Anger for Injustice

I'll pause blogging about my personal dreams for now. This article won't be about Italy or opera, but about my country and my hopes for it, particularly on the aspect of handling personal finances. Yesterday I returned home disappointed and outraged, scammed into thinking that I could get a promising new job; I returned home wishing I had been sharper not to have fallen for old, stupid jokes of the ill-gotten. As I sat down on my desk feeling the thorn in my flesh, I reflected on the experience.

I spent that night writing another opinion article, this time on money matters. This morning I went back to the Youth Leadership Month application forms I intended to fill up last week. The three application forms had essay questions I didn't yet know how to answer--they were mostly about leadership, the government, and problems relating to those--so I kept the essay portion blank and left them inside a computer folder. Today though, I went back to those forms ready with answers. I realized that the problem then wasn't so-called "writer's block." It was ignorance--ignorance of realities around me and ignorance for real solutions; in other words, it was my inexperience, or a sheer lack of, that kept me from writing answers. Now I have answers because I know that something has to be done. Now I have answers because I have seen for myself that thing called "injustice."

Yesterday afternoon, I was hopeful that I would finally find work that could potentially be my "back-up." I like working with a system. I often spend hours in the library or on my desk planning my life the way I want it to go--I write down basic plans for each month and year, and then fill out the details when ready. I said I wanted to find a job by January of 2015. I felt fortunate enough to have stumbled upon a "job opening" post on a Facebook group yesterday--that's three days to January 1. I quickly texted the number and said I wanted to apply. The person texted back, stating they need a data encoder, for 3-5 hours a day of work and a salary of P550/day.

Well, what student with big "future plans" wouldn't want that, right? I needed that money, and I wasn't going to let myself be a child forever, especially when my big opera dreams are at stake without that. I really, badly needed that kind of a "magical" income, to say the least, especially if that daily P550 comes regularly--sure why not? That P550 is worth even more than my weekly allowance, P500.

It was all a scam, I had to learn the hard way. It wasn't a data-encoding job. It was a multi-level marketing company. I now find systems like those pathetic--I once made a list of jobs I do not want, and multi-level marketing found themselves on the top three of my list. I felt so violated that day that I wanted to just run away from their phantom secondhand smoke-permeated office-cum-graveyard. But I couldn't escape. Differently-cultured people flocked around me and kept prompting me to fill up a form. Stupidly, I did--but with a fake name. Being highly secretive myself, I don't reveal so much about myself to even my closest friends. And I couldn't leave then, even if I wanted to. There's this line from Jane Eyre that teemed in my thoughts that night: "I am no bird and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will." Later that night, some groups of people dragged me into a circle which I would later on find out to be their "welcome newbies" initiation full of corny activities. I was the most "bad vibes" person in that circle, but I didn't really care--I wanted to get out. What kept me in that circle, though, was something in my head that prompted me to just stay and observe: That place was full with youngsters--teenagers like me, some older kids, some younger. Teenagers who were also once tricked into getting a job.

I felt a fire in my heart. I was angry, and I also felt pity for those people. When I attended that company's orientation that afternoon, I found that everything they do there is brainwash people into thinking that money is the most important thing in the world, perhaps even more important than their own education and health. True, they promise you good earnings. Some kids there even have their own cars. Cars. Cool gadgets. Money. Material things. Material things. MATERIAL THINGS!!! Material things won't get them anywhere!!! Their cars and cool objects won't make them look better off than their peers. They don't work a single day in their lives--they don't do anything, they don't make good use of that money, they're not taught the value of hard-earned money, they don't study, they don't work at all!!!!!! All they do is sit around and smoke!!!!!!!!!!!! What kind of citizens will these young people grow up to be????? What kind of individuals will they ever become???????.....Of what kind of life will they ever know? Is this the kind of future they see themselves as having? Sit around idly, while away, do no-brainer activities, buy more cool objects, spend every single day of their lives in that deserted dungeon of an office?????

Why does the government even allow this? 

The reason I'm so angry is that I saw potential in many of those people. They have talents and skills that they could make better use of. That day was a December 30. Rizal day. Jose Rizal hoped that the youth could become the future's hope. No, he didn't just hope--he affirmed it: "The youth is the hope of our future." Do something, kidzzzz..... Don't just allow yourselves to be huge stumbling blocks of nothing but meaninglessness. Your lives are worth so much more than you think of it and see about it. Put yourselves in school, now that you have the money, then get the hell out of that job as soon as you can. Let me tell you it's not a job worth having and keeping. Take it from me. I left it the moment I knew it was all for no good. I know, because I know the value of hard work. I know that nothing worth having ever comes easy. I know that education is the best weapon against poverty and the best tool anyone can use to change the world and make a mark in it. Place your focus on something bigger, higher, and much more important than the temporary, here-today-and-gone-tomorrow things you have today. Let me tell you what it is. It's education. Strive for that.