HEARING DARKNESS

HEARING DARKNESS
Maya 10, 1993

You cannot see darkness or rather you cannot see in the dark, for darkness is blackness and blackness is the absence of all colors. But here in Ayala Alabang Village even if you are blind you will know if darkness or blackness is around. You can hear it for it is the newest status symbol… the sound of darkness.

With the coming of blackout comes along the popularity of electric generator. It is perhaps a real necessity but the sound that it generates is like the howling of a dangerous monster.

Whenever there is power interruption one has to cope with so many hazards. There are the hazards of bumping body parts on furniture and other objects; hazards of fires from candles and other emergency lamps; and lately the hazards of getting deaf for continuous bombardment of the ear drums by irritating sounds of powerful and modern generators.

I never thought that generator sound could be so scandalous until I was surrounded by all sorts of metallic vibrations emanating from them. How could I ever sleep with the summer heat, the mosquito bites and the generator noises?

Now everybody who is somebody must have a generator ... the harder the sound, the better, no matter how disturbed the neighbors are. Here in Ayala Alabang Village where almost everybody wants to be somebody, you just have to suffer the consequences if, like us, you happen to be an old-fashioned candle user.

Our family should be happy that our house is located in a place where our immediate neighbors are not using electric generators. But the houses next to them are all generator users and the noises from there seem to be coming just from the other side of the walls. I wonder how those people can tolerate the sounds of their own generators or maybe they are just tolerating them for they feel it is more important that people are aware that they can also afford the machine.

To some people, status symbol is more important than all its inconveniences.