That Damn Retrograde Amnesia!
A History teacher in her test for Industrial Revolution asked in a bonus question when was the
People Power Revolution, anticipating its 23rd commemoration this Feb. 25. To her disgustful amazement less than 10 out of 40 students got the date correctly. One of them was a South Korean student to her added surprise. She even got an answer as outdated as 1798. Mostly the answers were in 1940’s, thinking it was at all related to WWII. A few guessed close to 1986. Well, the juniors this year were born obviously after that year.
We cannot blame the students because most of them were just made to memorize dates. In grade school, seldom would teachers asked higher order thinking skill questions. This could very well be the reason why they have forgotten. But how about those of us born before 1986? The Martial Law babies or even the Flower Power bees? Yes, we may have very well remembered the date; however, beyond the date what have we remembered of the real cause of the revolution? What has become of the cause?
All eyes in the world were on us that year. We have rewritten history in the most peaceful means humanity has ever seen, and we were very proud of it. Many courageous men and women risked lives to topple down two agonizing decades of tyranny built by despotic anarchists. I thought all they have gambled would not come to mere futile exercise of democratic uproar. That damn retrograde amnesia that ills most of us! We have forgotten what we were shouting then on the streets. Our memory has painfully failed us.
I would have liked those despotic tyrants with their thousand pairs of shoes to rule the country with such mighty iron fist than what we have today-a soft-hearted president swimming amidst a bloody pool of hardened, opportunistic predators. Before, at least, we knew who were corrupt because they were blatantly proud of it. Today, however obvious corruption is, sadly these people voted by the amnesic mass lie in poker face. Lying has been the game in this no-rules-apply zarzuela.
We have altogether forgotten the spirit of EDSA-what those people then risked their lives for, 23 years ago. Where is the promise of EDSA, whatever it might have been? Why have we become the sick man of Asia? The answer is not clear because we have forgotten that once there was People Power Revolution, that more than two decades ago there were people risking their lives for freedom, which we all thought of to raise us from hell. As time passes by, we have lost our recent memories, our immediate past memories, our remote past memories and sadly, our very own past.
Damn that retrograde amnesia, whoever has thought of naming one!
A History teacher in her test for Industrial Revolution asked in a bonus question when was the
People Power Revolution, anticipating its 23rd commemoration this Feb. 25. To her disgustful amazement less than 10 out of 40 students got the date correctly. One of them was a South Korean student to her added surprise. She even got an answer as outdated as 1798. Mostly the answers were in 1940’s, thinking it was at all related to WWII. A few guessed close to 1986. Well, the juniors this year were born obviously after that year.We cannot blame the students because most of them were just made to memorize dates. In grade school, seldom would teachers asked higher order thinking skill questions. This could very well be the reason why they have forgotten. But how about those of us born before 1986? The Martial Law babies or even the Flower Power bees? Yes, we may have very well remembered the date; however, beyond the date what have we remembered of the real cause of the revolution? What has become of the cause?
All eyes in the world were on us that year. We have rewritten history in the most peaceful means humanity has ever seen, and we were very proud of it. Many courageous men and women risked lives to topple down two agonizing decades of tyranny built by despotic anarchists. I thought all they have gambled would not come to mere futile exercise of democratic uproar. That damn retrograde amnesia that ills most of us! We have forgotten what we were shouting then on the streets. Our memory has painfully failed us.
I would have liked those despotic tyrants with their thousand pairs of shoes to rule the country with such mighty iron fist than what we have today-a soft-hearted president swimming amidst a bloody pool of hardened, opportunistic predators. Before, at least, we knew who were corrupt because they were blatantly proud of it. Today, however obvious corruption is, sadly these people voted by the amnesic mass lie in poker face. Lying has been the game in this no-rules-apply zarzuela.
We have altogether forgotten the spirit of EDSA-what those people then risked their lives for, 23 years ago. Where is the promise of EDSA, whatever it might have been? Why have we become the sick man of Asia? The answer is not clear because we have forgotten that once there was People Power Revolution, that more than two decades ago there were people risking their lives for freedom, which we all thought of to raise us from hell. As time passes by, we have lost our recent memories, our immediate past memories, our remote past memories and sadly, our very own past.
Damn that retrograde amnesia, whoever has thought of naming one!
No comments:
Post a Comment