Role models?

SOME of the first things that parents teach their children are for them to know and do only what is right and to face the consequences of their actions, to avoid lying, to think not only of themselves but also of the people around them, to understand that sometimes they cannot have what they want, to respect every kind of life, to understand that all men were created equal no matter what the color of their skin, to fulfill and not break promises, to do what you say you will do, and to value and spend money wisely. Yet lately, it seems that our elders have been acting in contrast to what they say. How do they expect the youth to act the way they want them to when they themselves act in contrast to their words? How do they expect to turn the youth into good people when they have become “toxic” role models?

Scams

In order for a nation to survive, it must have a government that helps it manage its resources. It needs a government to take the reins and lead it towards development. The government needs to be true to its vision and mission: to make the nation better. It is their responsibility to manage the nation’s money and to allocate funds for the different branches of the government. The money of the nation comes from the tax that the people pay. That is why they always remind the people to pay their taxes. But, how do they expect the people to be motivated to pay their taxes when they often hear about government officials now being addicted to money laundering?

Lately, issues about the Priority Development Assistance Fund (popularly called “pork barrel”), Malampaya fund and the DAP scams wherein an estimated P10 billion of taxpayers’ money were allegedly funneled by government officials to their own pocket.

They steal the money by allocating it to ghost projects or by using it on sub-standard yet overpriced projects, allowing them to have kickbacks. Millions of pesos paid by the people through taxes are stolen in mere moments and used for private consumption of government officials. As the people are busy budgeting their meager monthly incomes to buy bare necessities, government officials, to whom they have entrusted the fate of the country, are busy spending, or hiding, billions of money. An obvious insult to the people who are burdened with paying many taxes despite their meager income.

As the youth hear news of greedy government officials pocketing taxpayers’ money, it is inevitable that they too are filled with the desire to rise from the poverty they are mired in. The government is influencing their minds with the desire to be freed from struggles through malfeasance. Instead of inspiring the youth to be good and honorable (just as we call government officials “Honorable” during programs), they inspire them to be just like them—selfish, lying thieves.

Our officials need to wake up and remember their sworn oath to their embattled country. They were elected not to make profit out of being government officials but to help in maximizing the resources of the country to the best of their ability, even when its causes them losses. They need to credit their greed and stolen assets in order to debit the country’s liabilities.

Not-so-noble teacher

Teachers have always been perceived as noble beings. They have been viewed and described by students as shining inspirations and as second parents. They are the ones who mold the youth outside their home and who are partly responsible to what they would later become. They are expected to be patient and understanding, helpful and loving. They are supposed help students gain confidence, not humiliate them.

Recently, a college teacher was reported to have humiliated a student. A student who was never under this teacher and who never had direct contact with the teacher before the incident. The teacher was said to have called the student to approach him because he saw a hole in the student’s uniform. Instead of just informing the student, he tore the student’s uniform, making the hole wider and humiliating the student in front of other students. Adding insult to injury, the teacher later said that what he did was meant as a joke. That would be a rather severe joke.

Being a teacher, he should have felt compassion towards the student instead of causing him humiliation. He should have understood that the youth are delicate and sensitive, that they sometimes have rather scary ways of coping with stress and humiliation. He should have asked himself first: what would the student feel about what he was about to do? And he should have also asked, what would the student do if ever he felt humiliated, considering the fact that he did it in front of many people? Being an “educated educator” he should have thought first and not acted compulsively, he should have known the limitations of jokes and he should have acted more maturely.

Humiliating anyone has never been a luxury for teachers. It is something that can cause serious problems with emotionally unstable youth. One can’t help asking, was he thinking? Is this the kind of teacher we have these days?

Parents send their children to school and pay tuition fees, therefore whatever income a teacher earns comes mainly from the money the students’ parents pay. The parents pay these for they want their children to learn in a surrounding that is safe and with a teacher that is capable and humane. If parents won’t publicly humiliate their children, why should the teachers, the “second parents”, do so? Teachers need to be reminded of the limitations of their power. They need to be reminded that they exist to teach and help and not to destroy.

DeDiva the racist

“Miss Philippines is Miss World? What a joke! I did not know those maids have anything else in them, Ha Ha Ha.”

Devina DeDiva commented on a social networking pertaining to the crowning of Miss Philippines Megan Young as Miss World 2013. Making things worse, she added that Filipinos are “poor, smelly from cleaning toilets and are uneducated”. Expectedly, this caused uproar from Filipino citizens.

We all know that each country has poor people and that each country has citizens who work as maids. No country has citizens who are all totally clean and totally rich. That is why no one has the right to degrade other nationalities because each nationality almost always reflects other nationalities.

Furthermore, DeDiva was unmindful of the integrity of creation. All people were created equal. So she absolutely does not have the right to call Filipinos poor, smelly and uneducated just because Filipinos are willing to do dirty jobs in order to earn money and sustain the needs of their family. No race is superior from another. The idea of race superiority is rather primitive, immature ad dangerous. The last person who imposed this ignited World War II.

Racist people need to wake up. They need to realize that we are all people of the same world, living under the same sun and breathing the same air. We are all equal no matter what complexion we have, or what job we have, or what country we are from. We are still all humans. What makes us better than others is not the way we look, but the way we act. The true measure of greatness is not physical looks, but the mind along with the heart. After all, the mind and the heart is what separates us from animals. What determines our being human is our physicality, but what determines our being inhumane or humane is our heart and our mind. A mature body is useless when it has an immature heart and mind.

Adults may think after reading this that I talk as if the youth don’t perform the things that they want to do. But what do they expect when we see our role models doing them? We look up to adults and copy what they do, that is one of the things about the youth. We do what we see. If you want the youth to be responsible, then the adults must first act responsible. Do not destroy the images, ideas and principles of goodness that you inculcate in our minds by acting in a way opposite of what you teach us. By doing the opposite of what you say, you disturb our mind and blur the images and ideas contained within it. You want us to act mature? Act it first.

We look up to those who are older than us. We pattern the things that we wish to do to what they do. They are the ones who make us. And we must remember that monsters never make humans, they make new monsters. So, would it be too much to ask of the current adults to act humane? To be who they say they are? To not take away the future of the youth just as the adults before them did?

The adults need to wake up and grow up. For how can the youth ever grow up when the people taking care of them haven’t grown up? We all know that it is better late than never but we must always remember that there is such a thing as “too late.” The story of how one rules, retires and then has regrets has become repetitive. It is a pattern that has gone on and on. Can’t the current leaders break the pattern if not for the sake of the youth and of the world, then for themselves? If you do not wish us to make the same mistakes that you did and become worse than you, then you must undo your mistakes and become better than the leaders before you while you still can. Because you must remember that there is such a thing as “too late”.