It’s was Christmas Eve, the country was agog as it awaited the day Christ was born. The malls were still brimming with people, jampacked to the seams, on the last shopping day before Christmasday.
The popular markets of Divisoria, Baclaran, Quiapo and all the smaller tiangges (Filipino flea markets) were wall-to-wall with shoppers. These places were so teeming with people, there’s no way a pin could drop and find the ground.
Everybody was ready for Christmas.
Or were they?
An anonymous couple and their children were ready to dine by candlelight. They too were ready for Christmas. They weren’t going to wrap their presents to their children but they eventually did for the pride of it, for the joy of it, to keep with the Yuletide spirit.
You could see in their faces the anticipation. Their four children were dressed for the event. They couldn’t wait to open their presents. The sounds of Christmas were all over them.
A typical Filipino family at Christmas time? Decide for yourself.
The dim light of the candles was not for the traditional noche buena, the midnight meal on Christmas Eve. It’s something forced on the family of six. They’re using candles because they have no electricity. They live in the urban jungle. Under a bridge.
The scene could be in Santa Mesa, Fairview, Paco, Tondo, Makati or Pasay. It could be anywhere in Metro Manila.
Another scene invites our attention.
Another family of six was ready to sit down to noche buena. Two candles were burning dimly. It’s dark outside, stark with only the moonlight providing intermittent light. The shadows evoked evanescent images, provoking goosebumps but the faint sounds of carols in the air somehow alleviated depressing thoughts.
This time we’re out in the country where the ruralness added to the bleakness of people’s spirits. But the people there put up a brave face despite the burden of poverty, the onerous weight of scant material prosperity. Life, like Sisyphus’ perpetual rock-laden ascent, is an unending uphill climb.
But life must go on. To fight it is to engage in an exercise in futile effort. Life must go on.
Government trumpets its success in making the economy more robust. The statistics are there to prove the claim.
But many people say otherwise. They say they don’t feel the touted progress. Only the rich benefit, they say. For them there’s no such economic growth.
Knowing their place in society, they’re willing to make do with the crumbs from the growth the government claims to have generated.
Yes, the struggling families under the urban bridge and the impoverished barrio somewhere in the underbelly of the country are willing to settle for the bread crumbs from the bloated dinner tables of the rich. The poor can’t be choosy, beggars can’t be picky.
Christmas will come and go again this year. Mall owners will enjoy the country’s principal feast day. Banks will have their coffers bursting with shoppers’ hard-earned pesos in the hundreds of millions.
Everyone will have had a happy Christmas. But did they?
How many urban dwellers under bridges had a passable noche buena, enough to fill their children’s stomach to last them until the next morning, Christmasday? How many in the provinces were able to have a decent meal on the eve of Christmas? To cast our thoughts abroad, how many of our OFWs had a happy Christmas?
Do you the reader think everybody in the Philippines was ready for Christmas?
If you answered “no,” please spare a thought for the less fortunate among us, the people under our cities’ bridges, the folks in their lonely rural huts, and all Filipinos in desperate situations around the world as we enjoy the holiday season.
***
Happy New Year to all Fil-Canadians in Balita’s coverage area from the Ergo column!
Leandro DD Coronel
MANILA
It’s was Christmas Eve, the country was agog as it awaited the day Christ was born. The malls were still brimming with people, jampacked to the seams, on the last shopping day before Christmasday.
The popular markets of Divisoria, Baclaran, Quiapo and all the smaller tiangges (Filipino flea markets) were wall-to-wall with shoppers. These places were so teeming with people, there’s no way a pin could drop and find the ground.
Everybody was ready for Christmas.
Or were they?
An anonymous couple and their children were ready to dine by candlelight. They too were ready for Christmas. They weren’t going to wrap their presents to their children but they eventually did for the pride of it, for the joy of it, to keep with the Yuletide spirit.
You could see in their faces the anticipation. Their four children were dressed for the event. They couldn’t wait to open their presents. The sounds of Christmas were all over them.
A typical Filipino family at Christmas time? Decide for yourself.
The dim light of the candles was not for the traditional noche buena, the midnight meal on Christmas Eve. It’s something forced on the family of six. They’re using candles because they have no electricity. They live in the urban jungle. Under a bridge.
The scene could be in Santa Mesa, Fairview, Paco, Tondo, Makati or Pasay. It could be anywhere in Metro Manila.
Another scene invites our attention.
Another family of six was ready to sit down to noche buena. Two candles were burning dimly. It’s dark outside, stark with only the moonlight providing intermittent light. The shadows evoked evanescent images, provoking goosebumps but the faint sounds of carols in the air somehow alleviated depressing thoughts.
This time we’re out in the country where the ruralness added to the bleakness of people’s spirits. But the people there put up a brave face despite the burden of poverty, the onerous weight of scant material prosperity. Life, like Sisyphus’ perpetual rock-laden ascent, is an unending uphill climb.
But life must go on. To fight it is to engage in an exercise in futile effort. Life must go on.
Government trumpets its success in making the economy more robust. The statistics are there to prove the claim.
But many people say otherwise. They say they don’t feel the touted progress. Only the rich benefit, they say. For them there’s no such economic growth.
Knowing their place in society, they’re willing to make do with the crumbs from the growth the government claims to have generated.
Yes, the struggling families under the urban bridge and the impoverished barrio somewhere in the underbelly of the country are willing to settle for the bread crumbs from the bloated dinner tables of the rich. The poor can’t be choosy, beggars can’t be picky.
Christmas will come and go again this year. Mall owners will enjoy the country’s principal feast day. Banks will have their coffers bursting with shoppers’ hard-earned pesos in the hundreds of millions.
Everyone will have had a happy Christmas. But did they?
How many urban dwellers under bridges had a passable noche buena, enough to fill their children’s stomach to last them until the next morning, Christmasday? How many in the provinces were able to have a decent meal on the eve of Christmas? To cast our thoughts abroad, how many of our OFWs had a happy Christmas?
Do you the reader think everybody in the Philippines was ready for Christmas?
If you answered “no,” please spare a thought for the less fortunate among us, the people under our cities’ bridges, the folks in their lonely rural huts, and all Filipinos in desperate situations around the world as we enjoy the holiday season.
***
Happy New Year to all Fil-Canadians in Balita’s coverage area from the Ergo column!