What's Up?

Grab and read the 100th issue of the The Central Echo - one of the oldest student publications in the country. You can have it by simply dropping by your respective Dean's Office. This magazine is exclusive for students of Central Philippine University.

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It is amazing to note the involvement of today’s younger generation to whatever is happening to our country and even to the world.

One must only google an issue or a current event in the net and one would see how aware the younger generation are of these things.

It started even before the advent of Cory or the long reign of the dictator. One would have to turn back a lot of pages to determine where the youth’s quest for awareness and involvement started.

Rizal was the first popular young Filipino to rise up against the three-hundred year threat to his country. It’s been a century since Rizal walked the streets of our native land and yet he would have been proud of the changes if we he had lived to witness it.

Gone are the days when the younger generation is kept at home, safe from the perils of the reality until adulthood sets in. The era of our fathers as youth had taken time not only to read the newspapers or watch the latest news updates, they had taken to the streets and fought for what they believe in.

During the Marcos’ bloody reign, of the thousands that the military picked up, of the hundreds that were tortured, of the throngs that were never seen again, how many, in your estimation were the same age as most of us students here in CPU is?

Of the 2,000,000 that were present during the EDSA Revolution in 1986, how many of them do you think were not older than twenty? The Marcos regime was a very signifi cant event; it marked the rising awareness and power of students as citizens of the Republic of the Philippines.

It didn’t stop there though. As the years passed by, with the realization of both its power and responsibility, the youth of our country learned to make use of the liberty which our forefathers earned for us to make sure that it is exercised to make freedom in our country lasting, and for improvement to stabilize.

Yet, those years also vanished. The youth returned to their caves of apathy and ignorance thinking that our country would still soon face more problems, unsolvable problems. Their minds rejected solutions and their heart pushed away hope. They lived a life away from life itself, leaving our country behind. The youth saw hopelessness which killed patriotism, nationalism and freedom. The government became the mirror of the future and the shattered dreams the government had affected became the general view of its men, especially the youth.

As a nation built in freedom and democracy slowly being torn apart by political instability and economic crisis, the apathy devoured the voices of the youth paving the road for an ignorant society. If this cycle reaches its completion, the dark ages of the Philippines will come back again, history will make a return.

2010 Elections, Death of an unsung hero of democracy and a loss of an artist who believes in the Filipino nation ignited again the fl ame of awareness, the power of knowing. The young generation woke up from the submission to an uncertain future and started to build the foundation of an informed and empowered nation. The streets began to live and voices shouted for freedom and justice. Movements for change and the protection of democracy mobilized the entire nation sweeping off apathy and bringing back the glory of Philippine Democracy, the strongest of all, the people power, the confetti revolution, the strength of a nation as ONE.

In the quest for inspired and empowered people, the sectors of society geared up to raise the awareness of its members, empathy to the victims of injustice and support to those who struggles for freedom. The echoes of power and the waves of leadership come upon every Filipino with desire for change, the change that will mold the destiny the fortunetellers had seen, this time Philippines will rise from the ashes of its dark past.

So cheers to our generation which has been around and been involved while history happened and is happening around us. This is also a wake up call to those who are still in oblivion of what is happening around us.

So bring on the inevitable problems that our nation and our world has to face, we, the youth of today will be ready to take them on anytime.