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i don't really watch much tv nowadays but i chanced upon something disturbing on the weekend news--
not really something i am unfamiliar with but caused me distress nevertheless.
a public administration major from NCPAG was killed in brutal hazing once more. i chanced upon news concerning his friendster account and got curious. so i decided to look him up.
cris anthony mendez has not logged in for 6 days and he will never again get to customize his profile nor get to approve friend requests. good thing comments for him are automatically added to his profile. a flurry of testimonials flooded his page. comments of rage/ sadness/ grief. and yes, he will never get to log in again and see what his friends wrote about him.
i find this sad because not only is he another victim of the neverending frat violence, but this really says about a lot of what they claim the concept of brotherhood in the state university where everyone is groomed to be the movers and opinion makers of the country. damn right.
i am but one of those who feel this particular duality-- at the same time i am proud of the school that has molded me into what i am today, i am ashamed to have lived amongst people who claim to advocate human rights while violating the main concept of what is right. and the person who pays does not even get to call them brother in the end, at the moment he breathes his last and begs for them to stop--
and they call these frat boys men of character! i am friends with some so i need not generalize, but i just really abhor violence of this unreasonable sort, which was the reason why back in college i quit the oldest sorority in UP 3 days before the final rites. i hated myself back then not for quitting but for actually letting myself be subjected to such agony when there wasn't anything to look forward to but a semblance of prestige. tsk. then i realized i didn't really need anyone to validate myself.
i didn't say cris needed someone just to give him his meaning. maybe it was also his way of serving his purpose in the university. it is different for everyone, but i hate the way people like cris, people who have dreams of one day being bigger than themselves, become victims of that same dream that has driven them.
i just hope he becomes the last straw in this perennial crusade against violence. the state university should gather up its balls to change the system. i have nothing against frats, it's just the way they're being run, it just gets old.
PS. cris is actually in my extended network as i found out in friendster-- a friend of a friend, yet still i feel the loss of another promising one. 
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