The Commodity of Grief

Pinoys love drama so much.
This is what i've realized as i looked at the pattern of successful shows on television.

Watch a soap opera and you'll see that their formula is to cry their stars dry. It didn't matter if the story is crap and unrealistic, as long as the star can produce never-ending supply of tears, the producers can assure themselves a lot of commercials.

Watch a reality show and you would see and hear contestants whining and talking about how unfortunate they are being the breadwinner of the family, no mother or father, having huge debts, can't continue their studies, etc. All those God-is-asleep-He-forgot-all-about-me-please-have-pity-on-me, go and load your cellphones so you can waste it by texting your vote so that i can win the damned million even though i'm not talented, extremely annoying, came from a foreign country, cannot even speak tagalog, and can only wave and say "Mahal ko kayo" as stupidly as possible.
Why, even seven-year-old kids are already shouldering their family's living saying that that's the reason why they joined the contest. The poor kid has had to endure a whole season of torture both from the contest and from the parents who pushed the poor child in joining the contest in the first place.

Watch game shows and they'll give you the same story of their ill-fated lives.

But it doesn't matter, we're buying it anyway.

And the irony of it all is that according to a poll conducted in London, we ranked as 17th as the happiest people in the world.

Wow.