We are a Teenaged Drama Queen

This was written a few months ago by a classmate of mine from Journalism school. We have since found ourselves in very different paths. He was acquired by the Philippines' leading broadsheet, and I am working here in Germany as an English teacher, and a wannabe Master's Degree student.

Filipinos share a common unflattering perspective about our country: We're a "Banana Republic," a "Saftladen." The last time a German asked me about our country, aside from the usual that he knows Mr. so-and-so is married to a Filipina, is a documentary that aired here last October about the children scavengers in Payatas. "Is it true," asked the man in the ICE train from Mainz to Weimar, "that there are Filipino children who eat out of the garbage can?"

I had to admit the shameful truth. Yes, it does happen. But why doesn't the world care about us, about what's happening?

Well, because we don't care about it ourselves. We are so self absorbed as a nation that we are oblivious to the fact that we are the only people who can clean up this mess. Like your high school's teenage drama queen, everybody else has grown so weary of our antics that the next outburst has people rolling their eyes, asking "what next?"

The sad thing is, our government and people are so enslaved by America that we look to them for inspiration, to come up with solutions to our problems. People!! They can't even run their own government properly! America comes up with an anti-terror law, we come up with an anti-terror law. Has that brought anybody anything?

Nobody wants to hear about our sob stories. Nobody wants to talk about our problems. The world wants to hear progress, not misery. Nobody likes bad news. And our joke of an electoral system is a running gag that stopped being funny ages ago.

Everybody knows what needs to be done and how to do it. I just wonder when will we finaly get the nerve to finally act.