Are You Considering Celebrations More Important Than Your Duties?

Today is the month of May and somehow it's not just the summer month in the Philippines -- it's also fiesta month. Now, I'm just reminded of the movie Heneral Luna where one of the biggest, most stupid characters named Tomas Mascardo left his post to attend a fiesta. Although it's somewhat debated while historians seem not to deny that Mascardo left his post to do something not related to the war. Imagine a general who abandons his post in the middle of a war to attend a town celebration. What happened in Heneral Luna is but a microcosm of the prevalent bad habit among Filipinos to leave their posts to attend a celebration. Worse, they even say that these celebrations such as family gatherings and town feasts are more important than their work.

This reminded me of an argument I had with several people. I remembered how I had irritations like somebody placed more priority on her friend's beach wedding in Boracay than to attend an important rehearsal, how somebody would even make his son skip classes because it's the former's birthday, or how somebody would be absent from an important exam because of a family gathering or town fiesta. I even hear the stupidity of, "Just tell your teacher it's your relative's birthday, okay?" which is not excusable. But it happens anyway, right? It's just irritating especially when any decent Filipino is pressured to give up on their important posts or duties to attend a celebration which isn't even a necessity.

Statements like "Isn't it any wonder why our nation doesn't progress?" or "Will celebrations bring you in more money? Isn't it any wonder why you don't have money?" is really what I love to yell at such people with stupid priorities. You even have elders who insist their children attend the celebration even when the latter have something important to do. "Just tell them it's an important celebration" is a dumb excuse because there's a weightier matter. Since when was not attending an important celebration dinner become more important than attending a business dinner with a potential partner? I even want to put in the military scenario where if I were the commander, I'd say, "Look, is your birthday more important than winning the war? If we lose the war then you'd probably have no more birthdays to celebrate because the enemy just won!"

What's worse is that such people are just quick to fire their irritating rebuttals such as, "What are you? A hero?" or "Are you sure you are Filipino?" as if doing one's work over celebrations will make one "less Filipino" because it doesn't! Hmmm since when did a Filipino who prioritized important duties become a traitor to his or her fellow Filipino by simply not attending a celebration? This again shows how these kinds of people don't really progress much. They may be buried in debt or are always having difficulty in dealing with calamities when they arrive in their lives.