I am now a proud owner of a tshirt with the words “Huwag kang magnanakaw” printed on it. I see that the same words greeted the three presidentiables when they arrived at the Arsobispado last night. The Filipino Catholic pride, Cardinal Tagle invited Binay, Poe and Roxas for a spiritual meeting. It’s a no-brainer who among the three almost had spontaneous combustion upon entering the Cardinal’s holy lair. But the devil also believes in God. That candidate was almost always within camera range during the Papal visit last January. He kissed the Pope’s ring not just once. The only other time I get pissed by a photobomber-politician like him is when I see Chavit’s face behind the Pacman.
Stealing comes in many forms. The above candidate’s forte of course is the financial district’s money. He also is an expert now in stealing the truth. He doesn’t need a machinery to do the spins for him. He does it everytime he opens his mouth. The only other time I get pissed by somebody else’s spin is when the son of the dictator talks about how lucky he is to have been his father’s spawn, er, son and that he doesn’t see a need to say sorry.
As a language and literature teacher, it’s a recurring frustration for me to find out that my students do not take seriously my warning against plagiarism or stealing somebody else’s idea and using it as their own. Very recently plagiarism has become synonymous to an incumbent senator’s name. This guy also didn’t find it necessary to admit to the misdeed and even complained he was being cyberbullied. On the other hand, one popular CEO had an earlier case of plagiarized speech but admirably apologized for it.
I asked for a two-page review of related literature and explained the process, style and format for it. I could not over-emphasize the importance of citing sources whether quoted, paraphrased or summarized. The problem is my students take their writing courses for granted. They have Google, Microsoft Word and RefME, an app for correct bibliography, and yet many of them still dare submit copied and pasted work. Same students grew up thinking it’s okay to download music, videos and the like. They just shrug it off when reminded these acts are forms of stealing.
Are we prone to stealing because much have been stolen from us as a people? We lost our sense of history and cultural pride to our colonizers. We lost our freedom even to local despots. We lost our faith in our leaders who for many years stole our taxes to enrich themselves. We lost our trust in law enforcers because many of them were really lawbreakers themselves.
I tell my students that they at least should learn to respect somebody else’s intellectual property as they will also crave for the same respect with their future creations and achievements. I don’t know if this connects to the fact that we are in the heart of the University Belt very near the infamous Recto Avenue, named after a most brilliant Filipino, but ironically is lined with stalls ran by forgers and fakers. Our students do not anymore go to these stalls for copies of essays, term papers or theses to submit. The Internet has loads of sites they can lift from. They don’t have qualms at submitting these as their own thinking the teacher will not read them anyway. But I do. It’s easy to spot a plagiarized essay. I know my students well enough to suspect that the impeccable writing aren’t theirs.
I sometimes feel it’s an exercise in futility to try to instill in the young that stealing of any form is bad. Young and old alike think many people do it anyway. This is still the thinking up to now even if the incumbent president is proven clean. Some people still believe some stealing still happens in his admin. The cynicism is deepened by the realization that it is Number Two who is Top Thief. And because he has also stolen the truth,he further insults by threatening to bring back thieving to Number One. Some students who are oblivious to issues beyond their major subjects and limited bandwidth, couldn’t care less and the copy and paste projects continue to be turned in. (Cto for Lao Tzu image and quote)
mssyj 