Things we don't talk about

I just noticed three things we don’t talk about much: Pirated marriages, pirated DVDs and the state of our crab mentality.

Thanks to television we are once again force-fed with news stories under the category of “pirated marriages”. As the term connotes, these marriages are fake or stolen from an original material. While everyone simply watches it just like any old telenovela, one has to wonder what the real story is about the glamorized Pirated Marriages and should these be a public concern just like the impeachment?

If it takes two to tango, it takes three to rumble! The sad part about pirated marriages is that they only become a major problem when the contested party or “property” dies. It’s strange how people fight over a carcass that has a limited storage date on the “box”.

It is even stranger to want the remains of someone you couldn’t stand to be with and have lived without for years. The strangest I have seen is when common friends or acquaintance take sides even at the funeral parlor.

All this makes me appreciate our pastors and mentors at victory Christian Fellowship who have unceasingly taught us to work at our marriage as well as on our character, and most importantly set our marriage on the foundation of God. Work on your marriage, work on your looks and work with God.

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Thanks to the ever controversial Presidential adviser on Political Affairs Ronald Llamas, we are once again confronted by a “sin” many of us commit at least once a month, or when we missed the latest movie in the cinema because of our hectic schedules.

I will be the last to condemn Llamas for being seen allegedly buying pirated DVDs while I would certainly be the first to say to those in media: he who is without sin cast the first stone. I still “don’t like” Llamas for his incursions in the field of carelessness, but I will not be a hypocrite and stone him all the while knowing that I too have strayed among those stalls selling DVD copies every 3 months in search of a movie I need to “research”.

While most of us may not have committed adultery I would venture that almost all have looked twice at some young nubile beauty or in the case of women; some gorgeous hunk. I dare the say that it is the same for many us as far as “pirated DVDs are concerned.

The issue will continue to crawl along because at the end of the day while we may be against pirated DVDs, entertainment and recording companies need to be more competitive in terms of bringing out DVD versions to the market faster and cheaper than their current prices. Originals need not be as cheap as pirated but they can’t be priced as if brand new.

In the end, it’s the fault of producers for failing to meet the expectations or demands of their market. It’s stupid to make your customers wait 3 to six months for the original DVD while it only takes the pirates the same amount of time to flood the world at 1/3 the price!

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I don’t know if you have noticed the change but there are now fewer “crabs” in the bucket.

Most people won’t, but some of us who are willing to open our eyes, to look well and to listen have noticed.

After years of living in a bucket, some crabs escaped and made it to the “wild”. There they took a chance, worked hard, excelled and got the world’s attention. It didn’t take long before celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, as well as reputable organizations such as CNN began noticing them. Because the world noticed, the rest of those living in the bucket started to realize that it was possible, so more and more crabs did everything to get out of the bucket.

It didn’t take very long for those who were left behind to realize that pulling down others didn’t do much for them either, they only made the climb harder, but the others still managed to get out and made a better life for themselves. In the end those who got out have become a thousand times bigger and more popular than the ones who kept pulling others down.

This is a rather lengthy introduction to a very simple observation, but it is one we all need to keep our eyes on.

I noticed that slowly but surely, Filipinos are actively shedding what we have always referred to as “crab mentality” or our critical attitude that intentionally or unintentionally pulls down others.

Instead of being the usual lynch mob that mock or make fun of others, we have slowly evolved into a people that pray for and give honor to our countrymen who are brave enough to take chances, fight their way to victory and fame as well as compete against other people or circumstance. We have even given Pinoy domestic workers recognition for directly keeping our economy alive because of their multi-billion peso remittances.

Whether it’s an American Idol entry, a global campaign for our tourism spot, promoting a fellow Filipino to become an icon of heroism, or the “Pambansang Kamao” (the national fist fighter) defending one of eight titles, Filipinos are now pushing others up instead of pulling them down.

Whether it is because the “World” told us so, or because we have finally learned to take pride in our Kababayans, we are certainly on the long road to recovering our sense of pride and support for others. I believe that each of us must actively point out this change to our friends and family because this is the best way to totally eradicating our national disease called “crab mentality” 

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