Fight for our 'Future'
Published Jun 19, 2020 12:00 am
HOTSPOT
By TONYO CRUZ
Tonyo Cruz
I did not believe the news about Today x Future’s closure, even after seeing the official announcement. It was only until I saw photos of the old haunt showing a “for lease” tarp hanging in front of it that it dawned on me that the old haunt is really closed for good.
This is not a goodbye letter or a requiem. To find out how regulars or even occasional visitors feel about Today x Future, just visit Twitter and check out the hashtag #KwentongTxF and you would get to know why this small disco bar had an outsized role in many people’s lives.
Today x Future is just one in a growing list of micro, small and medium-scale businesses that have closed down since the start of the coronavirus epidemic. News reports blame COVID-19 for the demise of the disco bar and others like it, but that’s being too simplistic and therefore grossly inaccurate.
For even before the pandemic, MSMEs like Today x Future already face lots of challenges like red tape, unfair taxes, access to capital, and high rental fees. And so when the pandemic hit, the question of closure was not about if, but when.
Coronavirus is not killing MSMEs, the lack of adequate and timely state support like bailouts are what’s ensuring these restaurants, bars, resorts, event spaces, cafes and food stalls won’t be part of the so-called “new normal”.
Big Businesses can fend for themselves, with their owners sitting on unlimited cash stashed away in their own banks. But for MSMEs, there’s no lifeline for them, not even for their employees who many reports say have been deprived of emergency government aid due to many loopholes, exemptions and a long list of requirements.
Those waiting for the chance to return to La Union, Boracay, Siargao, and other places might have nothing to go back to. Many small resort places have shut down, as the local and national governments continue to demand and collect taxes even as they declare a national public health emergency that affects everyone.
Those of us who are fully engaged in critiquing and lambasting the government response to the pandemic must also confront the state’s criminal negligence of the MSMEs, Today x Future included. We must not accept that MSMEs do not get even a drop from the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds, and likewise the hundreds of millions in dollar loans. There must be forms of “ayuda” for MSMEs which actually employ a majority of workers in the country.
In the case of Today x Future, we also cannot ignore the fact that it is an important safe space for communities. There must be places like it in the “new normal”, for what are we sacrificing for in this quarantine and in the fight for “test, treat and trace” if many of our people would not have places to go to after the pandemic? What would happen to musicians and artists, and especially to the LGBT communities who have been previously deprived of safe spaces where they could hang loose and be themselves? The government’s negligence wittingly or unwittingly discards all of them.
The local government of Quezon City, which prides itself as gender-fair and inclusive, should take a look at the plight of Today x Future as well as MSMEs in the city. Mayor Joy Belmonte should seize this opportunity to lead efforts to rescue MSMEs through rent control and suspension, tax breaks, access to cheap capital, and direct assistance to employees, including artists and musicians. If she doesn’t, maybe other mayors would step up.
While we agree that workers, farmers, the elderly, children, jeepney drivers, the urban poor and returning OFWs ought to receive the maximum “ayuda” from government in order to survive the pandemic, we must also agree to help rescue the MSMEs.
For who and what we fight for at this time could spell how the ‘new normal’ would look like. If we don’t fight for the marginalized sectors and the MSMEs, chances are, they would be further marginalized and crushed in the future. For as of now, those who have millions or billions in the bank have all the luxury of locking themselves in amid the pandemic and they might be the only ones left standing. For the majority, there seems to be no bright future.
The regulars at Today x Future can surely do more that offer tributes to the now-shuttered disco bar. Many of them are brilliant, intelligent, well-connected, some of the best from industry, some of the fiercest from non-profits, campaigners, strategists, analysts and activists. Why mourn when we can fight for Today x Future? A “new normal” awaits redefinition and reimagining. It is a future that must include us, not discard us, to make it a future worth fighting for.
Tonyo Cruz
I did not believe the news about Today x Future’s closure, even after seeing the official announcement. It was only until I saw photos of the old haunt showing a “for lease” tarp hanging in front of it that it dawned on me that the old haunt is really closed for good.
This is not a goodbye letter or a requiem. To find out how regulars or even occasional visitors feel about Today x Future, just visit Twitter and check out the hashtag #KwentongTxF and you would get to know why this small disco bar had an outsized role in many people’s lives.
Today x Future is just one in a growing list of micro, small and medium-scale businesses that have closed down since the start of the coronavirus epidemic. News reports blame COVID-19 for the demise of the disco bar and others like it, but that’s being too simplistic and therefore grossly inaccurate.
For even before the pandemic, MSMEs like Today x Future already face lots of challenges like red tape, unfair taxes, access to capital, and high rental fees. And so when the pandemic hit, the question of closure was not about if, but when.
Coronavirus is not killing MSMEs, the lack of adequate and timely state support like bailouts are what’s ensuring these restaurants, bars, resorts, event spaces, cafes and food stalls won’t be part of the so-called “new normal”.
Big Businesses can fend for themselves, with their owners sitting on unlimited cash stashed away in their own banks. But for MSMEs, there’s no lifeline for them, not even for their employees who many reports say have been deprived of emergency government aid due to many loopholes, exemptions and a long list of requirements.
Those waiting for the chance to return to La Union, Boracay, Siargao, and other places might have nothing to go back to. Many small resort places have shut down, as the local and national governments continue to demand and collect taxes even as they declare a national public health emergency that affects everyone.
Those of us who are fully engaged in critiquing and lambasting the government response to the pandemic must also confront the state’s criminal negligence of the MSMEs, Today x Future included. We must not accept that MSMEs do not get even a drop from the hundreds of billions in taxpayer funds, and likewise the hundreds of millions in dollar loans. There must be forms of “ayuda” for MSMEs which actually employ a majority of workers in the country.
In the case of Today x Future, we also cannot ignore the fact that it is an important safe space for communities. There must be places like it in the “new normal”, for what are we sacrificing for in this quarantine and in the fight for “test, treat and trace” if many of our people would not have places to go to after the pandemic? What would happen to musicians and artists, and especially to the LGBT communities who have been previously deprived of safe spaces where they could hang loose and be themselves? The government’s negligence wittingly or unwittingly discards all of them.
The local government of Quezon City, which prides itself as gender-fair and inclusive, should take a look at the plight of Today x Future as well as MSMEs in the city. Mayor Joy Belmonte should seize this opportunity to lead efforts to rescue MSMEs through rent control and suspension, tax breaks, access to cheap capital, and direct assistance to employees, including artists and musicians. If she doesn’t, maybe other mayors would step up.
While we agree that workers, farmers, the elderly, children, jeepney drivers, the urban poor and returning OFWs ought to receive the maximum “ayuda” from government in order to survive the pandemic, we must also agree to help rescue the MSMEs.
For who and what we fight for at this time could spell how the ‘new normal’ would look like. If we don’t fight for the marginalized sectors and the MSMEs, chances are, they would be further marginalized and crushed in the future. For as of now, those who have millions or billions in the bank have all the luxury of locking themselves in amid the pandemic and they might be the only ones left standing. For the majority, there seems to be no bright future.
The regulars at Today x Future can surely do more that offer tributes to the now-shuttered disco bar. Many of them are brilliant, intelligent, well-connected, some of the best from industry, some of the fiercest from non-profits, campaigners, strategists, analysts and activists. Why mourn when we can fight for Today x Future? A “new normal” awaits redefinition and reimagining. It is a future that must include us, not discard us, to make it a future worth fighting for.