AWARDS

AWARDS

Awards are being distributed left and right in whatever season for whatever reason or in whatever category. The latest and most controversial brouhaha is the award for the National Artists. There is so much misunderstanding that it reaches the Supreme Court for the final decision.

I simply don’t understand why so many people are so awards conscious as if award is the only thing that matters. Recently, a parade during the Nutrition Week observance showed children carrying different fruits and vegetables, all trying to invite for an award such as The Biggest Squash, The Reddest Tomatoes, The Longest Eggplant or whatever…

I still remember what I experienced a long time ago when I was invited to Chair the Awards Committee for a Christmas Parade. The School Principal requested us, judges, to see to it that all groups would receive an award as every student in any group spent money and effort, all hoping to receive awards. We decided to introduce many categories to accommodate every participating group. Aside from the usual Most Artistic, Most Colorful, Most Symbolic or Most Unique, we added categories like Most Well-behaved Group, Most Attended, Most Orderly, Most Simple, etc., etc.

At the end of the parade every group got an award to the amusement of the Principal and of many parents, except that one teacher loudly protested scandalously. She claimed that her group was the most Artistic, the Most Colorful and the Most Symbolic aside from being the Most Disciplined. It took weeks before the controversy subsided and only after said teacher had branded me as the Most Stupid if not The Most Insensitive Judge ever. Since then I never accepted judging any competition.

One time during the Town’s Day Celebration I was chosen to receive the Town’s Historian Award. I didn’t know how the Awards Committee arrived at their choice but in all honesty I couldn’t accept the award as I was fully aware how historically misinformed I was. I didn’t attend the awarding ceremony but the Master of Ceremonies received the award on my behalf.

Giving of awards shall continue for as long as the world is whirling so let us expect more misunderstandings, more controversies, more confusions and more and more of the same problem.