Barrio Stories and Other Tales

Barrio

Apung Islo's Foundation Principle



--based on the lecture of our town's greatest philosopher, Tatang Islo (who was so slow that a balut peddler overtook him while he was driving his bicycle)

I am here standing in the marketplace bringing these carton boards where I can draw my illustrations, anyone interested to the musings of an old man is welcome. My listeners - just get me a glass of water every now on then, or coffee. No, pardon me, no coffee. I don't want to palpitate while lecturing because I get a hard-on when I palpitate and you might like what I have down there instead of the one up here if that happens.

My discussion for today is the Foundation Principle. The reason I came up with it is because one day, while I sat eating dried fish and boiled egg and rice and vinegar with soy sauce, I asked myself - What is my food made up of? How much carbohydrates am I eating? How much lipids and fats? How much protein? How much cholesterol? Can I predict my chances of heart disease with this kind of food? Can I alter my life's length if I alter my food? What shall I make or add into this food to make me live longer so I can have more hard-ons at the sight of beautiful women?

So I started my research. Alas! I went east, north, south and west and I could not find any answer. How can a simple question about the composition of my food be absent in a country of eighty million people? It is impossible to have nobody contemplating about these basic things in

Then I dreamt of many many triangles. The triangle of food chain, the triangle of life, the triangle of wants, the triangle of needs. And the only standing triangle is one standing on its foundation. A triangle can never stand on its head. And that's where the Foundation Principle emanates from.

It was Marcos who said that this nation must stand on its head when he wrote, "Revolution must come from the top". He said this to rationalize his Martial Law and his insipid New Society. He said the Leader must change, the government must change so the mass will follow and will impact the whole nation. Sure it did - now we don't even have any idea about the composition of what we eat. We are one of the poorest countries in Asia. His revolution from the top really meant - Pay attention only to me and my government oh you ignoramus people... I will be saving you from the fires of hell... I will offer you my beautiful wife's true, good and beautiful concept... I will make you understand the world according to me... For twenty years many of our people believed his - The Politicians and the government must change and the rest follows.

But that is wrong, very very wrong! We may as well ask a carabao to fly and cultivate rice in the middle of the Sahara Desert. We will be spending all our lives crying and screaming and scratching heads, and talking endlessly if we will insist on expecting changes from our nation's top instead of changing our nation's foundation.

We are all so enamored with the top of our triangle - we all work towards that. Just look at what we do daily: We take pictures of the rich, we talk about multi-awarded shits, we are so inclined to beauty contests, we are so enamored with Politicians, and this is the most disabling weakness we have that has a bearing on my lecture - our universities are so enamored with topping the board exams. I don't know but I have traveled far and wide and only this country pays so much attention to 'board top-notchers '. This is the culprit I say because our universities have lost sight of our country's foundation, being blinded by their quest to have their names published in newspapers for having this and that student as top-notcher. So what do these students work hard for? They work for the top. And top means the board exam.

Are they encouraged to assess the nation? Are they encouraged to study the population? Are they encouraged to research on the best means to improve the nation's lot? No they are not. Instead they are encouraged to study foreign scientific books to top boards. They don't write scientific books. They memorize scientific books.

I have seen some of these 'board top-notchers' working in the United States and they are delegated to work jobs no decent American worker would love to work at. My question is - if you're the smartest in your country, how come you're not smart enough to improve the lot of that country so the likes of you would stop working abroad? Ay, that is true and sad.

So many wasted talents in our country - wasted by an educational system that promotes input-output learning. No creativity. No researching. No questioning. No experimentations. No initiatives. Our educational system keeps balancing itself on its head instead of standing firm on its feet. This has been going on since the time of Marcos. A long time to deprive ourselves of precious researches and studies and findings and data that will be useful tools in progressing this nation.

Who among our universities have data about the Muslims' lives for the past thirty years, who have data about Filipino eating habits for the past thirty years, who have data about our poor for the past thirty years? Did our brightest of bright minds ever question the overall system of this nation?

If I cannot find a single article about the composition of Filipino daily diet, then we have failed our foundation.

The stability of our nation has been ruined by this quest to the top. We keep on awarding ourselves for something not worthy of anything. Who the hell cares about hall-of-famer shits? Mostly our hall-of-famers are worshipped by their fellow hall-of-famers in their MAS (mutual admiration societies). My town-mates, this nation has long been standing upside down. We have long ignored the foundation upon which we must stand. And they are here - our neighbors, our city folk, urban folk, country folk, every breathing Filipino being that is worth listening to, paying attention to, studying about, monitoring about and they don't belong to the top.

I'd like to reverse the Marcos ideology to reverse the decline of this nation. "Revolution must come from the foundation." Once the foundation changes, the top will change. Pay attention only to the people oh you intelligent people... they will be saving you from the fires of hell... they will offer you their children's quest for what is best for this nation... they will make you understand the world according to them...

Alex Maskara

Barrio Tales