I am going to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China, next week via Cebu Pacific. I bought the tickets last July during one of the seat sales offered by the said airline. But with all the repercussions brought about by the Manila hostage debacle, including the backlash and disdain against Filipinos in general, I have been asked one too many times whether we'd still continue with our travel to Hong Kong. And I always answer in the affirmative. Yes, of course, and why not?
I know security could be an issue. Imagine, a guest from a country where its Hong Kong guests met a gruesome fate visits Hong Kong just a few days after the incident. Tensions are still high; emotions, still raw. I've even read that some Chinese visas issued to Filipinos were canceled, and that a Hong Kong immigration officer threw a Philippine Senator's passport to him. I don't know the circumstances how and why it happened; for all we know, it may have been for an entirely different reason. Personally, however, I have always believed in the goodness and fairness of humans. I may get some steely gaze, some rude comments, some rash behavior directed against me, but I could get it anywhere in the world, even in my own country. Heck, I even went to Hong Kong during the height of the AH1N1 scare last year; to Thailand this year when the faction between the red shirts and government was escalating; I even traveled to Taiwan, alone.
I am not, however, a moth trying to get near the flame. Of course, I have some apprehensions; I'm but human. It's just that I am no more safe in my country than in any other place. Unless and until the government issues an advisory against traveling to Hong Kong, I'd go there. After all, love for Mickey Mouse transcends all bounds; it heals.
As a fellow traveler, I condemn the hostage incident and the way the government [mis]handled it. Innocent guests who only wanted to experience the beauty of our country met a tragic fate. It could have happened to me; it could have happened to anyone else.
Perhaps, people's feelings have not been placated yet, and for good reasons. We've been witnesses to how it all happened, glued to our televisions watching a real-life "prime time"drama unfold before our very eyes. We've all felt a sense of helplessness and loss when an escaped hostage shouted everyone's dead; and we've all felt a gush of relief and hope when one by one, the survivors were led out of the bus. It was an intense, long-drawn-out incident, and never had I felt so much empathy for strangers, those hapless victims of the hostage-taking. No wonder, the feelings of those who share the same nationality as the victims, mostly Chinese from Hong Kong, are slighted, enraged, baffled as to how it ended in a bloodbath. They feel doubtful of our government's capabilities, and some, turn rage into hate. We understand that; we're humans, too, and we also feel the same way. We're affected by it, we're likewise enraged by it. Lives were lost, and now, the Philippines is paying for it, and it's taking its toll on ordinary citizens like us. The crime of one, and the folly and ineptitude of a few mark the downfall of the entire nation and shape how the world sees us. We carry the burden, too, and bear the brunt of the multitude. I don't have an explanation to offer in defense of my country. I could only say, I'm sorry.
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