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What's with balikbayan boxes and filipinos?? Forget about the war in mindanao, the abu sayaffs and the endless political bickerings going on in the highest levels of our government. Balikbayan boxes are the prime and most potent hazard against peace and harmony in our country. Countless filipino families have been tested, called up to arms and subsequently shattered by these simple boxes filled with things essentially similar to what we have here but with one major difference... The things inside are from the United States carrying with it the distinct familiar smell of America.
These two characteristics alone are enough to transform any ordinary and sometimes downright horrible piece of clothing into something worth boasting about and fighting each other tooth and nail for. It doesn't matter if the clothes look like something that was donated to the salvation army or something out of a cheap 70s movie. As long as the clothes reek of the land of the free and have the required mileage, there will be battle plans and shifting alliances between relatives worthy of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The same goes to px canned goods which are treated with the same level of respect we accord our saints - displayed right beside the bottles of wine and the statues of saints never to be opened except on the direst of emergencies. If all goes well, these px canned goods can last for more than 10 years until claimed by the natural processes of entropy serving out their useful life as talismans of success and social stature on Filipino houses at least until the cans bulge from decomposing organic material or the labels fade with age.
Even worse, in most cases, Balikbayan boxes have even become a lot important than the balikbayans themselves! The balikbayans being nothing more than sentient vending machines to be manipulated just right for them to unload their goodies.
How do i know all of this? I've seen it happen with my own eyes in our own clan and in other families as well. I've seen bloody and international feuds between family members (living on different major continents) irrevocably destroy what was otherwise beautiful relationships all because of the desire to be the one entrusted with the box.
Amidst the clamor for change, the outcry against corruption and the need for progress, we filipinos stand on the brink of losing all hope for meaningful change. We rail against the loss of moral values of those in the higher echelons of our government, all the while failing to see the little seeds of corruption, crab mentality and materialism in our own families that feeds the growth of this formidable forest of stagnation in our country. how can we blame our politicians for disregarding the future of our families with the sale of spratleys when we ourselves are very much willing to do the very same thing all because of one little box??
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