Hindi niyo kami mabibilang
At hindi rin maikukulong
Marami kami ngunit iisa lamang
Ang aming pasyon

SInungaling naman tong kantang to! Nasan na ang Awit ng Kabataan? Ni hindi ko na marinig ang tinig ng kabataan? Asan na ang mga hinaing at sigaw, ang mga dasal at pasyon? Ano na nga ba ang silbi natin ngayon sa lipunan? May kahulugan pa ba ang kantang ito sa panahon ngayon?

Wala lang magseseryoso na naman ako sa entry ko dahil napuyat ako kagabi pagkatapos manood ng "Reporter's Notebook" tungkol sa First Quarter Storm noong Dekada '70.

"The youth is the hope of our future." Optimistic words from our national hero. Yeah! I can even chant POD's 2001 hit, "we are, we are the youth of the nation." Nationalism? What is that? 

So what now? What do youth can offer these days? What role do we play in the society? Most youth of today does not even know what's going around. Even I don't care. Even I, well, at times, am aware but it stops then and there. Oil price hikes, the charter change, the peso devaluation, graft and corruption, etc. Sympathy is not enough.

The youth people are everywhere. We don't get dismembered in the society nor we get to be outnumbered. But the more we are, the more we become useless. Sure, we are all present in the Erap ousting days and now wreaking GMA's presidency. But what are the principles we fight for? Why do we stand and raise a banner that clamors for peace when we don't even know the bedrock of democracy?

I have just noticed: too many questions in this blog entry but no answers.

I am not proud to say that I am part of that indifferent youth. But what can I do?

Take note of this: I am a part of the middle-class society who wants to possibly have some of the luxuries in life. How do I attain them? I have to study. After studying, I have to work. Work hard to have hard-earned money (?) Then I can socialize with the caffeine-philic people in Starbucks, watch a mediocre movie worth 100 bucks, buy "in" clothes, the latest model of cellphone and other technology paraphernalias. If luckily, my salary increases, do further studies, travel, make a loan and live a so-called normal life nowadays. Why do I need to join rallies? What are joining different social movements for? Why do I have to risk getting hurt or having a chance to be seen on TV news being all bruised and mobbed? I want a simple life. And by all means, that is the simplest that I want.

Nonchalant. Complacent. Conventional. These are what the youth embody. I remember it clearly from the interviews of former participants and advocates of the First Quarter Storm, the youth of today are too preoccupied. Life is much more complicated. Life offers a variety. We have cable-subscribed televisions, VCD/DVD players, much much upgraded access to music (as we perpetuate globality with our choice of songs and artists). We have malls, supermalls, megamalls and other places to bombard ourselves with the benefaction of commerce. We have PC rooms, game rooms, billiard halls, coffee shops, karaoke bars. Schools are now grounds to date and have a relationship and have become the source of vices; it is an institution not to gain knowledge but to gain friends we can add up to our Friendster accounts.

Indifference is not the result of status division in our society. There are a lot of out of school youth today. These people can either know more and know less of what's going on. But they can't do anything. I guess they are more likely problematized with adapting with society and how society can accept them rather than changing and helping the problem-filled society. For richer and poorer, there's no difference. The fate of the young people are divided into the ones who are wealthy to entertain and amuse themselves with worldly matters and the ones who are unfortunate to just content themselves with simple matters. Two worlds. But both are meaningless and unproductive.

But there are quite few people who slightly cares. Slightly. I can never say that it is a consummate concern. We have a number of protests with the youth people backing up from time to time. But this is not suffice to say that we can readily agree with Matsuo Basho's haiku about a frog who jumps into a silent pond and create ripples. Apparently, there are no ripples made. There are artists. But very few who engenders nationalism. Most artists call themselves artiste because of the knowledge they've garnered from studying art/literature/music from other nations. If there are some nationalists, they just drown and drowse themselves with the art they make. They write songs, poetry. prose; they create sculptures, paintings to anesthetize themselves.

I don't know what's the answer, what's the key or who's the savior. If the youth is typified as people who will "go with the flow", initiation is the key. I think at least someone needs to set the ball rolling. But I am not saying that is the right answer. Don't blame me! I'm just one of the preoccupied ones who doesn't have time to think well.