Castle Crazy

The opening of Hong Kong Disneyland marks the next phase of the famous rodent’s conquest of the hearts and minds (and money) of global youth and their parents. Images of the inauguration seemed remarkably similar to the last two openings in Tokyo and France – mainly because of Sleeping Beauty’s castle looming in the background – in all its Technicolor splendor.

We can’t help it. Fairy-tale fantasies are incomplete without the medieval castle to storm, rescue virginal damsels in distress from, or live happily ever after in. Old man Walt Disney got it right when he chose the structure to anchor his original theme park in Anaheim, California half a century ago.

Here in the Philippines, we have our share of Walt Disney wannabes complete with turreted castles. The first medieval fortification we had, of course, was the Intramuros. The walls, however, were more renaissance-era rather than the standard image of tall, crenellated structures with pointed towers on a hill. The Intramuros’ walls were rather squat because defenses of the period were changed to low and deep structures rather than high and narrow barriers. This had to do with improvements in war technology and the efficacy of cannonballs in puncturing medieval castles’ perimeters. Lower and deeper fortifications (as espoused by the French military architect Vauban) with wide and clear fields of fire (open areas like the Luneta) ensured adequate protection from invading forces armed with artillery.

Intramuros disappeared almost completely in the carnage of the Second World War but castles never lost their appeal to Filipinos. My first experience of local castles and moats was Fort Santiago in the 1960s when the conservation efforts were not yet complete. It was musty and interesting but not exactly King Arthur’s keep. I remember the dungeon where prisoners drowned if the tide went too high. Apparently, few escaped incarceration then unlike today’s prisons where high-risk detainees can check out as easily as leaving a hotel. (Room service! Can you send up an escort with my armalites and RPGs, please?)

My next memory is closer – King Arthur’s Court was (and still is) a motel in Pasig City, near where I spent my teen years. In those days, the funky landmark stood guard over the road connecting Shaw Boulevard to the old Pasig town proper. It never ceased to amuse me every time I passed its high walls. (I understand that the bellhops there wear, or used to wear, medieval costumes and that the tag line of the facility was "Once a king always a king …but once a night is never enough.")

This structure was followed by a similar one called Camelot in Quezon City. It still stands next to a TV studio complex and played some part in the People Power revolution. Another edifice rose on P. Tuazon in Cubao amid old residences and near the LVN studios.

I had forgotten about all this and thought that the craze for castles was just a passing fancy. I was wrong. In the last 10 years many more castles have cropped up. On Commonwealth Avenue heading towards Fairview (more like "Farview" because of its distance) is Ever Gotesco, a huge mall decked out as a castle and festooned with flying banners, which never move because they are made of cut metal frozen in motion.

There is a rather fancy robust one in the hills of Antipolo, which houses a hardware store and its owner’s residential quarters. Further from Manila in Tagaytay I found three more, two smallish residential castles and a huge one that was built at the end of the last real estate boom and meant to attract property buyers. It mars the view of Taal and one wonders how it ever got a permit from authorities since it clearly is taller than what I remember the limit was (set to control barriers to the view, which is supposed to be accessible to the public).

But then our local governments, save for an enlightened few, are not aesthetically-inclined. Beauty to most is revenue from taxes and "progress" via any newfangled complex built to attract investment. The danger is really that every town and city wants to Disneyfy their surroundings. "Themed" masterplans, despite their vacuous cultural foundations and skewed aesthetics, still attract clients and the buying public. Maybe we have lost our innate aesthetic sense, probably due to the fact that culture and the appreciation of the arts have been erased from our school curricula.

There are reasons for fortifying our homes. Crime is everywhere and we build high fences around our middle-class homes. We encircle our villages with even higher defences and hire armed guards that roam around all hours of the day and night. Our homes are castles where iron bars keep thieves out while sentencing residents to gruesome fiery deaths every so often. Our subdivisions erect social fences that separate classes and widen the chasm between the haves and the have-nots.

It’s not aesthetics then that may be missing but the awareness that we cannot build higher and higher walls to deny the reality of our surroundings. We are prisoners of our own paranoia. The solution is not to build walls or more fortifications but to break down the barriers of ignorance and indifference. The government should stop painting fantasy worlds of decreasing poverty levels and an improving quality of life for all and admit that we have much to do to build a better Philippines.

In the meanwhile, we lose our performing artists to Disney, our professionals to war-torn countries, our nurses to Europe and our Comelec officials to their corruption-funded castles who knows where.

I wonder when the next plane to Hong Kong is leaving?

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.