I saw him yesterday, clutching his stomach near the parking lot at The Podium.  Moments ago, I saw him seated at a flight of stairs near Robinsons’ Galleria.  Tomorrow, I think I’ll still see him in that faded white Crispa shirt, blue shorts, worn slippers… and still clutching his stomach.

I see scenes like this all the time, but never in the seeming opulence of a place that’s supposed to be the headquarters of multinational corporations and agencies.  Here you have San Miguel Corporation, the Asian Development Bank, JG Summit, call centers.  At every corner, there’s a MiniStop, a 7-Eleven, or a Starbucks.  Nowhere else in the Philippines - not even in Makati - would you see the kind of wealth that speaks of class and sophistication.  Yet nowhere else would you be so maniacally depressed to see scenes like that hungry man sitting there, pale and sunburned, wondering if there is any salvation to be met in starvation and sheer exhaustion.

I kind of wonder if class structures are meant to be oppressive.  The truth is, they’re not.  Much about the harmony of society is defined and made possible by the fact that we are unequal.  Your economic standing is the Noble Lie of capitalist society; you’re meant to be in at least one of the many different striations of “rich,” “poor,” and that arbitrary substrate called “the middle class.”

It is when these structures start to become oppressive, when their blatant obviousness slaps you in the face, that you see what injustice is made of.  It is when you start to contrast what was once taken-for-granted - and see the stark difference between the haves and the have-nots, that injustice is supposed to move you.

Too bad, it doesn’t have to.  It doesn’t have to be moving, considering that this hungry man is not alone.  Millions of Filipinos are just like this man, only they’re not surrounded by skyscrapers and opulence and coffee-swilling underpaid employees of corporations.  It doesn’t have to be obvious when his image is drowned by business suits and crisp polo shirts.  It doesn’t have to be unjust, when there are so many other injustices in the world to piss you off besides his grumbling stomach and his pale, lined face.

But then again, what can I do?

Last night I frantically packed up my laptop and headed off to some wi-fi hotspot - I could care less where - to download iTunes. Ever the ignoramus when it comes to personal gadgetry (you’re talking to a guy who doesn’t know how to use unlimited texting), I forgot that for an iPod to work, it has to be synced in a suitable program (i.e., iTunes). Now I can listen to the guilty pleasures of the Dixie Chicks and Utada Hikaru.

Uh… whatever. I don’t know what “Itsuka darekato mata koi ni ochitemo” means, either.

Since I got the feeling that I’m stuck here, I decided to register for WordCamp Philippines, sponsored by MindanaoBloggers. I think that much about a blogger is defined by how much he or she knows about a blogging platform. While much about WordPress can be self-taught (hey, that’s how I survived almost one year of Marocharim.com), I think I need to know more about this platform before I can give you cool themes in black-and-red. More than that, WordCamp gives me a great opportunity to meet with other bloggers with similar interests in blogging, writing, and politics.

Heck, it gives me a much, much needed break from the humdrum of making a living.

WordCamp Philippines is sponsored by the good people of:

• i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
• Free Online Flash Games
• Wazzup Manila Philippines
• Real Estate CRM
• Real Estate Website Designers
• Orange County Real Estate
• Auto Insurance Quotes
• Lane Systems Inc.
• RedMedia
• Orange County Business Lawyer