I remember when the world started to open up. I was in 1st grade and I started to learn how to read. I once felt amazed on what the world had to offer. I can now choose between Coke and Pepsi because I can read. I knew that it was called Chippy since I can read. A flood of knowledge cascaded when I found that 1937 Reader’s Digest tucked in one of my grandfather’s bookshelves.
But along with obtaining information, there came the responsibility of not only keeping it but also using it the right way. When I read that copy of Time Magazine with the emaciated child, I learned of hunger. Not the hunger I daily feel but of a hunger that is deliberate. It then explained to me things that were unwritten. The day I had to accompany my mother and aunt to a store further down the street and wait in line. I discovered that the same situation was also [present but to a far lesser degree. We had to wait in line for the National Grains Authority truck to deliver rice. Those in line were only allowed to purchase 5 kilos of rice. There were no assurances when the truck will be back.
That explained why some of my classmates would defecate inside our classroom much to laughs from us. Then other classmates would tell stories of how their rice was mixed with corn or kamote (sweet potatoes) to augment them. That of course became the source of diarrhea. The same story was recounted by my sister to happen in their classes. That was a time in our history that seems to have been conveniently forgotten but hunger still stalks these lands. I have only to go to our school that is beside the church every Saturday. The church and school have feeding programs and that is a laudable program. What must be considered is that those styropor food containers must also include eating utensils. I find it obscene to take pictures but I have seen with my own eyes how the children eat with their hands and the food packets were just laid on the sidewalks. The children were eating like dogs. In fact, our family pet, Khal has better food containers.
How did I arrive at this? It is because I learned how to read. I learned through the structured instructionals at school how to analyze and evaluate. Those are the same skills that I have applied throughout my professional career that ranged from banking, finance, project development and Complete Staff Work at the Presidential Management Staff in the palace at a given span of time.
Now, I use it still in everyday life. Those skills have managed to feed me and put a roof over my head. I have met people of high standing because of it and I have so many times broken bread with them and even got to know more about them and they got to know me. Such contacts have also given me a modicum of standing and connections. I made friends and also enemies because of these skills but the ledger points to assets more than liabilities.
Today, I use those skills in trying to help those that need help but we all know that these are not enough. Analysis and evaluation, forecasts and projections are now second nature to me. At a certain level, I try to turn it off since it always adds to the same thing. That the bottomline is we are losing more than winning. It is not a breakeven proposition. It seems that every day, more of the children end up eating on the sidewalk every morning. By evening, while walking home, I get to see not only children but entire families eating like dogs on the sidewalk. I will do the math on my head and I discontinue before arriving at the same “solution” since it will mess up my evening.
This is what is happening to many of us now. Having been blessed with education and above all discernment, we having been cloaked with the mantle of critical reasoning are able to see things as what they are. We are now faced with choices on what to do about these gifts. To turn a blind eye and have tunnel vision on what we want to see and do or use the gifts for a greater responsibility bestowed. We used to marvel at our abilities and talents but then realize what must be done. The country is in need of those gifts now more than ever.
Truly, ours is a gift and at the same time a curse.
