Yellow Power

1983. I stepped off a plane to walk on the ground of the Manila airport. I was mindful and slightly apprehensive because of the previous events, among them Aquino assassination which took place on the same acreage.

My trip to do good work  among the Boat People refugee centers out in the boon docks (Bataan) was

not eventful or with a lot of fanfare at all.

But that year marked the beginning of  the Yellow Power movement in the Philippines: women, workers and worshipers stood up to the aggressors and drew a line. It’s been a while since the people (very friendly) of the Philippines feel emotional.

That is, until today, when their widow leader died. I am sure those who are old enough to remember the upheaval,

and the press surrounding Mrs Marcos’ 3,000+ pairs of shoes. Not to side-track from the rise of Yellow Power (nothing to do with Yellow Submarine), how can one wear that many pairs of shoes? By the time she gets to the first pair, they will have already been outmoded.

Marketers should use this as a case study about the in-elasticity of  human desire and insatiable consumption.

Shoes, once treated as clothing accessories, are now elevated to be at the top, not to be worn at the bottom.

The upside down society: underwear being worn outside (Madonna, M. Jackson) the President in shirt-sleeves having a beer with a working-class white policeman (actually, this role is more fitted for VP Biden, a train rider and astute speaker of foreign relations subjects) and the beginning of a Recovery (which signifies the end of the Recession).

I remember the Philippines was trying to become one of America’s great states. And proud nationalists wouldn’t give in to the notion. But during my years, I have witnessed a bunch of dictators’ falls: Diem in 63, Shah in the late 70’s, and Marcos during the early years of the 80’s, and Saddam in 2000’s.

America at the time got its hands full: Moral Majority, AIDS related issues, and post-Vietnam stress disorder.

Boy George and Purple Rain ruled: “Do you really want to hurt me?”, or the Police “every move you make, every breath you take”.  Power women wore shoulder patches, and Margaret Thatcher black/white spectrum seized the  day.  The Yellow submarine was forced to submerge, giving rise to the 80’s Habit of the Heart. Greed is good!

(later, PM became Sir McCartney, just as England once rejected and then recognized Chaplin and E. John).

But not too greedy, not too soon now. Yesterday, the House voted Yes to have a committee to oversee executive overcompensation. You can’t gamble on people’s money, bet on both sides of the house, and walk away rich either way. In other words, Adam Smith’s invisible hand is now monitored (hopefully with web cam, by an army of volunteer as in crowd sourcing, the way they enlisted right wingers to help watch the Mexican borders) to make sure it remains a free and not free-falling  market.

Entropy. There is a fixed amount of energy, so what rises will eventually come down. The system seeks to balance and to perpetuate itself. Can’t  argue with the inevitable. Empires and dictators, stars and stripes or yellow, all need a rear view mirror to see who is coming to take their place in history. When they took down Aquino the husband, they forgot the wife. And this widow did not move on to remarry a rich Arab prince (Camelot bride is celebrating her 80th birthday) . And she did not own 3,000 pairs of shoes either. You don’t get to be called Tita that easily in Asia. People talk you know. God rest your soul, Tita Cory.