Construction

The other week I thought I’d take the emotional temperature of readers by floating an idea that was either brilliant or dopey. (Of course the best ideas are both). I proposed the privately-funded construction of a massive towering monument that would symbolize the Philippines. Let’s call it the Colossus Project.

The rationale for this construction is analogous to the technique used by some actors to create their characters. They build the role from the outside in: they figure out how their character looks, what she wears, how she speaks, laughs, cries, the way she moves, etc. When the externals have been defined, they work on the emotional core. Maybe if we start with the monument, we will be forced to look at what’s inside ourselves.

It’s not an original idea. A friend reminds me that before the 1998 Centennial, there was a government proposal to build such a tower at the Luneta. It was shouted down by the media, probably for good reason.

And yes, there is an Albert Speer-ness about this, and more than a touch of megalomania, so let’s keep our sense of irony about us.

We received several reactions to the Colossus Project from our readers. Here are some of their letters, edited for length and vehemence. Let’s begin with a dissenting opinion from a reader in Elmwood Park, Illinois:

“Thank you for the idea but.

“A monument is a testament of a great achievement first and foremost.

By being so, it becomes an inspiration and symbol. What we need is not a colossus of an icon. The mere fact that we have nothing to inspire it suggests we need to make something first before a memorial. You cannot keep something you do not have.  You have to create it first.

“More than statues, icons and monuments are big hearts and the strong will to overcome. We have a gargantuan challenge. Our county is so mired in corruption and poverty that we need more than courage and determination. We need passion to clean up our act and spare no one. We have too much rhetoric and very few doers. Many are simply hearers, writers, grandstand experts and sadly, countless rumor-mongering prophets of doom and gloom. We have to stop looking at our neighbors and start staring at our mirrors and cleaning our own mess. If that wouldn’t move us to clean up then we are no more than those ‘taong grasa’ on our streets who have obviously lost it. If that is the case, then even if the edifice is as big as the whole island of Luzon that’s a piece of worthless garbage not even worth a glance.

“Please inspire people to act, to organize, to start building jobs and help the economy. Be vigilant and do not stop and do not let our government run as inutile as they are with their endless but zero indictment congressional and senate hearings. Expose those who are dirty, and rally the people to wake up and come to their senses, before it’s too late, it almost is!”

Thank you for that earnest reaction. Watchman 2014 notes that someone has already put a similar idea in effect:

“I totally agree with your Colossus idea. The Banawe rice terraces and other tourist spots (Bohol’s Chocolate Hills, Mayon Volcano, Taal Volcano, etc.) just can’t do this much-needed job. It would be very difficult but I believe someday this will happen. (In the next generation perhaps?)

“Will Henry Sy of SM do it for us then? (Maybe on MOA grounds?) Or perhaps the Zobels who are more keen on this national heritage thing? I hope so. So who chooses the design?

“By the way, INC, the indigenous Church, has been doing this since after WWII. Just last year I believe they built 92 temples (four in the US). One edifice would cost them an average of P50M (times four abroad). And these ‘monuments’ are known to people from the Metro to the barrios as distinctively Filipino. Thing is, they’re not stopping till every hill in the world has one. So good luck.”

Lucky Canary thinks it just might work.

“You know your idea is very doable. A corporate giant with a cultural soul can make it happen, say, a Zobel de Ayala or a Concepcion or a Sy.

“The location of that edifice must be on an island, so our ‘island-ness’ will be more dramatized, and for tourism purposes of course. But the island should be one that does not get submerged during the typhoon season.

“There is I think a Fil-Canadian priest who is building a church somewhere in Batangas, which will feature a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the Batangas coastline, to rival the Brazilian cross landmark.

“Back to your edifice: A depiction of the rise of the political movement against the Spaniards and against the Marcos regime. More emphasis on the former.

“It should be massive. As tall as a building—in the middle of an island — and there should be various facades, with each facade devoted to the different mini-revolutions (Gomburza, Dagohoy, the Cry of Balintawak, Raising of the Flag in Kawit, Independence from the Yanks, EDSA revolt).

“When travelers approach the country, they would see it from the sky. When poets compose their songs, it would be prominent in their verse.”

And Myron has some thoughts about how the monument should look, and how we might cover the costs of construction.

“I would like to suggest that the design be something that symbolizes defiance of tyranny, corruption and greed by our own (long) forgotten culture. A native having a necklace that contains a maimed iron hand (of tyranny), a plump decapitated head with a nose-ring (greed) and a government building (corruption). The last of the three can be replaced if and only if corruption does leave the government, but I think the builders can make it permanent. Instead of holding a spear, since that would be too plain, the hand would be raised high while holding up the middle finger (to signify the things we learned from other cultures).

“And lastly, the place where it should be built has to be somewhere east of Malacañang (since the statue would look to the west). That way, if there are dissenters, they need not go to different areas just to call attention — they can just gather there and present their case.

“If fees are applied to those who would conduct rallies and propaganda there, the investment in the construction would be returned in less than two years probably.”

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Keep the ideas coming. The address is emotionalweatherreport@gmail.com.