GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano
Of course, I was watching the television set all morning and early afternoon. By tomorrow morning, I have to submit this article which comes out every Friday. There seemed nothing more important than the Barack Obama victory and what it represents to America and the world. For so long, I had often refrained from commenting publicly about America’s presidential contest since I am not an American. What both stood for is of utmost relevance even to Filipinos, but I tried to avoid provoking all the more the heated partisanship that accompanied the campaign.
Very early this year, when a young American asked me about the Obama and Hillary rivalry for the Democratic nomination for president, I told him that it was a struggle of what was dominant that did not yet realize a new emerging force was challenging that dominance. Obama was seen as more reflective of meaning of “change” even though Hillary would have been the first woman president of the United States. And he was younger. But what is dominant does not simply disappear. It takes decades to ease it from its dominance and for another force to take over. And the difficulty of the primaries and the difficulty of the campaign for president mirror the difficulty of a new force taking over another that has been in place for a long, long time.
Anyway, it did not need an Obama victory to allow evolution to unfold. It would have done so even with a McCain presidency. Barack Obama, though, will be a more cooperative ally of change and evolution, and a most welcome one. The world is greatly hurt by the violence and conflict of the many wars and rebellions leaving trails of blood and misery. Obama cannot stop it, not right away, but he will not aggravate it and will reduce it either unless the terrorists reach the American people directly and cause massive destruction like 9/11.
While shaking my head at the impact of an Obama victory and the hopes that America can be a better country for the world, I was forming thoughts and words for this article around the just concluded elections in America. Then, a phone call jarred my musings and hurled me back to a reality much closer to home. It was a friend who wanted to coordinate a feeding session in a depressed area this Sunday and wanted to confirm certain details. But it was a news report that he alerted me to that shook me even though I have known it and have been trying to do what I can about it. It was an article in a major newspaper that reported the Philippines as the 5th most hungry country in the world.
I have been writing about hunger ever since the latest SWS survey results had been published. In one recent article, I even attached the website where the hunger incidence statistics were posted. It is a great risk for an opinion writer to write about the same topic, to give the same opinion, over and over again. But I have no choice. Or, more accurately, if I choose otherwise, I would not be able to live with myself in peace, in honor.
If there has been an outcry, a loud scream of anger or frustration, if the high officials of the State, of the Church and other religious groups, of Industry, of Civic Organizations, of the Academe, then there is no need for an Internet writer like me to dedicate extra articles to the issue of hunger. But there is hardly any. There was one statement I read which I think came from the CBCP. It admitted some fault and also pointed to government. One statement that I hoped would lead to a massive appeal to feed the hungry, but did not.
How, then, can a Filipino be silent? How, then, can a Christian be silent? Who will speak for the hungry, who will speak for the poor from where the hungry come from? A deafening message is being communicated by the sheer presence of beggars, of street children, of scavengers, of squatters who sleep on sidewalks, under bridges and along canals. But they have been with us almost forever, and their message has been unheard, not listened to, their presence shooed away, repulsed, even denied by our souls.
They say that the sun shines in a new America. They say that a new leadership is welcomed not only by Americans tired of war, bankruptcy, and increasing joblessness, but also by a world that had feared and resented an America seen as an arrogant bully. Obama ushers in a fresh gust of wind we call change and we are happy for America because millions of American citizens with Filipino blood will be part of that change.
What about the Philippines? I am not asking that corruption be eliminated, that inefficiency be reformed, that liars and thieves be imprisoned. I am only asking that we should not tolerate hunger, that we cannot pretend it is not there, that we sleep peacefully in the midst of it.
Struggling to maintain objectivity, the following still flowed from my heart to my pen in a message of pain I sent to friends, to elders of some Christian communities and leaders of the the advocacy which drives my life today. I said about the hunger of our people:
This is a collective and public sin, a rejection of the mission and life of Jesus, a failure of government, a failure of religion, an indictment of our societal values and behavior, a curse that will haunt us and our culture.
All claims at being faithful to our religious beliefs have suddenly become hollow, perhaps even false. Christians and Muslims in the Philippines must move quickly to succor the hungry, whisper our humble apologies to them, and then feed a hungry people proportionate to the massiveness of the hunger afflicting them.
Will the poor and the hungry ever have their Obama? So the poor and hungry even have to need an Obama? Are we who are not poor and hungry not enough for fellow Filipinos who are? Is not being one people created by one God in a beautiful and bountiful land more than enough to make us remember the pain of many and evoke human compassion to rescue them?
– “In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves.”
Responses may be sent to jlmglimpses@gmail.com
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“In bayanihan, we will be our brother’s keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves.”
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