Caustic Thoughts

Some of you think of them as banana-toting shells in government uniforms who take insanely long hours eating their bananas at the expense of taxpayers while verbally demolishing the reputation of some unknowing unfortunate soul on the second floor. When they trudge back to their stations to face the people who have multiplied exponentially, the only greeting they breathe is the sour smell of digested bananas.

Admit it. You’ve nurtured the stereotype too. Chances are there was a point in time when you also thought government employees are lucky bastards who get paid to stare vapidly into outer space on the rare times that they are on duty. I know I did once.

I couldn’t help it. I got accepted for a government position once where all I was required to do was to receive mail. After stamping the day’s mail, I was to pass it over to the lady at the back whose job was to deliver it to the recipient. In between the interminable hours when there was no mail, I was to do nothing. That could have made an ill bred monkey out of me too.

Last year and more recently, I was pleasantly surprised. When I paid my community tax a year ago, the clerk in charge of the counter I was in front of took a whole 30 minutes to, I imagine, eat her bananas. When she got back, she was bringing along another stick of bananas and a story for the clerk on the other cubicle. To my utter surprise, another lady approached the clerk with bananas, told her to keep her bananas and start working. Gasp! Government people now apparently care about the time and taxes that we pay.

This year, I had an even better experience paying my community tax. The woman who stole… erm… received my payment had a beautiful smile and said please and thank you. Double gasp!

My best experience of all was at a government agency. I had a problem with my health benefits and was prepared to argue myself hoarse with an uncomprehending clerk when, to the sound of my internal triple gasps, the lady in charge calmly took note of my problem and solved it for me in ten minutes. Best of all, there were no bananas in sight.

I have therefore come to the logical conclusion that not all government employees are useless banana-toting shells. Wow!

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To my utter shame, yesterday’s Independence Day commemoration nearly slipped past me unnoticed. I was too busy luring in the day’s catch to put on the table to remember. I suspect though that even if I were forced to sit still and remember, the recollection would weigh like a heavy burden upon me. Freedom from Spanish occupation seemed such a distant memory, so distant that even history textbooks have made a sorry mess of the details, making us suspect someone started a trail of lies along the way.

The recollection is a burden for me not because my skin has been bleached white and my consciousness injected with western sensibilities. It is a burden because even as we celebrate a distant freedom, we remain enslaved. My hair has turned white and my eyes have dried with the bondage of a mentality that breeds corruption, a hand to mouth existence and an inner poverty that characterizes the common Filipino man. Sadly, the common Filipino is no longer even the average middle class worker but the man in the gutter.

But at the last minute, I chose to remember and I hope others have chosen to do so too. By remembering the freedom of the past, we realize that we are once again enslaved and that we owe it to our children’s children to not allow this again. It doesn’t start on the streets when we tell those thick-faced, high class thieves to return our taxes. It starts in and with us when we tell our children that lying, stealing and cheating are inexcusable even if it means passing a test, obtaining popular approval or getting an extra loaf of bread.

The fight for real Philippine independence has just begun.