. Arroyo demonstrated, I am not really satisfied, nothing has changed.

Overwhelming it may seem but Democracy is really at the moment you cast your ballot and choose a leader. We choose leader out of the emotional appeal, about the perceived benefits, not out of his or her human features as a leader, soon logic will catch upon us and realize that the perceived benefits is not the way it was advertised or sales talked before. It was a sad situation if you ask me. Is this something to do also with my pursuit of happiness?

Please go on reading.

For most of us, Democracy means freedom, but however most modern ideologies promote freedom and the innate, unalienable rights of men to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Maybe, just maybe, I have a wrong definition of pursuit of happiness. Next time I vote, I must think of my right to pursuit of happiness.

But I feel sad, because, our leaders are human beings too, hybrid of irrationality and wickedness, offspring of desires and limitations. Their decisions, their accords are theirs alone. I wonder if they also think of “pursuit of happiness.”

Maybe.

But there is such a line like for the common good.

Well for one, we see and hear on the news, presidents going abroad, and luring foreign investors to set up their businesses here. It is a simple medicine that works. Give Filipinos jobs, they will earn money and soon they will be happy. They can go places and buy stuff, send their sons and daughters to schools, etc.

We also pray tributes to our Filipino expats, I think recognizing them as engine of growth of our economy is as just and as fair. We even encourage our fellows to go abroad, it is the same medicine that works, if Filipinos earn money abroad, and soon they will be happy. They can go places and buy stuff, send their sons and daughters to schools, etc.

Our pursuit of happiness, as a right, is not a license for any politician or capitalist to make us feel stupid.

Thriving in corruption, we contracts debts to our children. But is it corruption that is really the culprit? Or is it really our leaders the problem?

Or is it really democracy that fails us? And the excesses of capitalism, are they real abuser of our nation?

I guess none of the above.

Becasue it is my and your lack of love for this country that always brought us to our knees.

And we cannot blame history, what is bygone is bygone; all we can do is identify the dynamics that contribute to our current self-image, and make intelligent use of the things we’ve learned…that our pursuit for happiness is also our pursuit for patriotic identity.