Noontime Syets...
It has been more than a week since I engrossed myself into watching local channels. I don’t have a cable connection in our room at the moment, and I plan to be connected before the Formula 1 season begins. I am definitely looking forward to Michael Schumacher’s comeback into racing, but as of the moment, I have to endure those boring stuffs the local networks can offer.
Aside from an overdose of product advertisements, info-mercials(they are not campaign ads as they say) by politicians who dreams big in the coming election are lording it over at high noon. We cannot blame them since strategically, this is the best time of the day to be visible in the television. Majority of the masa crowd are glued at the top 2 shows since both are able to give a glimpse of false hopes about improving daily lives by merely taking chances in winning instant prizes instead of working hard enough to earn.
Whatever show you choose to watch, whether it is the longest running noontime show or the number 1 killer show(ULTRA stampede, in case you have forgotten), both shows seems to have common elements in them; sexy dancers, large amount of cash prizes, humor, and the most important of all, the drama. Most of the time, the show could not seem to justify giving away large amounts of prizes unless the contestant is not suffering enough from poverty. It’s disturbing in a sense that people line up patiently, sometimes even as early as 4 in the morning, just to have a chance to join these contests, and yet they have short fuses when it comes to other matters like city hall documentations, licenses, loans, payment of bills, and other important transactions which are usually done in a hurry with a lot of help by bribery or in aid of fixers. While I heard a lot of complains during the COMELEC registration, I haven’t seen anyone complain of long lines in a contest. And as what I have heard on the ULTRA stampede years ago, the people are coming towards the venue instead of escaping away. I’ve always thought that stampedes happen when groups of people flee from the place of conflict, and yet here in the Philippines one stampede happened while the crowd was forcing themselves further into the venue instead of running away. And yes, let us not forget the drama: whether the family has nothing to eat, nothing to sleep on, no money for education, no means of paying off health services, etc. I wanted to join but I am discouraged since probably my reason for joining is that I am qualified to join. First, I have to make up a good dramatic story: something about a favorite dog that died because I wasn’t able to feed it because I was poor would not even suffice.
I have always preferred Eat Bulaga over the other. Well, the show has been part of the daily lives of the Filipino for three decades. I am only a few years older than the show. I already know how to operate a television when the show started, so I pretty much knew how the show has evolved as time went by. And besides, nobody can beat Joey’s quirky mind when it comes to inventing most of the parlor games they play in Eat Bulaga. The rival show host even had to record an album composed by a novelty song composer just to compensate on his lack of talent. Mr. De Leon was way above him – a singer, a composer, a painter, a writer, and a collector. I love his collection of shirts and jackets, and I always look forward in seeing whatever statement shirt he wears during the time that I watch the show. Well, the other is also a collector – of Ferrari’s and sexy girlfriends, that is. Both have been known to be offensive in some ways with their humor, but Joey can ably squeeze himself out of those insults with style while the other tactless loudmouth had to deal with it by insulting the rival show.
Lately there is a game portion that sickens me. There is a greater chance of getting the jackpot prize since they would just give the jackpot prize anyway. This is not really a game of chance, since winning the jackpot prize relies merely on your chances, although being the contestant also relies on how good their chances are. And even if you merely won the lowest prize given away, at the end of the hour you’ll still be given all the major prizes as long as you re-live your dramatic life of poverty in front of the cameras. If we scrutinize closely, this has all the markings of political gimmickry. The orange theme, the check, the background song – aren’t those similar to one of the presidential aspirants’ campaign? I can tolerate those politicians with their fake crusades in their ads but giving away money in a game show is too far, even if they fully deny any involvement with the said contest. I am not blind as what they would want me to be, but I can clearly see from the deception they have created, and I will keep reminding myself of this matter come election time.
Television had its finest and worst hours. It even shaped the course of history for this particular country – sadly - down the drain. We had always relied in the television to influence our way of life. We relied so much that we even turned our back in our customs and traditions for the sake of progress. Before the television was invented, people would wake up early in the morning to plant crops so that they’d have something to eat come supper time. Now, they would wake up early in the morning to have a chance of winning and getting instant money so that they would have something to eat by supper time.
Television changes lives. I admit. It’s scary, though.
Anyways, yan ang nakakainis sa mga tao, they are depending their living on chances, on game of chances, like lotto, jueteng, ano pa ba? sakla. at ang mga politiko yan na lang lagi ginagawang pang bitag sa mga botante. hindi kasalanan ang maging mahirap or ipanganak na mahirap, pero ang yakapin ang pagiging mahirap, yung ang napakalaking kasalanan.