F E AT U R E
THE DISTURBING, THE MEMORABLE, AND THE SATISFYING A TIME TO LOOK BACK BY COLM MEANEY CSsR
A
s my final Letter from the Philippines, I offer some impressions of the culture that struck me during my years there. I begin with an aspect of life that I find somewhat disturbing and proceed to what I have found memorable and, finally, that I found satisfying. I was sitting on the porch of a house in the rural Philippines, and my companion was the woman of the house, a placid woman in her late-50s. The village had seen its share of violence. Just before I arrived, a single woman in her 50s was raped and subsequently died. Some time later, two friends were drinking, but the atmosphere soon turned sour. One died of machete blows while the other was taken to hospital. (This last incident exhibited a colour I hadn’t seen before: the deceased’s family painted his coffin red to signify that the blood feud continues). So now some police and village militia are present at the weekly market, which draws quite a crowd from neighbouring villages. As a militia man passed by, I asked the housewife what weapon was slung over his shoulder. Without hesitation, she said, “It looks like an Uzi, with a
silencer.” Well, I was flabbergasted. Not because a farmer-militia with almost zero training in firearms was carrying such a weapon (I only know the name from the movies. No, I was shocked that a housewife who not only hasn’t a violent bone in her body but who has never even entertained a violent thought would be so instantly familiar with such tools of destruction. No woman in Ireland of any generation (apart
makes it urgent that we should live peaceable lives. In a culture where calm enjoyment between friends can, in the blink of an eye, and the clink of a glass, turn to seething, manic resentment, and deadly bloodshed, any effort at peace-building is to be lauded. I myself had a brush with violence, or possible violence, at any rate. I was going uphill on a motorbike with two lay companions. The road was very
The support for the scholars is based on the old adage: if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. from paramilitaries) knows what an Uzi is. Jacuzzi, yes, Uzi, no. And a silencer is what goes on a motorbike to dull the sound of the engine. The other silencer is limited to slick Hollywood assassins. This is a country saturated with weaponry and with everyday incidents of violence – from alcohol-fuelled domestic disturbances to a constant reporting of killings nationwide. This dark side of Filipino culture, coupled with our being followers of the Lord who shunned violence,
muddy, and progress was slow. As we rounded a bend, a fellow flagged down our bike. He asked to be driven somewhere. I said that we were heading further uphill and couldn’t delay. He then brandished a homemade gun, remarking on my talking back to him (he clearly had been drinking). The gun was made of wood, with the live bullet held in tension using strong elastic bands. Pressing on the trigger would release the round. My male companion whispered to me that we should get off the bike, which
we did, and we walked in among some nearby houses and made our way to our destination on foot. It turns out that the lad with the homemade gun was something of a local troublemaker, but we had met him at a time when he was acutely upset. His father had died that very day. He had requested the use of the village truck for various tasks but had been turned down as the muddy conditions prevented any such use. To be fair to him, he was at the parish house the next morning when I arrived and was most apologetic for his behaviour. We parted amicably. Some of my most memorable experiences were the various processions held at different times of the year. I wrote regarding our Advent procession: “And for children walking in “The Way of the Crib,” with their parents and friends, holding their candle, looking with eyes full of wonder at the crib held aloft on the men’s shoulders, with blinking Christmas lights draped over the figurines in the crib - all this is like an acorn of happiness and contentment which will grow into an oak of gentle, serene memories, to soothe them when life has lost that lovely childhood
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