The Triumph of Entertainment and Mammon

The Triumph of Entertainment and Mammon

By: Arnel L. Cadeliña


My 50 students were excited. It was 4:00AM of September 13, 2006 but we made the front gate of Sacred Heart a busy place. What’s the fuzz?. We are attending the 4th IT Congress at U.P. Diliman. But how come, judging from their faces, that they are more excited to be away from their home rather than looking forward to learn?. Why are they like these? Is hunger for learning less attractive therefore not satisfying anymore nowadays?

As we boarded the van, I felt a sudden hunch of a day not so productive. I even can’t sleep maybe it’s damn too cold or I was disturbed by the myriad thoughts in my head.
We arrived at U.P. Diliman around 7:45AM . Students from all over the country were lined up and snaked toward the U.P. Theater.

You asked me what I noticed about U.P.? It’s very dirty. Garbage are everywhere. Students mingling with squatters and squatters roamed freely in the campus. Why is it U.P. Diliman allow this to happen? You can not even see a decent organized bulletin board. They definitely thrive in chaos. Maybe it’s the reason why they are the premier state u. Everything they challenged, even their surroundings.


To dispel the negativity, I rode the IKOT jeepney but sadly it’s the same old story. Buildings bear no soul that identifying their relationship with one another was a huge puzzle. I saw NUS in Singapore, my God the buildings there are easily distinguished having connections to one another, the color, the architecture , the lawn, etc. When I look at UP Diliman, I saw the reflection of our own country: chaotic, prone to short term goals and hostage of the past.

The only positive thing that overwhelmed me were the students. They study, I mean they really study. Under the tree, in the sunken graden, near the sorbetero, inside the jeepney, and even while walking. Now I know why UP Diliman is different, it’s because of its students. They spell Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.
Slightly overjoyed, I return to UP Theater. The program started very late. To entertain the 3000 students, the organizers brilliantly fielded 2 gay emcees whose jokes ranges from toilet green to below the belt insults.
For the 8 hours we been there, 5 hours were consumed listening to the 2 gay morons who made every person they called in the stage a butt of disrespectful jokes. As I helplessly sat in the theater, I am slapping my face if I am at Wowowee or at IT Congress. What’s so painful here, the students are enjoying it. They did not felt that they were robbed.
Compute this 3000 students x P450 registration/student, that’s a whooping P1,350,000.
Really the organizers are laughing all their way to the bank. It’s daylight robbing time in a grand scale. I had a seatmate who came from Capiz with her 60 students paying expensive air fare and hotel fare just for this fiasco. Is she regretting it? No! In fact she and her students are enjoying it.
Yeah It’s Wowowee and mammon who won that day and the suckers love it!