old days, old manila

growing up in the metro does imprints an image on how do things looks, feels and sounds. as i grew up in the busy streets and markets, jammed residential areas and overflowing people i do noticed the beauty and more so, the harm.

when i am about to go somewhere, i have in mind the possible danger of living in the city. the stories of robbery and assaults is never a myth. you can never imagine the amount of precautions i have, but ironically, i think that what makes the city life more upbeat– the thrills and the sounds, the restlessness and the pigments, the emancipation and the inhibitions.

i have posted this video on the 25th of June 2008 after i browsed it somewhere. i fell in love to the city i originally grew afraid for. the attributes seems surreal– the people, the place..everything! manila is identified as a modern city and the philippines being an agricultural, industrial and independent country way back then. why does it looks so good way back? i can’t even see a fragment of existence between what i saw in the video and what manila looks like now.

you can see the richness of culture, the trace of history in it’s walls and bridges, the sureness of identity, the beauty. i was left with amazement after watching this and after almost seven months i still have the same level of pride and the increased level of heartache.

i love manila at the present time, it’s vibrant and diverse but i am not only talking about the physical contrast of the two era. culture is never lost but rather, it evolves. i am not as sure about the attitude change– the attitude towards how we see life in general at the present moment and what we do after realizing it, that could make a difference.

i can argue that it was way before when we are under the supervision of the united states but i can still argue that we have proven that we can handle our own state. maybe the thing that we should ponder is the action after the initial reactions, that is thing i think we are defected with.

i cannot solely blame the estate, lots of words has been written about our glitches but history has written it’s fair share of our success. we are now done with the colonialist, maybe it is time now to battle our internal conflicts, search for our identity and build a stronger foundation of nationalism.

i know we can relive the old days, i have faith in us.

~ by Dyepri Budoy on January 28, 2009.