CONGRATULATIONS what’s-his-name for passing the Driving Licensure Examination.
A good laugh netizens had over this one on Facebook last week.
Congratulations so-and-so for passing the gates of the university without showing an ID.
The laugh turned hysterical with this one.
Beyond the laughter though, the sting of satire obtaining in those messages of felicitation smarts. Really smarts.
Yes, to what ludicrous depths have we sunk.
And I thought we have hit rock bottom when I predicted here almost 12 years ago: It won’t be long when we would behold something like “Congratulations Jokjok for passing the entrance exams to the Paaralang Elementarya ng T. Tinio.”
Rewarding mediocrity, I headlined that column of June 19, 2007 on the Filipino penchant to lower the grade whenever faced by difficulties. No, lowering the minimum age for criminal responsibility to 9 is a totally different story. (On second thought, it can be tied to this. Another column, maybe.)
In the era of instant convenience, the drive toward excellence sputtered. We resort to seeking the path of least resistance. Not only to shortcutting but even shortcircuiting the usual processes, circumventing the rules, and ultimately, breaking the laws.
So, we have adopted, indeed, adapted ourselves to the characteristic of water – seeking the lowest levels.
Precisely the lament over those congratulatory streamers perfunctorily put up by politicos for passers of just about any examination hereabouts: “Congratulations Iska for passing the CPA Board Exams.” “We are proud of you Tecla for passing the teachers’ examinations.”
What is so extraordinary in the mere passing of an exam that calls for all those congratulations? It won’t be long when we would behold something like “Congratulations Jokjok for passing the entrance exams to the Paaralang Elementarya ng T. Tinio.”
During our time – now long bygone, the passing grade in examinations – from the shortest quizzes to the longest periodicals and the dreaded orals in-between – was 75 percent, not a fraction less. Today it is said to be 50. With bonus points for writing the teacher’s first name and title – two for Attorney and Doctor, three more for Professor, and with a Ph.D after the comma, plus two more.
Fifty percent, to put it plainly, comprises just half of the total amount of learning required. It does not take an Einstein to understand that half-full means half-empty. Which, by no stretch of the imagination could ever be deemed exemplary. There is nothing outstanding here. There is everything mediocre here.
During our time – Jurassic by millennial standards – a grade of 75 was a mark of shame. Derisively dismissed as sampaybakod , if not pasang-awa. Today, it is a cause for celebration proudly heralded in big boldlettered streamers.
What have become of our sense of honor, indeed, of our sense of shame?
Speaking of streamers and shame, I remember one that was put up at the McDonald’s side of the Dolores Junction sometime in 1999, on the very day Governor Lito Lapid reassumed reins at the Capitol after serving the six-month suspension imposed on him by the Ombudsman consequent to the quarry scam.
“Welcome back Gov, we are proud of you.” Proud of Lapid for earning the distinction as the first ever – and so far only – suspended governor in the history of Pampanga?
There is no pride here. There is only shame here.
But then, Lapid went on to serve three full terms as governor, two-full terms as senator. Notwithstanding his defeat to Jejomar Binay in the Makati mayoralty contest of 2007 and his loss to Ed Pamintuan in the Angeles City mayorship in 2016, Lapid is a shoo-in to the Senate in this year’s elections, if we go by the false Asia and shh-shh surveys.
Throw in Bato de la Rosa and Bong Go into the mix, add plunder-branded Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada. Indeed, to what ridiculous depths have we sunk, and wallow in.
Congratulatory streamers are by no means purely shameless showcases of inflated unimportance. The thing here is to make them hew substantially to their very purpose. Only to the best should they be posted, say bar and board topnotchers, winners of international or national contests, really outstanding citizens.
It is excellence that must be rewarded; mediocrity be damned. That is a sure way to raise the level of national intelligence which at present is but a notch above that of a moron.
Else, it’s congratulations for passing out the day God showered the Earth with brains.
