The wrong crusade

I have been reading so much of this Willing Willie child abuse issue and I can't help but have my own opinion and blog about it.

For one, I never was a fan of Willie Revillame. I do not feel his sincerity and honestly I hate how his show seems to illustrate how poor our country is. It shows to the whole world that our people will do anything for money. I hate it when contestants, for lack of real talent, will simply make weird dance movements just to get the money that is bound to be given by the host after embarrassing themselves in front of the whole world. There have been thousands of stories among the shows followers, to include a close cousin of mine, who would do anything just to be a studio contestant in the show. There's an old lady who unknowingly exposed her breasts in live television, some probinsyana who travelled all the way to the show just to show-off her talent; and more recently a lady who peed on her pants because she did not want to go out of the long lines for the show for fear of losing her chance to be admitted. I hate how when contestants begin to tell their life story, tears automatically fall as if the whole world is upon them. All of these things illustrate to the whole world how poor our people are and, more importantly, how desperate they have become. But I will be the first one to say that those who criticize this TV host is barking at the wrong tree and perhaps should look at this whole fiasco in a wider perspective. They should realize that the antics of Mr. Revillame has somehow illustrated the true state of our country. When Willy was able to capture the taste of the masses, his competitors began to use similar methods. Even if these shows will never admit it, their gimmicks evolve into a format where ordinary people (especially those in poverty) get a once in a lifetime chance to win some money. Now, is it Willy's fault or is it simply because his person is "hate-able" than the others?

If one was to make a simple survey among poor people, they will all consent to doing what the boy Jan-jan did in exchange of ten thousand pesos. While the rest of the country is crucifying the host of the show where the young boy was allegedly abused, the money that resulted from it made a few of our countrymen happier. How come the "abused" is not complaining?

I am not also saying that we should just allow acts like those happen on air, I am just saying that inasmuch as Willy Revillame should be given some form of punishment for not exercising judgment to control acts that happen in his show, killing his show and cursing the host will not change any of the problems in our society that was exposed by the show. And for that, I would like to ask a simple question, are they after improving our society or do they have other motives? This people is so naive. They have not seen poverty in this country at its worst state. Is there no child abuse on small children ranging from six to ten years old who make three hour hikes everyday just to go to a dilapidated school with no facilities? Is there no abuse to children whose teachers complain of not being able to explain do them the word "dagat" as they have not seen any of that since birth? And I am just talking about children, I can go on and on with problems of this country fit for facebook pages that people can support to. If only this people will exert their effort into more pressing issues that can really help our countrymen. A few months back, I was watching some forum hosted by a social activist. She proudly claimed that our elected officials reflect the will of the people. Inside my head, I beg to disagree. Yes, I believe in democracy and the power of the vote, but that statement had to be examined closely. In the poor places that I have seen, they do not care of the power of the vote, they care about the power of money. For those of us who are lucky to be educated, we can appreciate the beauty of these things but for majority of our countrymen, its all about survival. I think we should remember Maslowe's Hierarchy of Needs. If we really wish to help our country, let us direct our efforts into issues that really matter. Destroying Willy Revillame will not really help. For one he is already very rich, closing down his show will not pull him down to poverty, but more importantly, our people will never gain anything our of a disgraced TV Host.