Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Aguilar: Real ghouls By George Aguilar Rational Animal
WHAT scares you this Halloween season? Creeps, orcs, the undead, demons, goblins, dwarves, troll? Of course not, ask any kid who plays war craft. The above mentioned creatures are characters in that best selling computer game that kids love to play.
To my surprise more and more kids are opting to play the side of the orcs, green skinned monsters from Durotar, or even the scourge (undead ghouls that do the bidding of demon lords) rather than the side of the human characters of the same game.
It used to be the case that people still believed in, and were scared of, creepy monsters who come out especially on Halloween night to prey on the unsuspecting. Having grown up in urban centers around the country and abroad my childhood memories of October 31 to Nov. two revolved around Halloween, something that many of the children of Bacolod still have to get used to.
Halloween nights were fun. Those Halloween nights were full of yummy delights. I recall bags full of candies and chocolates, native delicacies, and on the rare occasions we were abroad toffee apples and pumpkin juice. We would don costumes; a scary mask would do, and go with our parents to a nearby movie house to watch a scary movie. Then we would frolic around the neighborhood asking for candy and doing pranks.
We had stink bombs and rubber spiders that we would put on the doorsteps of neighbors who didn't cooperate. We would also make scary noises that scared no one but the neighborhood dogs. Near midnight, around ten pm to be more precise though we would rather remember the time as twelve midnight, we would gather around in someone's lawn and share and compare the candies that we were able to blackmail from willing folks and compare notes on which neighbors gave the best treats and who didn't.
From then on we would tell ghost stories until we became too sleepy to continue or till our parents came and forced us to go to bed.
It was a time for adventure and storytelling. What made it more fun was the fact that my brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends really believed in the supernatural. It made the experience more thrilling.
Try to recall, getting scared was pure joy. Staying up late and getting bags of goodies were just icing on cakes.
Sadly, kids don't believe in ghosts like we used to these days. Instead of trick or treat kids today would rather go to an internet place to play on-line games.
The undead are heroes rather than things to be dreaded and demons are two dimensional animates that can be bashed by war hammers or dispelled through spells.
Ghosts, banshees, vampires are just MMO characters in on-line games. There are no villains anymore or so they think.
But I've got news for the unbelievers. There are real ghouls and villains out there that do more than steal hit points and provide hours of play for the on-line generation.
These are flesh and blood ghouls that live in our midst. They are the creatures who make up a conspiracy to retain evil in our lands, monsters who say one thing and then do the complete opposite and hide behind human masks and make life miserable for decent folk.
Who are they? They are the dead employees who continue to receive salaries through some devious form of black magic. Vampires who come out during election season who suck votes from unwary candidates and add the same to whoever is the highest bidder. Shadowy Comelec officials who fly in and out to bewitch and conjure spectral flying voters.
Banshees and buffoons in congress who clap their hands with greed and glee every time their dwarfish empress pauses during her speech. Wraiths in the Office of Justice and Demon Lords who curse defiant journalists with law suits and libel and orcs in the military who do nothing but rage and wage war.
Beware of these murky creatures for they are as real as you and me. Moreover they do real damage. They murder institutions, corrupt the minds of the gullible with propaganda, and they are off to change the constitution so they can stay on and on in the halls of the damned. Be scared, be really scared!
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