[Trailer Pransis Note: I found out that there have been formative signs for the creation of Back Trails in the form of PRANSIS TRAVELS Series in my Viole(n)t Mugs blog (pransisem.blogspot.com). Although not geared towards sharing things connected to history, some of the entries I have posted for the series dealt with human experience and I think it is an important ingredient to share here. And so I shall be reposting them here to help in cleaning up my VM blog and to share those little details and thoughts in some of my trips. Some revisions and editing have been necessary for the reposted entries. Enjoy!]A repost from Viole(n)t Mugs
August 2009
* that’s my sister on the photo; taken as we treaded the footpath towards the house of an uncle in Lodlod
* a special child I have played with in Lodlod
I haven’t gone to many places these past few months owing to some domestic responsibilities I had to attend to. And so despite my protests to come along with some relatives, I nevertheless allowed a day off from my ‘private’ life and came to celebrate the first birthday celebration of a new cousin.
There is no point in discussing here some thoughts about how the event went; they are rightfully reserved in the realms of personal journals. If my uncle is indeed happy in what he is doing right now, who am I to make any judgment of them?
Lodlod is a small barangay (I think so) in Lipa. But part of it was cut off by the recently constructed CALABARZON (Super) Highway which connects places in Batangas near the Batangas Pier to the places near the South Luzon Express Way (SLEX). The place we went to is situated beyond the highway and thus we had to make a little walk – half a kilometer at most.
The place is typical of far flung places in agricultural provinces: relatively quiet surroundings, water scarcity, and dirty kids dominating the makeshift streets, among other. At least they have made it a point to make their places more decent and look like a residential area.
This thing comes to me whenever I find myself in such ‘difficult’ places – that happiness will always be a relative thing. They seem pretty much happy with what they have there. Who am I to judge them, right? But then again, I have this other thing at the back of my mind: if only they would realize that there is still more to life than to live in semi-obscurity, I don’t think there would be any reason for them not to seek an easier life. If poverty is a blinding thing, they should not only be the ones to be blamed. The government should at least take care of these people who do not have resources to elevate their state of living. They are essentially incapable and thus the government should see this and act on them accordingly. It is not enough to see that they are happy with the kind of life that they are having now. We should at least allow them to see beyond their situation, however hard and painful it would be to them.
I look at the children, all dirty, some of them plagued by illness (I actually encountered a special child there), and wonder at that possibility that one of them could possibly excel him/herself and be of significant use to their community (or to the country) in the future. If these children will be allowed to stay in that condition, I would not be surprised at all if they end up in the lowly jobs and poor places in the country. I am not being pessimistic. I rather allow myself to speak of the things that could possibly happen; at least by doing so, I inform myself (and perhaps others) that something must be done with these poor people.
Perhaps the tranquility which welcomed me when we went there masks the real stories, the real situation of the place. By writing about the place, I hope to disentangle some of those behind-the-scene stories and move some people to help the people there.
August 2009
* that’s my sister on the photo; taken as we treaded the footpath towards the house of an uncle in Lodlod
* a special child I have played with in Lodlod I haven’t gone to many places these past few months owing to some domestic responsibilities I had to attend to. And so despite my protests to come along with some relatives, I nevertheless allowed a day off from my ‘private’ life and came to celebrate the first birthday celebration of a new cousin.
There is no point in discussing here some thoughts about how the event went; they are rightfully reserved in the realms of personal journals. If my uncle is indeed happy in what he is doing right now, who am I to make any judgment of them?
Lodlod is a small barangay (I think so) in Lipa. But part of it was cut off by the recently constructed CALABARZON (Super) Highway which connects places in Batangas near the Batangas Pier to the places near the South Luzon Express Way (SLEX). The place we went to is situated beyond the highway and thus we had to make a little walk – half a kilometer at most.
The place is typical of far flung places in agricultural provinces: relatively quiet surroundings, water scarcity, and dirty kids dominating the makeshift streets, among other. At least they have made it a point to make their places more decent and look like a residential area.
This thing comes to me whenever I find myself in such ‘difficult’ places – that happiness will always be a relative thing. They seem pretty much happy with what they have there. Who am I to judge them, right? But then again, I have this other thing at the back of my mind: if only they would realize that there is still more to life than to live in semi-obscurity, I don’t think there would be any reason for them not to seek an easier life. If poverty is a blinding thing, they should not only be the ones to be blamed. The government should at least take care of these people who do not have resources to elevate their state of living. They are essentially incapable and thus the government should see this and act on them accordingly. It is not enough to see that they are happy with the kind of life that they are having now. We should at least allow them to see beyond their situation, however hard and painful it would be to them.
I look at the children, all dirty, some of them plagued by illness (I actually encountered a special child there), and wonder at that possibility that one of them could possibly excel him/herself and be of significant use to their community (or to the country) in the future. If these children will be allowed to stay in that condition, I would not be surprised at all if they end up in the lowly jobs and poor places in the country. I am not being pessimistic. I rather allow myself to speak of the things that could possibly happen; at least by doing so, I inform myself (and perhaps others) that something must be done with these poor people.
Perhaps the tranquility which welcomed me when we went there masks the real stories, the real situation of the place. By writing about the place, I hope to disentangle some of those behind-the-scene stories and move some people to help the people there.
I am sorry that you didn't have a nice experience travelling to Lodlod. I was from Lodlod originally and although I don't live there anymore, that place will always be close to my heart. True, poverty still exists, but it is still one of the most progresive places in Batangas if not the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteGood day. I did not mean to disparage Lodlod. For all I know, its rural atmosphere is an asset in itself. I would agree that Lipa, in general, is already a progressive place. I just hope that the development (economically, among others) would extend to all its component barangays. Thank you for reading through this blog entry.
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