'Digital dementia'
MEDIUM RARE
Those two words are in quotation marks because I didn’t say it, though I wish I had.
They were used by Ermelita Valdeavilla, chairman of the Philippine Commission on Women, who was a guest of former San Juan mayor Guia Gomez at the opening of a two-day bazaar at Robinsons Galleria last weekend.
Ms. Valdeavilla’s remarks reminded me of something a colleague said, something like 20 years ago, that young people were so connected to their cellphones that the device seemed to be as invaluable as their umbilical cord; many of them were so attached to their phones that they slept with them. In China, when the cp had just invaded their country, mothers complained that the kids were so attached to their gadgets that they’d rather pee in their pants than take time to make a trip to the bathroom.
Dementia or however its popularity is labeled, the usefulness of the cellphone is indisputable. Small and portable, it works like a magician’s wand, connecting people far and wide and making the world a much smaller, reachable place.
Ms. Valdeavilla did not elaborate on her “dementia” remarks, though she used the word to refer to children, not adults. Continuing with her speech, she pointed out how small is beautiful, how “smallness is power”: 69 percent of the economy is powered by small businesses. No dementia there.
I looked around the bazaar, and sure enough, we were surrounded by small entrepreneurs and their products — baskets, garments, fans, slippers, sweets and candies, and of course, Guia’s famous dolls, priced from ₱2,000 to ₱4,000, from single, stand-alone beauties to complex scenarios featuring small groups working, playing, celebrating, just a tiny slice of life but oh, so charming. I couldn’t take my eyes off the intricate details of their costumes. One doll was dressed in a pink balintawak and she was selling bananas on a woven tray, every fruit as authentic as the beads on her gown. An angel dressed in pearly pink was playing a harp. Enchanting!
Guia has been promoting her Balikatan sa Kaunlaran to empower women, specially widows, since the 1970’s, here and abroad. You’re an angel, Guia, one without wings. And who, may we ask, makes those dolls? There hangs a tale for another day.