BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol II, No. 02
Jan 12, 2005
social criticism by
Vicente Soria de Veyra
ARCHIVE #008
Archive:
2004
2005
Literary website:
Warphoto
The
Dogs of our Time
I JUST got a cd copy of Akira Kurosawa’s old black and white movie Stray Dog. For those who haven’t heard anything about this movie, it’s Kurosawa’s precious piece on the state of law and order in post-World War II Japan. Two ex-soldiers return home, both becoming victims of train or bus thieves who get their respective baggage. That’s the motif (not necessarily given away at the beginning of the movie) that sets the background for this Dostoevskian problem play.
In the movie, one of the ex-soldiers saw the experience of losing his luggage as manifest of a society that has betrayed its people (and its loyal soldiers), an attitude that lured his personality into the criminal world. The other ex-soldier was inspired by the experience to set things aright, choosing then the dutiful path of a police constable. The latter former soldier didn’t know the existence of that choice qua choice during his moment of choosing, however, and only saw it later, when he began to witness all the justifications for criminal activity that followed his search for his police gun which also fell into the hands of a tram pickpocket. The gun was later found as having been hired by the other ex-soldier, he who subconsciously chose to lead a life in crime.
CHOICES such as those in Stray Dog are a classic in
human histories and literatures. In our time and modest existences, we
witness heroes and friends either growing bitter from catastrophes
national and man-made or finding themselves in positions they later see as
wise and productive and humanitarian.
Beyond the pale, in the zones of deprivation, murkiness,
and abuse, many in this country of ours have chosen to man bases of envy,
hatred, and vengeance, leading them to carry on big-league careers in
criminal enrichment. These bases are usually inspired by filial or
regional or racist or even religious grievances. Crimes in our land, from
the rampant smuggling beyond the reach of Subic’s Jose Calimlim to the
petty abuse of official government vehicle privileges or an official’s
billboarded claim upon a not-so-needed (but contractor friend-awarded)
project as product of his genius and kindness, all come with ready
justifications that would inspire a Kurosawa to film a million stories
about siding with the wrong side.
Officials in our country are often blamed by the people
themselves for the corruptions in our purportedly Christian state, and the
officials in turn blame society for the corrupt national culture
supposedly making it impossible for the officials to implement reforms.
But both sides are correct. Corruption is in each of our
neighborhoods, from our neighborly vegetable vendor who sprays green dye
on his supplies or the fish dealer who preserves his load with
carcinogenous formaldehyde, to the smugglers of everything from used
clothes to motorcycles and luxury vehicles, and on to the government
official who believes his meager salary gives him the right to demand use
of the official diesel supply for his trip by land to the northern city of
malls -- all products of our national ability to justify almost anything
we do. In this country of ours, Rene Saguisag is not the only genius at
discovering all sorts of justifications for any move made by a client or
his own person.
Smugglers blame their existence on perceived favors upon
other businessmen by other officials, e.g. upon super-retailer Henry Sy.
The poor blame the government for leading them to lives of petty crimes.
The corrupt in government justify their acts with fingers pointing to
their low salary figures. Company directors who demand payola from
suppliers justify their own acts with unofficial corporate phrases like
“referral fees.”
Some of these justifications are not entirely without merit
in the halls of morality. Cheap pirated DVD’s can be deemed as a
necessary evil which should remind legal DVD manufacturers to consider the
mass consumer with features-downgraded editions instead of keeping the
format in the same category occupied by exclusive restaurants. Why keep a
donut cartel selling bread rings at P14 per when a “pirate” can
actually sell a minimally-downgraded version of them at P5 per?
Government contracts. Business decisions. Private murders.
All come with rationalizations, validations, and moral excuses which may
indeed have some merit in the morality halls of philosophy departments but
likewise give reason for entropy to introduce itself like a virus into our
noisy and articulate democracy.
In the final analysis, the Philippines as a Christian
nation is a myth, given this national picture wherein everybody is a
genius of a lawyer when it comes to finding virtue in his vice.
CERTAINLY reform can derive from individuals in our
archipelago who, when they lose their baggage to boat thieves, do not opt
to burn squatter shanties but instead find solace in alternatives such as
crime prevention and control and also social work. But while such desire
for reforms remains mere stories of individuals instead of a nation or
leadership, a Reformation period in this eternally weak republic of ours
will impossibly be in the offing.
Individuals like the newly-installed Subic anti-smuggling
czar Jose Calimlim may be one such story, as far as we know, but what good
is that faced with the failures in the hundreds of other smuggling ports
and “pseudo-ports” beyond Calimlim’s gaze and authority? There may
be ninety-nine individuals in journalism clamoring for national
reformation, but until we are rid of the hundreds of elements in the same
field who can be bought by or otherwise solicits “professional fees”
from certain interests, then journalistic reform can be regarded as a
fantasy in the meantime, giving us a situation that can be likened to the
search for the ultimate cancer drug.
Movie stories are often not meant to relay special stories
of individuals merely but stories symbolic of certain national problems
(and sometimes possible resolutions). While our national government
remains servile to press conferences a la Bush, no amount of Mahathir-like
reform governance by somebody from Marikina or Olongapo can push the
rampant culture of justifications aside and bring crimes into manifest
incarcerations on a national scale.
This is not yet the time for revolutions and
revolutionaries (and Christ-like revolutionary theologians), perhaps.
Stray dogs will continue to wreak shit havoc on our private gates’
pathways, in our city halls, in our deceptively clean and pretty business
districts, in our seemingly quiet ports, in our forestless jungle of a
motherland.
And don’t tell me I’m merely “the boy who cried
wolf”. Werewolves may actually what we have already become.
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Posted 01/12/05. Send comments to:
bananacue_republic@yahoo.com
"In
this country of ours, Rene Saguisag is not the only genius at discovering
all sorts of justifications for any move made by a client or his own person."