I see what you did there... Michaella Ortega!

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maxiadrian photography via Flickr
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

As we all know, Bianca Gonzales is facing flak nowadays due to her controversial tweet:
"Ang dami nating nagtatrabaho para makaipon para sa prime lot at bahay plus buwis pa. Bakit nga ba bine-baby ang mga informal settlers?"
I admit. I kinda agreed with her. We, the middle class, strive hard to get a nice paying job so we can provide for our families. We sacrifice our health to take on overtime work or accommodate extra jobs to get more pay and save for our children's future. The poor on the other hand, makes us read letters that appeal to our emotions so they can get from our hard-earned money - like how one's husband has leukemia, how one needs to sell her products to support her education, or how one's son's sickness and death caused the family to have a lot of debt. The middle class professionals pay taxes, filthy rich businessmen evade them while the poor don't pay at all.

Now those are just scary statements to make even though there's a little truth to these generalizations.

But then there comes an article from journalist Mikka Ortega, the daughter of murdered anti-corruption advocate Gerardo 'Doc Gerry' Ortega.


Read the full article here:  http://www.interaksyon.com/article/66189/opinion--poor-judgment

She begins:
"All this talk about squatters got me thinking that maybe Bianca Gonzales was onto something. The poor should not be babied. Why should they be? They don’t deserve our minced words and fake smiles.
We live in a meritocracy. In this day and age, you are judged for your merits. You get what you deserve. And the poor deserve to be put in their place, once and for all."

I paused at the word "meritocracy." I mean, reeeallly?? We "live in a meritocracy"? If that's the case, with all the heart and effort I've put into my work, I'll be the most poorly paid online copywriter in the country. Hehe!! Kidding.

I continued reading, nonetheless.

As I progressed, my eyebrows started having a life of their own! I've no talent whatsoever in eyebrow raising or ear moving or whatever freakiness there is but I swear I felt every unmovable part of my features jump out of my face.
"We live in a democracy. Therefore, everyone should be treated equal. No exceptions. Yes, even the handicapped. Honestly, why should we give special treatment to the blind and the deaf? And why do cripples get special parking anyway?"
WTH right? I even paused... no.. stopped at this point to think up a reply re: why these people should be given special considerations.

So then I started REALLY thinking. Is this girl fo' realz??

Her article is full of bull, almost equaling the conyotic blog posts from that Atenean girl who hated going to that out-of-town immersion. I read people's comments below the article and began to realize how the entire article changed my views in an instant!

Don't judge a piece by its heartlessness

While I felt bad about the injustices done to the hardworking middle class, I now felt even worse for the trapped, helpless poor who struggle day in, day out. While multiple opportunities are given to the middle class, a very limited space (literally and figuratively) is available for the poor to move around in.

I started pinpointing what parts of the article I agree on but found each and every statement erratic and unfounded. I spent a few minutes with wrinkled brows pondering on what the girl is trying to prove!
  • What is this piece of sh(t?
  • Why waste time writing it?
And it was then that I realized that the piece was written to make me wonder, question my beliefs and do a 180. I went from 'kinda' agreeing with Bianca's tweet to acknowledging how poverty is too complex that it cannot be encased in a simple-minded tweet from a TV host.

I went from "WHAT THE ^%$#@&*!" to ".......OOOoooohhhh!!"

I get it.

I guess this proves that there are unconventional ways to achieve individual transformation...

...like in this case - using a powerful form of sarcasm.

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