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| Photo not taken by me |
It was the usual Monday morning rush. I was riding a jeepney on my way to work (late again). One of the stickers posted at the back of the driver caught my eye. It was a simple graphic with the words " Movement for a livable Cebu", an organization that is frequently featured in the newspapers nowadays. I let out a small chuckle. The usual traffic from Talamban to Ayala was severely frustrating and I figured that I have all the time in the world to think of the legitimacy of the organization as well as its sincerity. As citizens, I think it's only appropriate of us to always be skeptical especially when organizations like this start to arise, coincidentally when election season is fast approaching. But even if we do assume that these people are sincere and well intentioned, unfortunately, sincerity doesn't always translate to effectiveness and sometimes in this case, might even prolong the problem itself.
It is not my intention to downplay their contributions to Cebu. I think they're very important especially in keeping the level of corruption at bay and have enough influence to make significant changes when dealing with environmental issues. But I wonder if they are aware that their movement only address the symptoms of a problem. Do they know that the deterioration of Cebu's environment is very much tied to the class struggle. Can we really expect to revitalize the physical environment of Cebu without first revitalizing the economic conditions of the rest of the population? From my perspective, Cebu is fast becoming like another Manila. A highly stratified society where there's a few people at the top controlling the wealth while the majority of the population are working in the "service sector", in other words servicing the affluent few. Maybe in the future, similar to what happened in Manila when an international delegate went there to ironically discuss about poverty, we'll also build walls around slums just to hide our marginalized people.
While the rest of the world are now focusing on the Third industrial revolution to overhaul their outdated infrastructures, Cebu on the other hand, is still developing under the templates of outdated ideas. They're still trapped on the superficial level of progress. They associate large buildings and the saturation of super Malls in the cityscape as an indicator of progress. Therefore, we're not only lagging behind other countries technologically, but also our mentality/consciousness has to catch up as well. So the reason I question the intentions of the Movement for livable Cebu, is because I feel that they're barely scratching the surface of what's truly behind all these problems. In the words of the late George Carlin;
"I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a shit about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me."Welcome to Blissful Cebu.
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| a trisikad drives past a wall covered with a tarpaulin poster of the ongoing 45th Annual Board of Governors meeting of the Asian Development Bank at suburban Pasay city south of Manila, Philippines, Thursday May 3, 2012. |
