Urban Divide

In the metro, there is a great divide between the populace who live in closed communities and the one from the inner city. So different are the things that it's often imperceptible for the people on the other side of the fence. This goes both ways.

Once, I worked freelance for a startup T-shirt company in Blumentritt, near the rundown part of the city. While it was mostly a telecommute set-up, where the owner and I would be exchanging emails back and forth, creative projects at times need some close attention. This would require me to travel across the big city from my place. The payout was hefty, but after finishing a number of projects, I decided to let go of the gig. The late-night travails posed too risky. One of the workers, in fact, carries a gun. And while there hasn't been a close call, but it deemed not worth it.

I remember a few years back, a co-teacher of a close friend died near Boni-Edsa. A student was also gunned down inside a UV-FX in that area, the same place where an office colleague met his fate. Not so long ago, I remember hanging out al fresco in a cafe right across the university along the avenue. It was shortly after dusk when I, along with friends and everyone in the cafe, stood witness to a robbery across the street. Just right by the school's sidewalk, under the bright sodium light. I called on the cafe security guard to call the police but in less than a minute, the assailant has fled. Fortunately, the victim was unscathed.

In more than a decade of living in the metro, I've explored and gone to places out of curiosity. Gigs sometimes take me miles out in the fringes, or even in the skid row. I kept no limit. My inquisitive mind is constantly filled with awe, how a city so huge could ever function. What’s in it, and why droves of people converge in this congestion. Discovering places along the way, or simply getting lost in the road network. 

I've seen things and places that a lot of locals haven't even gone before. This bewildered me at first. But discovering what this urban jungle is really made of says it all. While we see a functioning metropolis like clockwork, behind the cacophony is a dysfunction. The things that you see in the news is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all crimes get published on paper, TV, or the web. While everything is going great for this country in some way, below the urban skyline, the reality is disparate.

It’s happening under everyone’s noses. But like the olfactory sensation, it wilts into the grey. Not because it’s gone, but because our brains turn off our sensors. We become desensitized to the things that are constantly around us. To some, apathy takes the better side of our existence. Look away and don’t bat an eye, we’re too spent on our own affairs to survive. At the end of the day, some things don’t change, they’ve happened and will happen again. Whether we see it on media or not. Pause, breathe, look again.