It cannot be said that the Filipinos are not ingenious, not creative or original. Yes, most of them either have barely enough or pratically nothing at all to live by. But dull, they certainly are not.
A good number of them prefer to have nothing to do with politics, with the national economy and/or social development. But there are still a sizable number of them who are not only interested but also concerned with the way things are taking place in the country, with what their government is doing, particularly what their national leaders do or not do, do well or do badly. This is especially true for young Filipinos who are creative, imaginative and innovative.
There was once an administration that though of staging something curious in order to proclaim to the people how much it has done, how much it was doing and how much more it intends to do.
It wanted to demonstrate its dedicated concern specially for poor families — as usual. So it set up some kind of a drama that the general public would not forget. Thus it was that the parable of the “Bangkang Papel” got national attention. Shortly thereafter, the stage show became but a big joke — against the administration itself.
It came to pass that there were some young people who called public attention to their invention of what they called “Eroplanong Papel.” The key message behind this novel representational item was basically to tell the present administration that was going nowhere — all loud and repeated claims to the contrary notwithstanding.
In other words, the professed past and present accomplishments of Malacañang was but a piece of paper plane. It flew up. It went down. And that was it.
Thereafter, there was the emergence of a cute novel word which was immediately accepted and happily included in the national vocabulary. It is this: “Noynoying.” Translation: Good for nothing, doing nothing. Just relaxing. Merely sleeping. The new word was appended to the national leadership — true or not.
One thing is certain: The ones who coined the word and publicly staged its meaning, were again a group of young people. They were alert. They were brave. They were delightful.
Recently, another group of young people came up with another phrase — another brand new locution. This: “Gobyernong Papel.” From the words and actions of those who came up with it, the phrase means a government that is a weakling, that is lightweight. It flies only to land down. It soars according to where the wind — KKK (kaibigan, kaklase, kabarilan), political concerns, foreign interests — blows. This may not be altogether true. But it is neither altogether false. The same may be improper. But it is no altogether unfair. Truth is painful.
What is next?
(Reprinted with permission of Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz, from www.ovc.blogspot.com)