#VoxPopuli | Finding the Light on the Darkest Days
By Ezekiel Antonio G. Mamaril
The pandemic is a big problem not only being faced by our country, but along with the whole world. Lives are taken everyday, the quarantine pulling us away from our friends, and after some time, when this is all over, it will leave a remarkable footprint. One of these are the problems in the Philippines that were made worse… They are no joke, country-wide economic struggles, human rights violations, civil wars, government corruption. And sometimes, we can’t help but ask ourselves, how can we find a solution to these problems already rooted in our economic, academic, and social lives? And as students, as the youth, how do we find hope during this confusing yet difficult time, and keep it alive for generations to come, and while this global pandemic is putting salt on open wounds, and are making it worse? How do we find the light, in this seemingly never-ending darkness the pandemic put us in?
Unemployment rates in the Philippines rose by three percent in the past 2 years, and in comparison, it took us 15 years to decrease it by 3 percent. That is why most people here, including my extended family, struggled during this pandemic and were almost completely reliant on the amelioration program of the government. Now, if you were them, the first thing that comes to mind is that it somehow feels better during this pandemic, because they now have a more stable form of income, compared to before the pandemic. Won’t you think the same way, if you were in their situation?
Speaking of the government, did you notice that perhaps, they are much noisier now during elections, mostly because they are trying to ruin their competition. They are bringing down their competition so that they’d seem bad in the people’s eyes. They seem to be grabbing leverage, instead of just putting out the fault immediately. They grab these leverages, sometimes not knowing what others hold against them, Which in turn, goes back to them. Sometimes saying the iconic line; “you are just doing this to break me” or “this is all made up, I didn’t do this, don’t believe him, in fact…”, Don’t you think that just staying quiet is better than just making noise? If you know you did good, stay humble and not boast about it.
That leads us to Values. The youth need to learn values, especially the values of discernment, humility, and bravery. Discernment, to know whether one choice is bad or good, to be able to think twice, or even three times, before doing an action, especially when you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. And to choose what’s better between or among choices. Humility, to have the ability to be calm when you’re winning, to have the mindset to give back to whoever helped you in your time of need, to know that one time, you were at your lowest, and someone or something picked you up from there. And bravery, to have the guts to fight for the general good, and to pursue your dreams while not being hindered by what’s bringing you down, the ability to just shrug off what insults people throw at you.
The pandemic taught us a lot of things, to be honest. It taught us to stand alone, in times of strife. It taught us to be more humble, the pandemic told us that we are mere humans and that anytime we can all go bye-bye. It told us to work together to find a cure, It helped us in advancing our technologies, and our way of thinking about things. You see, the pandemic isn’t all the bad (besides the deaths and all that). We can learn a lot from our struggles and we should keep that mindset as we go on with our lives.
“Human nature tends to focus on the one wrongdoing, rather than the 99 other good things a person did”. That is what the priest in my church said 6 years ago in a homily of his. I do reflect upon this quote, oftentimes even questioning the nature of humanity, asking the questions “Why were human brains programmed to act like this? Were they influenced by something, is that why this person acts like this? Are we able to change his mindset to something towards the general good? And if so, How?” Just a few months ago, I realized that the answer to this mystery is that all we need to do is to do our best in finding the best in us and other people, be the best version of ourselves, and put them together like pieces of a puzzle waiting to be solved, though, from an individual perspective, you have to do everything you can to reach your goal, do not let anyone stop you from doing what you love, and take care of yourself because the world has a lot of bad things to throw at you. We need to pull each other up, to never give up, to find the glimmer of hope, to find the light in the darkest of days.
