He asked us to take five names and provide a brief background (age, net worth, business) about each of them.
I don't exactly remember whose names I picked. What is vivid in my mind is the ridiculously large amount of wealth that has become synonymous with their names.
Two days short to a year, Forbes magazine published this year's Philippines 40 Hideously Rich. Oh, did I say hideous? I meant abhorrent. Oh, they mean the same? Okay, no denial here.
I am outraged. Enviously outraged? Maybe. I really didn't care if they are richer or poorer today than yesterday. What made me seething with anger was the irony of such statement: "This year 25 tycoons are poorer." Find the full article here: http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/1027/053.html
According to merriam-webster, a tycoon is "a businessman of exceptional wealth and power."
Here is the direct link to the definition: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tycoon
It is not their fault that they are rich--way richer than anybody I have rubbed elbows with. They are so rich that the gridlock between the rich and the poor has become something we all have to live with; I mean, between the waaaaaaaaaay richer and the waaaaaaaaaay poorer.
It just felt like adding insult to injury when they put in one sentence the words tycoon and poorer. Yes, this may be in relation to their net worth that took a dive (partially?) because of the US economic crisis, but to say that they are poorer is just insulting.
Try talking about how poorer the tycoons got from last year to this year to an underemployed middle-aged man with three children living in one of the congested alleys of the metro. Try presenting him with the premise that these tycoons are actually poorer because instead of a hundred million worth more of income they settled for a hundred million less. Try arguing that we should feel for this tycoons because their businesses are not making as much as they have been for the past years.
Try all these and let us see how this person tears you up in shreds.
When this man could not even make meets end for his family, the world seems more interested and sympathetic with the upper echelon of society. When he could not even place a decent food on the table, the world seems to be more empathetic to those who can even afford an everyday fiesta.
When Juan dela Cruz is suffering from drain working his brains out to provide for his basic needs, his fellow Filipinos seem to be much more at awe with those who can even sleep off every minute of their life and still generate an income not less than a hundred times as much as a minimum-wage worker makes.
When most of us cannot even arise from the slums of poverty, we are made to worry about the lost millions of some tycoon.
Why do they come up with an annual listing of the Philippines 40 Richest? Yes, it is their job, but performing ones job does not give any one of us an excuse to be indifferent with the larger issues at hand. Alongside presenting the filthy rich of the society, is it too much of a work to present the extreme end of the spectrum?
Why in the world do we need a list of the richest men in society? Is this to drive us into working harder and hoping that one day we get a feel of such hideous luxury? Is this an illustration that we are indeed affected by the economic bane of the US as opposed to the claims of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her mongrels? Or is this just a mockery of the poor?
To just make things a little more innovative, why don't they present the Philippines 40 Most Depressed Areas or the Philippines 40 Areas with the Most Illiterate Filipinos? Are we not in dire need of these information? Are these not more significant to know to get the attention of those in the position and power to initiate change?
The trouble with most people is that indifference has rotten their very soul.
Those who have the means to cultivate grounds of improvement and development are better off as catatonic beings awaiting the taxes of the people to fall into their pockets. That is the only time they get back to their feet--to spend the hard-earned money of the Filipino people.
Those who have the means to reach out and provide for are too cowardly to step out of their safe zones and actually interact with humans. These are not their responsibility, but their supposed human nature should make them step up and take the initiative to bridge the long-standing gridlock between the richest and the poorest.
The movers and shakers of society are not labeled as such for no reason. They are looked up as such because they are recognized to be such.
Unfortunately, we have yet to see who have the guts to stand up and defy status quo. We have yet to discover how these people unfold the very ways to communicate with the extreme ends of the society.
We have yet to experience how a productive and progressive change can be initiated by the very people who established the grounds of societal labeling.
We have yet to uncover if they have the power to take the first step towards cutting back the gridlock that has separated fellow Filipinos.
As much hope as I would like to offer to the heavens, I don't think these are at sight for the next century, if we're lucky.
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