A World Without Confusion

When I was a teenager, back when almost every kid in the Philippines was going crazy over Japanese animated shows, there was a newspaper article (which, unfortunately, I can no longer find) which claimed that dubbed/translated cartoons showing Japanese, European and American characters speaking in Filipino made Filipino children confused. Indeed, why wouldn’t Filipino children be confused by such shows? The country they lived in was full of brown-skinned, dark haired people whose beliefs often contradicted those of the characters in foreign animated shows. Naturally, they’d be surprised to see white-skinned blondes speaking Filipino on TV and Filipino-speaking protagonists practicing non-Filipino, non-Christian traditions. In one episode of Samurai-X, a series about a former samurai struggling to live a fulfilling life in the first few years of the Meiji era (The Meiji emperor abolished the samurais' right to be the only armed force in Japanese society.), Japanese Christians were even depicted as powerless minorities fleeing their own country to escape the wrath of the authorities, minorities whose religious beliefs could be respected but not embraced by the “mainstream” characters in the show. That episode had certainly confused many Filipino children. Suddenly,because of that episode, the Christian faith that their Filipino parents taught them to believe turned out to be just another ridiculous foreign religion in another land. And the fleeing Christians that were supposed to be viewed as saints or martyrs based on Christian beliefs were being viewed by the show’s protagonists as “merely” respectable fellows with a strange religion. Yes, the newspaper article was right, foreign animated shows left the young Filipino people confused. But is there really something wrong with that?

Just three or four years ago, when I was already in my twenties, a major TV network showed a holy week cartoon special (dubbed in English) about Christopher Columbus and the supposed introduction of the Christian faith to the New World. There, Christopher Columbus was shown treading a dirt road in his native Spain, walking alongside a fellow Spaniard, conferring with the latter about his plan to journey to the west in search of a new world. Columbus seemed upbeat and excited about his plans, but the other man warned him not to expect too much because at that time their country had a concern far more important than discovering another land—reclaiming their own from the “evil” Moors. And then, like despicable villains in a cheap action movie, a few Moors were shown hiding in a grove not too far from Columbus and his companion, aiming their arrows at the Spanish protagonists. The arrows were shot, but not one of them hit the Spaniards, allowing the "heroes" to escape and live on. Though the appearance of the attackers was brief and fleeting, there was more than enough time for the viewers to see their villainous nature. While the Spaniards’ faces were pleasant and angelic, the Moors’ were ugly and terrifying, their noses crooked, their eyes bloodshot and gazing predatorily, like those of a vulture, their mouths shaped in the most devilish grins. The message was clear: the Christian Spaniards were good and the Islamic Moors were evil. Never mind that Columbus’s voyage to the New World would lead to the Spaniards’ massacre of the Native Americans. Never mind that the Europeans’ occupation of America was far more brutal and horrifying than the Moors’ occupation of Spain. The Christians were the protagonists and the rest were villains, period. There was no confusion. Is that what we want? A world without confusion?

When a female celebrity dresses scantily on national TV, the Church and other religious institutions raise hell over the matter. When male show hosts utter sexually tinged remarks, the censors do not hesitate to lash at the offenders. But when supposedly Christian programs demonize non-Christians and distort children’s understanding of history for the sake of absolving “great” Christian men like Columbus of their sins to the non-Christian world, both the Church and the censors remain silent. And if they do make a sound, it’s just that of applause. Are they happy to know that our children do not have to go through any kind of confusion about their faith, that our children are being raised as closed-minded bigots?

Somewhere down there in Southern Philippines, a young Muslim is learning to see his Christian compatriots as fanatical believers of the wrong God. And not far from that young Muslim is a young Christian who believes that Muslims are idiots who could never please the right God. But you know what? I’m glad that in this age of confusing animated shows, there is a chance that one day; those young Filipinos may be confused about the world and about their closed minded beliefs. And hopefully, because of their confusion, they will seek enlightenment. And as they take the long journey towards enlightenment, I pray that they practice tolerance.

Somewhere in Iraq, a child is being told by his parents that Americans, the same people whose government decided to punish Saddam Hussein with economic embargoes that left thousands of Iraqis starving, are the most merciless animals on earth. Somewhere in Afghanistan, a young boy is being made to believe by his father that a woman who dares to expose her face is a despicable sinner and that any godly man must punish her by spraying acid on her face. Somewhere in Palestine, young men are being taught that suicide bombing, when committed for the sake of their people’s liberation, is an act of martyrdom. Somewhere in Lebanon, children grow up believing Israelites, the same people who ruthlessly bombed Beirut to punish Hezbollah leaders, are brutal barbarians who deserve to get their own violent comeuppance someday. All over the world, children are being told by their closed-minded, conservative parents that women are inferior to men, that divorced couples are sinners, that homosexuals are incapable of feeling true love, that dark-colored people are ugly and white-skinned ones are beautiful, that theirs is the only respectable religion, that theirs is the best race in the world, and that theirs are the only correct beliefs.

I can only hope that one day, they shall also be confused.