Barrio Stories and Other Tales

Barrio

The Island Devoid of Mirrors



And it came to pass Fahid, the Arab mariner, comes to the island devoid of mirrors and presents the island's very first mirror so the people would see a clearer view of themselves. In seeing themselves, the people begin screaming and crying and shouting - the reason being they never thought they'd look exactly the same as their neighbors, whom they love to hate and criticize.

For this solitary island hasn't been seen by civilization, it is an island that swims, it hides from the rest of the world. No stranger, except Fahid, has seen it. It is but expected from the Pacific gods to hide this island, with its shameful people so no one in the world would emulate them. Shameful because each of this island's citizens thinks he is better than the rest, more intelligent than the rest, more worth-emulating than the rest, it goes without saying each citizen thinks the rest of the island is worth nothing.

Except himself who is Somebody.

So the citizens write stories and tales everyday on their papers about how bad this or that person is. They scrutinize each other's statements to find a fault and in finding it, will spend months and years drumming it; they seem to think they were born to destroy the rest; they do not understand the concept of island-building; they believe in self-building. Self-building unfortunately, means others-destruction. They never heard Gandhi's comment to the colonizers "There are people who believe in their superiority by humiliating others." This island devoid of mirrors haven't heard of Gandhi.

They hear nothing else but what comes out of their mouths, and they associate freedom of speech with freedom to destroy. They have leaders who believe in fantasy and good self-image. And for that, the leaders will say anything, create most impossible goals, even the most impossible means to achieve their goals. Reality has abandoned their minds. They never see beauty in their island; they never see the potential and power of its people because they are busily destroying one another. A leadership rises to destroy its old enemies, then the enemies rise, to destroy the previous leadership. Vengeance is the rule every Politician follows.

They never talk of environment, no one talks of saving the island from the ravages of time, no one sees to it the trees remain strong and standing, no one sees to it that its people are well-fed so they would spare the young trees and the young fish from being prematurely cut-down and killed out of necessity and hunger. No one sees this, because each citizen thinks he is too intelligent to waste time on saving the environment; but he has all the time to fault others.

Fahid cannot understand this, what culture could possibly form this, a culture so bad the Pacific gods made sure it's hidden like it is an unwanted mistake - this island can never develop literature, the citizens hate each others so much they would not read each other's novels and short stories, they'd rather listen to the stories sent by the winds, which are nothing but air; this island can never develop advanced science and technology because for the populace, everything revolves around law and politics, nothing is talked but law and politics, nothing is thought but law and politics; and when you would have expected advanced Politicians, you'd see nothing but poisonous ones, salivating at every opportunity to grandstand; they have some of the lowest-quality schools and educators in the world; in fashion and looks, they try to emulate the clothes and faces of the fish instead of creating beautiful clothes for each others; they cannot maintain clean streets, garbage is all over the place because everyone thinks the garbage is the responsibility of others or the government; they never follow rules because everyone thinks he is or knows someone who is above the law.

In order to be above or know someone above the law, each must be rich to bribe and give grease money; and in order to be rich, either kidnap the ones deemed to be rich and demand money from their families or destroy all the trees, dynamite all coral reefs, and sell these to the Pacific middlemen that sell to the Advanced countries. Each of these ways to get rich begets crimes and each crime results in violence and violence begets violence; the cycle goes on and on; in the end, each one thinks all his neighbors as criminals; as possessing a hidden agenda; as possessing skeletons inside the closet.

And it came to pass the citizens of the island devoid of mirrors have lost respect for their neighbors; each of them thinks he alone deserves to live abundantly, the rest can go to hell.

All these, my friends, happened because the island has no mirrors.

The only way the people could look at themselves is by staring at the water but the water is so murky and polluted that there is no point of looking at oneself. Since they could no longer see their reflections, each created in his imagination his own looks. And as expected, each started believing he's the handsomest in the island. Each started walking with a bounce, fancying he's got the most beautiful voice and the most profound ideas.

The character of these islanders is perplexing, they don't exactly see what is going on around them. They do not realize the longer they act the way they are acting now, the more is the wasted time to improve the lot of their island. The Arab asks, "How can you squander so much opportunities given you? You've got a fertile soil, abundant flora and fauna, you are blessed by the seas and everything in the sea, you have no abnormality as a people why are you so bent in destroying this nation the gods had given you?"

It is one question that agitates all the islanders, each one has a 'correct' answer to that, which goes along the line of "It is someone else's fault. Everything could have been right in this island if everyone just listened to me."

The Arab says, "I can't really understand...the other lands I saw in my marine travels have shown so much greatness with what little they have. I have seen lands denied of water, resources, fertile lands yet these lands created the most civilized culture, the most beautiful palaces and temples, populated by the most educated people one could meet. What happened to you oh Island Devoid of Mirrors? "

And everyone turns silent. They cannot answer any question related to their history, they have forgotten history, they haven't listened to the people before them, they hate the people before them, they think they are better than the people before them, they did not read what their fellow-islanders have written, they think they are too smart to read what their fellows have written, they did not cherish what was supposedly their cultural treasures for their own good, they hate whatever culture they have they'd rather copy the culture of winds and fish. They have rejected their neighbors, their island, their culture, because they think everything around them inferior.

Until the Arab mariner shows them the mirror.

They can not believe what they see - they suddenly realize they are no different from each others. They all look alike.

And in seeing themselves, all wrinkled and haggard and nasty and sad and full of spite, they begin to scream and shout; one by one, they scratch their own faces until the skin peels off, pull their own hair and pluck their own eyes. Each one chooses to become blind than face the reality. One by one they die. Their corpses get piled up until the island could not carry their weight no longer. The island devoid of mirrors sinks in the middle of the Pacific and the only survivor is the Arab mariner in his boat.

What a waste, he says, if these islanders just had good self-esteem and could accept what the mirror tells them, I could have struck good business with them... ah, what a waste.

Alex Maskara

Barrio Tales