Mango Republic in Action

In this first article about the said mango I would just simply say “There you have it folks. Your tasty mango!”
About a week ago, I went to fix my aunt’s computer in alabang. She was a bit peeved as I was already there on a Saturday and now she had to spend again as I had to come back on the following Tuesday because she could not burn her favorite music as the new DVD combo player I installed didn’t want to eject her newly burned CD’s with the computer hanging and all. Thanks to my experience (the only thing I could ever be arrogant or boastful about so give me a chance to say it), I quickly diagnosed the problem as, what I couldn’t believe myself to be, the new DVD combo player by LG (a brand I trust, even after this) holding up the whole system. So I whisked by PC Express in zapote. They tested it and at first did not agree with my diagnosis. But I asked them to test it again with a media player installed on their OS and then they agreed that the bios was wasting a lot of time in its detection. Thus a brand new broken LG. (I will discuss more on my computer experiences outside “My Mango”).
After my PC maintenance job, since I was family, I was treated to a delightful lunch with my dad’s first cousins and their mom and some friends. We had the normal family conversation over table discussing “what happened to tito?... or tita?, Where is Tito?...What happened that time tita? How were those days?...etc..etc.” And believe me when I touched the topic of yesteryears Comparisons in my mango began to fly!
I began to respect the fact that I was seated with people on a lunch table who have seen a lot. Being the youngest in a table with an age range of 64 to 90 I could only listen more than I could speak. And I think I rattled the mango tree too much when I, again for over 50 times, had to listen to, and just had to stir a can of worms about the Lozada thingy. Me and my big mouth! Now I had to shut up and take it all in! My aunts and uncles began to rant of course all the more how much worse the situation of the country is today filled with crooks in high places and how, in comparison, their parents had to work so hard and never succumb to the temptation of corruption and they tell me: “Gimo, We are old and don’t have much to go for anymore but you are young and you have kids. You better start thinking how to get your kids out of this place before it’s too late. There is totally no future here for you Gimo!”
This piece of advice rang and rang in my head! I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to leave this mango bearing island where I could still uphold my pride and call myself a first class citizen. Well at least, I for one didn’t want to leave! But thinking further, I also didn’t also want to be selfish in the case for my kids. I could always mold them to set their sights for another country outside ours with the exception of the United States since it’s congress just passed a bill last year empowering law enforcement to further implement “probable cause” when it comes to people who look like immigrants. Meaning starting January 1, 2008, in selected states, if anybody so much as looks latino or “illegal” to an effect, will be questioned by even local law enforcement. Not just officers from the immigration bureau (INS). Imagine how racist this is going to be for foreign looking folks in the states. Brazilians and Mexicans have commented that if it’s going to be this way they might as well voluntary deport themselves rather than face these new laws. I read these statements on a new years day in an International Herald Tribune article cut out for me by my mom. She was trying to tell me that setting sights in going to the United States to solve my economic despair or to chase the dream of quick bucks abroad ain’t the answer. I checked and it is no joke if you were to look at the latest laws. And of course there is also Immigration Reduction .
Of course, I was just looking at the United States in this matter. Why? Because I’ve been there and I even got to work there and it wasn’t half bad. I didn’t feel any untoward racism either, maybe it’s because I look like a regular gringo only that my height was a dead give-away, hehehehe. I wasn’t looking at the other countries though initially. Nevertheless abandonment of life here seemed to hurt. It wasn’t happening yet but it already hurt. I wouldn’t be able to hear the Philippine Madrigal Singers anymore. I wouldn’t have a maid or my dad’s houseboy to help my household or to entertain us with their aimlessness and idiocies. I’ll miss seeing somebody washing clothes in the middle of a highway with a washing machine (When I say middle, I mean middle! As in center island!)or dodging them fools crossing the same in the middle of the night after watching them climb a ten foot fence blocking them on doing so. I’ll miss somebody asking me ALWAYS “Pilipino ka ba?” (Are You a Filipino?) and then I would answer in a fake angry tone with my perfect tagalog “OO! Filipino ako! Ako nakahanap nang isla mo diba! Bakit?” (Yes I’m Filipino!I found your island remember! Why?) He or she would immediately start laughing and will immediately be my friend and say “Sorry ha! Akala ko kano ka eh! Halika Kain!”. (I’m sorry! I thought you were American. C’mon lets eat!).
I mean who won’t miss a people, with all it’s defects and anomalies, that will befriend you and offer you to come and join him or her to eat with them right away after? I don’t think there is no other in the world! Generally this mango is tender and sweet. Of course there will always be a mango that can poison you after inviting you temptingly, but I’m talking general here and it ain’t that way with the majority in my experience. Even the robbers, plotters and thieves here have a heart! To look closer at my mango, just take notice of the mangoes trying to accost you on the road when you drive in Makati City. If you are nice with them you can give them their lunch, be their friend and go your way, if you’re not you can still give them your lunch and go your way! That’s all their after anyway: Lunch money! They’re hungry for Pete sakes! It’s just irritating, I know, because you can see them taking advantage of traffic anomalies at your expense. Instead of teaching you or assisting you they’re making a fast buck at your time and patience or sometimes, ignorance. But the problem here is that, they themselves are ignorant and have not much to live with! So I have always decided to rise above their plight and understand it. When I don’t say anything and just listen and give them their chance to be all-knowing they begin to explain why they did that. They are actually explaining why they are catching you! Did I ask for an explanation here??!! No. This is why I say my mango is still the sweetest mango in the world. The mango is actually telling you why he did it and that he is actually giving you a chance (you don’t need to believe him just look at his facial expressions and how he needs a bath soon). He is not even saying that you are wrong! He just can’t tell you outright that he needs to do it so he can eat in McDonald’s or Jollibee like you can with your kids. The mango begins to look like daffy duck to me and I just imagine I’m bugs bunny. And believe me it’s hard to listen to all this because my temper gets in the way. It’s good they look like mangoes in my mango republic. And everything in my mango is easy to view as comic relief. Nothing should be taken seriously, it should all just be eaten. Sweet and salty as it is.
In retrospect these are just some of the factors for me why it begins to hurt in the thought of leaving this fantasyland of sorts. I’m still procrastinating actually and I need to relate to you more what is affecting me. All of these mango qualities were already here since the American Invasion that aborted the First Philippine republic of 1898. Here I stop and will begin eating another mango as soon as I take a crap.