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The only reason why I’m writing this at all is because I wanted to show you guys this interesting picture I saw on my favorite LJ community, randompictures. Since I want to make my blog more than just, “Hey, check out this interesting picture I saw on my favorite LJ community, randompictures“, I suppose it’s only proper that I add my opinions on the subject matter at hand, which is the storm called “Katrina” that hit the southern part of the United States. I was a bit hesitant at first because my whole belief system is slightly unpopular but hey, even if everyone in the world would hate me for it, I’d still retain the same opinions.

It is popularly believed that Ateneans (the students who study at my university) are “apathetic” because we don’t really give a flying fuck about the current political and social crises in the world today. While I’m not going to go around wearing an “I am an apathetic Atenean” t-shirt, I’m not ashamed to admit that yes, I do fit into that stereotype. Not by my virtue of being an “Atenean” — if I studied at UP (University of the Philippines), which is known to breed student activists of sorts, I’d still be politically and socially apathetic. Why? Simply because I’ve never given a flying fuck about these things in my life. I mean, the closest thing I’ve ever came to having some sort of political opinion is this entry. Afterwards, I stopped following the whole impeachment case because I have more pertinent and pressing things to worry about than the political upheaval in the country, which always happens whether I care about it or not.

This is basically the reason why I don’t have an opinion on the damage that Katrina caused. Sure, I’d rather it didn’t happen. I’d rather that it didn’t kill so many people and displaced so many families. I’d rather that the relief goods came in a bit faster. But I don’t feel empathy for them or anything like that and because of this, I wouldn’t donate any relief money for them. I don’t know about you, but I think that being honest and not helping out people I don’t feel anything for is a lot better than lying to myself and insisting on giving the same amount of help to the same people I don’t care for.

Do you know what I care about right now? My grades. My primary concern, as a student, is to study. But more than that, I have an oral exam with the most evil Theology professor in school tomorrow and if I fail that, there’s a huge chance that I’ll fail his class (I bombed the previous exam; both are worth 30% of my grade). The next day, I have a History exam, which I haven’t studied for yet because I’ve been focusing on my Theo orals. I also have a paper due for my Japanese Culture class on Tuesday, which I obviously haven’t done either.

Now, if I had a family member or a friend whose home got destroyed due to the storm, it’d be a totally different story because now we’re talking about people I care about. I’d give whatever I could to make things a little easier for them, because they’re people I actually feel some concern for. If I were a taxpayer, I’d start paying a little more attention to Philippine politics because the money I worked my ass for is going to this piece-of-shit government. But I don’t know anyone who suffered from the Katrina storm. I’m not a taxpayer. I’m a student. I’m not going to do my country any service by holding noise barrages or going on a hunger strike at EDSA shrine. What’s that going to accomplish, really? A rally is nothing more than a bunch of people standing in the streets, letting their beliefs be heard by people who already believe in these things. As for a hunger strike, the only interesting thing about that is speculating when the moron starving himself to death for some political cause will die from malnutrition.

The truth is, even if I were a taxpayer, I’d probably not even give that much of a flying fuck about current events. I just want to be left alone, to live, and not be bothered to feel or do something about things that really aren’t any of my concern.

I’m disabling the comments because I’d rather not debate or worse, be given a lecture in my own blog, about my very non-mainstream, non-humanitarian opinions.