By Sophia Angeline G. Delantero, UC student
Ignorance is bliss. To people who do not know what is happening around them, to people who are unaware of the cruelty of those in the golden seats of power, to people who do not suffer from brown waters caused by uncleaned drainages, to people who live comfortably despite the heavy burden of taxes and minimum wages, to people who do not have to suffer from the curse of our public transportation. For them, for these people, we are not facing such problems.
This is only the surface of the itch that we choose to ignore in the face of inhumanity, and to be completely brutal, there is so much more in the mountains where we do not see how the rules work for them.
Kara David, a multi-awarded documentarist and journalist in the Philippines, has dug into thousands of community difficulties from 2001 up until this day. She is a catalyst for change because, without her willingness to step her white shoes into the mud of rocky roads, we would not be informed that there are communities deprived of progress and unaware of their rights.
Some of Kara David’s works are “Ambulansiyang de Paa,” a documentary about the Mangyan residents in Oriental Mindoro who carry patients or ill residents in makeshift cradles across mountains to access healthcare; “Kapalit ng Katahimikan,” a story that discusses the cultural laws and flaws surrounding abusive communities; and “Ibinasurang Paraiso,” a story about the Aeta community that suffered from the trash thrown onto their land by the Local Government of Zambales without considering their ancestral rights.
All of these are known to be stories that only came to light through the power of Kara David’s storytelling. Without I-Witness or other documentary channels, we would, for sure, be people hyperfixated on our own lives and oblivious to their ordeals, or perhaps we would not know of their existence in the first place.
However, even in this avenue, the National Government is quietly good at ignoring them as it is important to keep their bliss. They refuse to give them attention because they are not the ones being pushed into a normativity of abuse, their boundaries are not the ones being crossed, and their lives are not the ones being tossed to the ground.
Well, I thought ignorance was really bliss, but it is actually not. Ignorance of what is happening in the world is an illness and a burden to the country. It is a sickness that we need to break in order for us to move forward and progress, because not knowing is a synonym for not caring.
For one, ignorance is no longer the issue here. Storytellers like Kara David have brought these stories closer to us. We have seen their realities; to ignore them now is no longer ignorance, but a choice we continue to choose.
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