a shade of black and white

“You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past.” - Richard Bach

All the 3rd years in my school are required to take a program called the “Junior Engagement Program” or JEEP.  This program would allow us to experience the work of ordinary blue-collared workers, like bartering for jeepneys, selling sweet corn on the street or being a “xerox lady” in a specific location.  The program is supposed to help us understand the trials that minimum wage workers undergo through just to make their lives easier for their families.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there, sure we gain insights and of course want to make our lives better, but it goes deeper sometimes that it actually affects your psychological well-being.

I had the greatest misfortune of the work I have to do in regards to my JEEP.  I am constantly surrounded by workers who, not only hate capitalism, but also take pride in the fact that capitalists need them and they don’t need capitalists (take note of the bold).  I agree with the fact that in order for a business to run, it goes two sides: the investor and the owner who make the business possible, and the workers who help run the business, sure it is a given fact.  But these people surrounding me just can’t get over the fact that they don’t run the business.  They are so hypocritical, accusing me because my parents happen to have a business, accusing my friends because they are well-off, accusing those who happened to be lucky to get into schools and have homes.  They make it a point that their lives are more important than us, I’m sorry, but life itself does not judge whose life is more important.

It is very very annoying because it is all one sided.  I get a very good glimpse from their side, but do they understand the other side?  The biasness of the situation is actually the very reason why in this world, those type of people are the ones who are being supported forever by the society.  Why is it that when they talk, people listen, but when the richer people talk, they are ignored?

For instance, there were farmers who were kept on complaining because the rich got a hold of their land.  They approach big universities like mine and take the “paawa effect” (pity).  They talk and bash the rich people and even the people who happen to be simply well off because they can live their lives.  The students, and the church, having only glimpse at their side of the story, will start to take on their cause.  They would suddenly make petitions and accuse the other side of all the wrong doings.  How about their sides?  The rich don’t simply take their land.  They pay for those.  They give their farmers their well deserved amount of payment for the lands that they buy.  However, these farmers, these workers, often feel that just because they are rich they could get their hands on anything.  But these rich people, they were poor once, they just happened to have a knack for changing their lives.  And also, just because they are rich doesn’t mean they could simply buy and buy and waste all their money and not get the deserved exchange.  These lands were bought, paid with hard earned money, and the others wouldn’t have the decency to accept these facts.

Is it simply that easy?  People think the lives of the rich or the well-off is easier, isn’t it easier if the whole of the country side with you.  Blindness can keep a person from considering all sides of the equation.  Honestly, my family isn’t rich, but we are affected by all the things that are happening because we are in the middle.  It is always us who are affected by these, by these biases, by the blindness.

What really ticked me off in my JEEP insertion earlier was during this dialogue: (originally in Filipino)

Guy: …just because you are all capitalists.

Girl: They are not capitalist, they are students, they couldn’t be capitalists.

Guy: But they would be in the future, that’s the life they are used to.

I mean, COME ON?  Is my life determined by what my life is right now?  It is a clear devaluation of my capabilities as a person.  Am I not allowed to grow?   Being prejudice, I believe, hinders a person from growing.  Simply seeing yourlife sucks would give you a judgement that that is the best I can do.  Only those who are courageous are living.