May 2010 election is fast approaching and of course our running politicians for the different positions in the government are extremely busy that it made me wonder if they ever have time to blink. Election season in our country is, as ever before, like a fiesta. A raucous combination of colors, music, tag lines, promising speeches, and other gimmicks verging from seriousness to stupidity.
Lets start with colors. Using colors in campaign strategy is a good way of making an imprint to the minds of the people. It's all about association. Yellow, orange, green, blue, and all colors that Crayola could invent are now associated to a certain candidate or political party. Visual learning, such as the use of colors and shapes, are often used by kindergarten teachers in teaching kids effectively. It helps a lot in making a lesson retain in their mind. And this strategy is used by politicians in selling themselves to us since they know that we all act like kindergartens. Just kidding! (Naaah... not really.)
The music or better known as political jingles proliferating currently in the air are either exaggerated, absurd, funny, inspiring, or merely so so. One of these jingles that particularly caught my attention is the listeners if they have ever tried bathing in a sea of garbage? Or spending Christmas in the middle of the street? To answer the first one, I have never ever tried bathing in a sea of garbage and I have no plan to try it in the future either. Think of all the diseases you might get from those murky waters? About the second question, no I haven't tried spending Christmas in the street because you'll just end up with severed limbs (due to hit and run by reckless drivers) or with a hole in the belly (the favorite diversion of robbers, snatchers, addicts, etc.). Besides, with the current economic crisis, Christmas is treated like an ordinary day lately. Seriously, I know what the song is trying to convey. It is trying to ask us whether if we have ever experienced poverty in our existence in this cruel planet because the candidate who owns the jingle did (well, that's what he said). My God, do they still need to ask that? Here in the Philippines, we eat poverty for breakfast, problems for lunch, and misery for supper. And yeah, corrupt public leaders for dessert!
Lets start with colors. Using colors in campaign strategy is a good way of making an imprint to the minds of the people. It's all about association. Yellow, orange, green, blue, and all colors that Crayola could invent are now associated to a certain candidate or political party. Visual learning, such as the use of colors and shapes, are often used by kindergarten teachers in teaching kids effectively. It helps a lot in making a lesson retain in their mind. And this strategy is used by politicians in selling themselves to us since they know that we all act like kindergartens. Just kidding! (Naaah... not really.)
The music or better known as political jingles proliferating currently in the air are either exaggerated, absurd, funny, inspiring, or merely so so. One of these jingles that particularly caught my attention is the listeners if they have ever tried bathing in a sea of garbage? Or spending Christmas in the middle of the street? To answer the first one, I have never ever tried bathing in a sea of garbage and I have no plan to try it in the future either. Think of all the diseases you might get from those murky waters? About the second question, no I haven't tried spending Christmas in the street because you'll just end up with severed limbs (due to hit and run by reckless drivers) or with a hole in the belly (the favorite diversion of robbers, snatchers, addicts, etc.). Besides, with the current economic crisis, Christmas is treated like an ordinary day lately. Seriously, I know what the song is trying to convey. It is trying to ask us whether if we have ever experienced poverty in our existence in this cruel planet because the candidate who owns the jingle did (well, that's what he said). My God, do they still need to ask that? Here in the Philippines, we eat poverty for breakfast, problems for lunch, and misery for supper. And yeah, corrupt public leaders for dessert!
And then here comes the never ending barrage of promises. Promises so sweet to the ears like honey that it's nice to be drowned by them and get intoxicated.... until you developed political diabetes and die with bitterness that you were deceived by their treacherous tongues. Yeah, I may sound cynical but can you blame me for being so?
The forthcoming May 2010 election is very promising and historical. Promising in the sense that a lot of Filipinos, particularly the youth, are involving themselves in the campaign for an honest, peaceful, and conscience-driven election. Historical too because this election will the first time that COMELEC will be using automation for the counting of ballots. I just hope that there will be minimum technical problems with regards to the automation. Whatever will be the result of this election, lets just pray for the success of it. And with regards to the circus our politicians are putting up right now, throwing issues to one another and creating gimmicks here and there, all I could say is that just enjoy the show guys!
No comments:
Post a Comment