Is positive change possible in this country?

US President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney spoke about the “American dream.” Ours is a different story: There is no such thing as a “Filipino dream.” There are only nightmares of corruption and innumerable sociopolitical ills. There may be blue states and red states in America, but it can be said easily, as President Obama asserted, that there’s only one “United States.” The same cannot be said about the Philippines.

Why is change almost impossible in this country? Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been replaced and is being prosecuted, and yet almost three years into the term of President Aquino, life has not been better for some 10.3 million households which rate themselves as poor, this according to a survey by SWS. This is because Arroyo is not the singular cause of our problems.

Where we are right now is a product of a confluence of factors, i.e., political dynasties, corruption, incompetence, elitism and many more, including the fact that we cannot simply compete with First World economies, which subsidize their education, agriculture and research to levels that attract the best of minds.

From a moral end, every Filipino perhaps desires to do what is right. A father who comes to know about a sick poor child in need of P90,000 to pay for dialysis might really want to help. But he has only P100,000 in his bank account and his own son will be enrolling soon, and he will need half of that amount. The father will, therefore, not be able to help because of this constraint.

You can be realistic about things, and this means considering what is practical or doable. However, this suggests that since it is almost impossible to cure an injustice, we simply have to resign to our fates. But resigning to injustice defeats the very purpose of any person’s will to live. Thus, we have to hold on to our principles, to our values. We must cling to  our faith that there is a bright future and it will come someday soon. The problem, however, is that after decades of expecting change, we come to realize that life stays the same.

The distinction that Isaiah Berlin makes between positive and negative freedom is still very true to this day. Majority of Filipinos are still struggling against the ills of “unfreedom,” inching their way forward, waging battles here and there, stifled by unjust and unfair systems.

Unless we emerge from this hell and win our freedom from a life of despondency and anguish, that day when a young child can actually celebrate his or her “freedom” as a person with a “fair shot” at happiness might not come.

—RYAN MABOLOC,

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