They agreed because it was needed. The goal was not really to educate but to survive on small cash donations and bags of groceries promised by the radio station once they grant them an interview. It was not for them, really, but for their infant son, who at a young age have to suffer because of their disease. It was a difficult choice knowing how the media treats people like them lately.
But they need to live.
I remember, the hysteria began some years back. The government released a data regarding the rising cases of the virus in the country. Media companies exploited the inherent fears of a nation and created a spin out of it. You know how news can be sensationalized in order to get more attention. It is a twisted style of telling a story where negative emotions matter more than positive understanding. Soon, the news had reached every nook and corner and people began talking about it. They said they speak in order to educate, but most of them only echoed what the cold numbers have revealed.
From what I see, the joint effort to make the people aware of the virus was successful. However, we failed in the way we treat the disease and the issue itself. It was never education from the very start. For us who doesn't have it, it was more of preaching to relieve ourselves of our own guilt. What the preaching did was to sow terror. Words do speak of alarm. In the many months after the news has been circulated, how many of us really do understand the virus and the people who have it?
Fear snatch our compassion and sensitivity. It only lets us see ourselves and not the people who truly suffer. It pains me to know that those, who should be more open-minded and sensitive about these things are the ones who carelessly wrought more suffering to the victims. Those who should be giving these people more dignity to live a deserving existence are the ones who are taking it away.
In the end, it's all about exploitation. A freak show to satisfy a curious public.
Nothing more, nothing less.
"Baka mahawa ako diyan?"
Lala Roque apparently said to her staff just a hearing distance away from the parents of Baby Nathan.
"Ano yun, nakakahawa ba?"
The station staff replied while fixing her gaze to the family seated in one of the chairs.
There are fears that should be left unspoken and let those who truly live with it speak for themselves as we listen and quietly heed their advice.
Until we finally learn to accept and embrace their lives.
Back In The Closet
But they need to live.
I remember, the hysteria began some years back. The government released a data regarding the rising cases of the virus in the country. Media companies exploited the inherent fears of a nation and created a spin out of it. You know how news can be sensationalized in order to get more attention. It is a twisted style of telling a story where negative emotions matter more than positive understanding. Soon, the news had reached every nook and corner and people began talking about it. They said they speak in order to educate, but most of them only echoed what the cold numbers have revealed.
From what I see, the joint effort to make the people aware of the virus was successful. However, we failed in the way we treat the disease and the issue itself. It was never education from the very start. For us who doesn't have it, it was more of preaching to relieve ourselves of our own guilt. What the preaching did was to sow terror. Words do speak of alarm. In the many months after the news has been circulated, how many of us really do understand the virus and the people who have it?
Fear snatch our compassion and sensitivity. It only lets us see ourselves and not the people who truly suffer. It pains me to know that those, who should be more open-minded and sensitive about these things are the ones who carelessly wrought more suffering to the victims. Those who should be giving these people more dignity to live a deserving existence are the ones who are taking it away.
In the end, it's all about exploitation. A freak show to satisfy a curious public.
Nothing more, nothing less.
"Baka mahawa ako diyan?"
Lala Roque apparently said to her staff just a hearing distance away from the parents of Baby Nathan.
"Ano yun, nakakahawa ba?"
The station staff replied while fixing her gaze to the family seated in one of the chairs.
There are fears that should be left unspoken and let those who truly live with it speak for themselves as we listen and quietly heed their advice.
Until we finally learn to accept and embrace their lives.
Back In The Closet
---
With the prodding that comes like an end
to the brevity of intimacy, the exhibits stand up
and walk wordlessly out of the tent. The visitors
voices now vaulted by old guilt preserved
and left open for all to see,
Take their places in this mirthless menagerie,
one willing victim for each abandoned reverie.
They close their eyes and wait for the visitors to come,
here, to be claimed by graceless fear
here, in the sideshow that only hypocrisy could have built.
Freak Show
The Most Careful of the Stars
Ruel De Vera
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