What happened in EDSA back in February 1986? The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) asks some college students what they know about the 1986 People Power revolt, and here are their answers:
I wonder, were the camera crew just unlucky that day? Are those students really a good enough sample for us to generalize that their generation is really clueless as to recent Philippine history? But do schools even touch on recent history in class? How can a department mandate a lesson plan on “Philippines, 1970-onwards” when the adults themselves are divided on their beliefs and loyalties?
The line that divided the country between Marcos and everybody else starting in 1972 until 1986 still exists. And when the Marcoses fled, the people who came to power weren’t able (or weren’t willing) to make massive systemic changes that would make for a more democratic distribution of power, opportunities and wealth.
The struggle to create a better country did not start in 1986. And the real meaning of People Power is still to be fulfilled.
Dammit, now I’m beginning to sound like a tibak.
3 comments:
:-)
what's tibak?
It is a sad state when the young do not know their own past. In a lecture I had many, many, many moons ago, I asked a group of college kids in art school if they can name some works of Vicente Manansala (National Artist for painting and some pretty obvious examples of his works were sitting right in the middle of the quadrangle of their school). Not only did none of them identified at lest one of works, I even got a pretty 'funny' answer that he's an actor from the fifties. Before I ended the lecture, I asked if they would agree with me that Michael Jackson's Thriller is the best pop tune in history. For a few minutes, there was a lively discussion on this topic.
I always feel sad when I come to this realization that we, as a people, especially those among us who see ourselves as 'educated' and have gone through years of studying in university, know more of the white man's past than ours. How can we trudge on to carve our own tomorrows if our future (our youth) can't even have a clear and solid knowledge to form opinions of our past?
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