Labyrinth
Finally got to see ‘Pan’s Labyrinth.’ It’s a sadly dark and darkly sad film that questions the impact of violence in the lives of children. Broke my heart into a million pieces. Was reminded of Grecil and the thousands, millions of other children victimized by unjust wars, by the violence of adults and their inhumane politics and twisted beliefs and values.
Whenever Bush says that America should fight terrorism, he is not thinking of saving Iraqi children, or children in Afghanistan or in Palestine.
When Macapagal-Arroyo says that the Philippines is winning the war aainst poverty, I don’t think she has poor people in mind but the already rich– they’re the ones who are succeeding in keeping their mansions, luxury cars and dollar bank accounts.
Always, always it is the children who suffer. Everyday, whenever I come home I have to pass through a small squatters community just a stone’s throw away from our house. There are literally swarms of children running around barefoot, wearing theadbare clothes, snot freely flowing from their noses. The pavement is rough , but they never seem to mind stubbing their little toes on the rocks and pebbles. They laugh and giggle and scream with glee at the simplest things, indifferent to the heat and dust and the fact that their toys are broken pieces of wood or old cans tied together.
Some of the children are babies — six month-olds left in the care of their ‘older’ siblings aged six or seven. I don’t think many of them attend school, they just stay at home with their mothers whom in turn wait for their husbands to return at night hopefully with money to buy rice and fish.The older kids take care of the babies while the mothers wash clothes or cook on the clay stoves they keep just outside their shanties.
In the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) operations against the progressive party-lists and their officials, members and supporters, the soldiers and paramilitary forces or their equally demonic henchmen make sure that their targets are killed- shot in the head and/or in the heart. No chance of survival or recovery. So far there have been 840 human rights advocates and political activists killed, and I’m not sure of the exact number, but am sure that most of those killed were married and had children.
Multiply the number by at least four — for each activist killed, four others are directly victimized, the wife or husband, and the children. The parents will be able to cope, to somehow find the means to recover and heal and fight for justice for their slain loved one.
But the children? Who fights for them? Who speaks out for them? They are helpless victims, innocent bystanders viciously attacked by a government that cares nothing for their rights or their parents’. Because they’re poor and because they fought back by speaking out.
When they suffer violence, when they are starved and beaten and denied everythings else that they need to survive, how do children process or understand the experience?
In ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ the little girl Ofelia retreated into a fantasy world where she had hope of being happy, of serving a purpose other than being a little girl caught in the middle of a civil war. Do most children do this? Or do they just feel the hunger pangs, suffer the pain, and wait for relief, often in vain? They have no choice but to rely on adults, and how horrible is it to know that more often than not, adults are the ones behind the suffering of millions of children?
History is never written by children. They are too young, and they cannot explain what it is exactly that is going on around them. Many of them when asked make observations that to adults sound cute and funny, but what if we asked them serious questions, questions on how they feel about not having enough to eat, about being poor, about never being able to go to school or properly dressed when its raining - what would they say, how would they describe the experience?
Siguro mag-iiba ang takbo ng mundo kung titignan natin ang lahat mula sa pananaw ng mga bata, sa kanilang simpleng pag-unawa ng kung ano ang tama at mali, at kung ano ang mga kailangan para mabuhay ng maayos, marangal at masaya.
