LATHALAIN, p. 3

A Fallen Star

2 TAMBULI BALITA BIYERNes, MARSO 14, 2014

Biyernes, Marso 14, 2014 lathalain TAMBULI 3

A Fallen Star

4 TAMBULI opinyon BIYERNes, MARSO 14, 2014

Komiks ang nagbabagong unibersidad

Nostalgia and Perspectives

Hushed Voices of the Freshman Kind: A Thought on Apathy By Sean Xavier Fuentes

It has been exactly a year since Kristel passed away. Coincidentally, it means that it has been almost a year since the summer before I went to college.

Knowing I was going to enter UP, I did expect to hear about the news about her frequently. Al-though I did feel that peo-ple were angry and struck with grief, it wasn’t as widespread as I thought it would’ve been. Most of the other freshmen I’ve met didn’t exactly have the same emotions that our upperclassmen had.

It could have been because we had just en-tered the university, but, as time went on, it felt like that wasn’t the rea-son at all. It didn’t just stop at the issues related with Kristel and her death; most people seemed like they were turning a blind eye or even just as though they were out of the circula-tion of information.

If you think about it, it does sound as though people aren’t giving enough effort to actually get involved, or even as though they don’t want to get involved at all. If you'd try to observe some groups of people around the campus; specifically freshmen, maybe only a handful would be openly discussing political and social issues, and the like.

Maybe only a handful would be truly fearing the coming shift in the calen-

dar; thinking rather of what to do with the lengthened summer. Maybe only a handful would be disap-pointed with the turnout of voters in the recent elec-tions. Maybe only a handful willingly chooses to partici-pate in mobilizations in-stead of being asked by their professors to do so. The point is, on some level, people are losing concern and growing indifferent; growing apathetic.

It might a lot coming from someone who isn’t actually all that aware yet either; but I think that even though apathy is becoming a bigger problem, people can’t always ignore these things. There’s always a rea-son for a person to start seeing the story better, a reason for them to actually start feeling like they should be doing something too.

Even despite our per-ceived ‘freshness’, we can already do a lot to forward our causes. The most obvi-ous thing someone can do? Voice those causes out in rallies and demonstrations. Join these not only to show support for the cause, but also because you are willing to fight for what is right for the rest .

Yes, we might be just finishing our first year, and we may not have had sub-stantial experience in the university or in life yet, but despite that, I think we can already do something to help and to fight for the people. I think that we it just isn't possible for people to stay apathetic forever.

Resistance is not (yet) futile By Jovianne Figueroa

I can still remember how ec-static my parents were when they found out I passed the UPCAT. They bought pizza and told me that UP is a very big place with lots of different things. They specifi-cally told me to choose my friends and not involve myself with incon-sequential things. They told me about rallies and how UP seemed to be fond of them.

I could still remember my fresh-man days when my block handler told us stories of how they went out to the streets and chanted and cried mockery of the state. I was not scared then but I was baffled. They used new words like neoliber-alization and imperialism and fas-cism. I did not understand. Not yet, at least.

Classes after classes, mobs af-ter mobs, I started to get a glimpse of reality. Informal settlers weren't pests but oppressed citizens robbed of their primary needs. The government does not lack funds to take care of social welfare but is deliberately placing money in ne-farious schemes. The military is not just a protector of peace but a fas-cist tool of the state to silence un-wanted noise and "take care" of people resisting to the power. Im-punity, not Justice, is ruled by the courts. I am not in a free country but in a semi-feudal, semi-capital neoliberal country run by bureau-crat capitalists. I am living a lie. So I started to resist.

I could still remember my first rally when thousands clogged the Academic Oval to lobby against the impending budget cut. I was a sophomore student then. I remem-ber some of my friends who were not red-leaning at all just came and joined just because it looked fun with the thousands of people barri-cading the university avenue. Our being there mattered. The budget

cut was significantly decreased. This is how you let your admini-

stration know what their constitu-ents feel. You assert. You tell them you mean serious business. And they listen.

I could still remember my junior year. Issue after issue; problem after problem; rally after rally. But it was never like before. The stench of in-justice and inhumanity built up around the campus but people sud-denly started covering their noses. Less and less people acknowledged the stink and actually dared to com-plain about it. They complained about it to their friends, in their blogs, but their voices were merely whispers. It was not enough noise. There weren’t enough people any-more.

I am now in my senior year and as I look at what UP has become, I can shake my head and click my tongue in disappointment but I have hopes in my heart. I know that those who care that billions are being stolen in the government are decreasing. I know that those who would go out of their way to fight against extrajudicial killings and injustices are dwindling. I know that those who would go out of their comfort zones to lobby for the rights of laborers and workers are diminish-ing. But there are still numbers out there. There are still students in the university who are willing to stand up against these injustices. And they will continue the fight. They will rekindle and continue the struggle, not only of the students, but of the Filipino people.

That day will come when thousands will again flood the streets of the university and millions will pour to the streets to cry against this rotting system. And I look forward to the future Iskolars ng Ba-yan to lead this war. And they will be heard.

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