“Tell me Anna, what’s the most influential international power on earth?”
“The United Nations.”
He smiled dryly. “And here I was thinking you’d say the United States.” He chuckled and took another beer from the cooler. “Tell me then, why was the UN put together in the first place?”
“Why.”
He leaned closer. “To promote world peace.” He grinned. “Just like Ms. Universe, don’t you think.”
I didn’t reply.
“Has it done that?” he continued. “World peace, I mean.”
“You tell me, since you seem to have all…”
“It failed, Anna. When those guys at the Balkans went around killing each other, it failed. When it bailed out on Rwanda as those African hacked each other to death, it failed. And now, as some war machine rains hell all over Iraq, the UN once again failed.” He shook his head. “For all the ‘influence’ it supposedly has, it’s awfully useless.”
“How simplistic of you. There’s more than just ‘the UN failing’ at face value. You of all people should know that.”
He smiled. “Really now. So blaming them is too easy. Like it’s too easy to just blame your government for all your country’s problems?” He leaned closer. “You Filipinos say your government’s useless. And I agree.”
“You agree, but you don’t even understand why.”
“Anna, it’s obvious! That martial law despot you guys had—despite all that money he stole from you people, what happened? He got seriously ill, seriously exiled—and now he’s dead. What did those billions of dollars do for him? Nothing. Jesus, they didn’t even bury the guy and left him all waxed up and preserved he’d fit right into Toussad’s collection! And for those billions of dollars lost, what did that do for your Philippines? Nothing—save plunge your little Lost Eden into unrecoverable foreign debt.”
“No, Archie. That experience won us our democracy.”
“Democracy?! You mean electing in clowns and monkeys into office, like that box office action star turned president? The poor guy’s voted in by a landslide, and then regurgitated out of your system and impeached—because Filipinos finally realized, ‘Oh, he’s not a president—he’s a goddamn movie star!’” Archie shook his head. “So that’s what you guys call ‘democracy’. Now how stupid is that.”
“How dare you! What you said is completely oversimplified!”
“Complicate it then.”
“This country is young! We’ve been independent for only fifty years! We’re finding our way around, making mistakes, learning…”
“And flagellating yourselves with that self-styled democracy.”
“That we imported from you Americans!”
And Archie actually smiled.
Joey Silayan wrote the novel ORANGE. View the novel’s website at www.orange.com.ph. He is also a multimedia specialist living in New York City. View his portfolio at www.orange.com.ph/portfolio
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