Tuesday, October 24, 2006 Aguilar: Nothing new By George Aguilar Rational Animal
IS IT just me or do other people feel the way I do about Masskara?
Every year I would tell myself not to attend the festivities in the streets because it's all the same really. Year after year it's the same old dirty urine reeking streets and grimy stalls littering the public plaza while droves of people walk by zombies like in search of instant nirvana. Every year I would promise myself to boycott the Masskara and fail. At the last minute my curiosity would get the better of me and I would go down to see for myself if there is anything new only to regret my going once more.
There wasn't anything new in this year's Masskara Festival. Of course not, this is Bacolod City after all where change happens very slowly while society's leaders struggle to cling on to old customs and traditions like vote buying and parochialism. "Why change something that works?" some would say. In the first place it doesn't really work does it? The masa, that the mass in masskara is supposed to stand for, have no reason to be happy anyway. Times are hard and no amount of festivities can change that.
Money is already scarce but people I know, including family, and myself had to take out savings just to entertain visitors from other cities and abroad. Yes I guess that income did come in from the additional tourists who came to visit the masskara festival. But the money went moistly to the owners of hotels and businesses who flourish during this festival season. Just how much of this money trickled down to the masses?
Whatever the insignificant amount that did trickle down to the masses went to beer and barbecue judging from the way the masa drank those masskara nights away.
Masskara is supposed to be a time to throw cares away and to put up a happy face despite the economic difficulties brought about by the height of tiempos muertos in the province. Well some people really did throw their cares away during this Masskara Festival, along with their senses. Some people drank one year's worth of alcohol in a few days and nights of revelry.
Then they ran amuck and stabbed a few poor souls until they themselves are shot down like rabid dogs. Some people drank like mad during Masskara not because they are happy. In fact the opposite is true. People drank like there was no tomorrow because there is none. They know deep within their hearts that there is no future to greet them a new dawn in their tired dreary lives. And so they don the masskara of duplicity, pretend to be merry while wallowing themselves in beer and piss.
The festivity site was literally strewn with filth, the streets were wet with urine. It was embarrassing for me to take a guest from Manila to the public plaza. When we got there the ground was wet. She asked if it rained, I didn't answer her, just told her not to step on any puddle. Another thing that has to change in future masskaras is the stench. Masskara smells like piss, beer, feces, and barbecue in that order. We do have ordinances against using public places for private toilets so why not implement these ordinances fully especially during the masskara festival when the tourists are there? Lastly, we also have to contend with the noise pollution. Like a broken record I've been pleading with the organizers to force stall owners and music technicians to play just masskara songs and to have a common music program. The noise is already loud as it is. But what compounds it is the fact that every stall, every corner is playing different music. The result is pure and unnecessary mayhem.
Fortunately, the noise pollution seems to die down and the stench becomes almost bearable after four bottles of beer. This may be one reason why people drink themselves silly during masskara, to make it bearable. Beer, piss, and an abnormally large amount of garbage that littered the streets of what was once one of the cleanest cities in the Philippines. Is this all that Masskara is all about?
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