The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins is a genius. Her Hunger Games Trilogy has aroused the interest of young people to read. She works on a familiar theme though. The plot speaks of an annual Hunger Games where young boys and girls, from ages 12 to 18, are forced to kill one another for the amusement of people living in the Capitol, the reigning district in the nation of Panem. These contenders came from the twelve poor districts which are bound to choose two tributes (representatives) each year for the Hunger Games as punishment for their failed rebellion against the Capitol. The chosen tributes must then fight to the death until only one is left standing. In short, children are chosen to kill one another as a reminder to the districts that rebellion against the Capitol does not pay.

Readers would surely love young Katniss Everdeen. Living a hand to mouth existence with her mother and little sister in District 12 (one of the poorest districts in Panem), she came forward to save her sister after the latter was chosen as a tribute of the district for the games. She would awe the readers with her instinct and determination—two qualities required to survive the Hunger Games. She would thrill teenage readers as she mumbles about Gale and Peeta, two young men who display the qualities of a lover made ideal by the context where she has found herself in.  She represents many young women who are forced to confront difficult realities of life. Without spoiling the fun, she is a gentle spot in the midst of a cruel world which punishes children for the misgivings of the adults. As the story unfolds, we will find Katniss to be far more beautiful than beauty itself: “I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.”

The Hunger Games depicts how life is in a forsaken world. It shows society’s cruelty to its children. It is a never ending struggle of young people against the wrongdoings of those who were born before them. Most of all, it describes why hunger is the cruelest of oppressors.

 

            Sadly, what we have in the Philippines is not a fictional Hunger Games. Hunger is real here. It kills; it leads to children’s death.

The March 2012 Social Weather Survey revealed that among 1,200 respondents, 18.0% disclosed that they experienced moderate hunger while 5.8% said that they experienced severe hunger.  The SWS reported a 10-point increase in self-rated poverty from 45 percent (9.1 million families) to 55 percent (11.1 million families). It also reported that overall hunger increased across geographical areas, except in the Visayas, where it fell by 14.7 points to 10.3 percent (about 399,500 families) from 25 percent (957,000 families). Hunger rose by seven points in Mindanao to 26.7 percent (1.3 million families); five points in the rest of Luzon to 28 percent (about 2.5 million families); and by 2.3 points in Metro Manila to 24.3 percent (estimated 691,000 families) (see <philippines.ucanews.com/2012/05/10/survey-4-8m-families-experience-hunger/>).

            Of course, unlike in Collins’ Hunger Games, we do not allow children to kill one another ala gladiator for our amusement. Though some of us delight in Big Kuya’s whim of voting out the unfit and the less talented from his house, we hate bloodshed and violence. Yet, we could not claim that we are less cruel than those people in the Capitol whose amusement is to devour children from poor districts. Our own misgivings about children show that we are as heartless and ruthless as they are.

We could not claim that we are less cruel when we suffer children to work in the firecrackers shops, harbors, mines, sugarcane plantations, and in the streets.

Indeed, we are not less cruel when we tolerate neglect and exploitation of young boys and girls by their parents, relatives or strangers. We are not less cruel when we hit children or verbally abuse them because of the notion that we are older and thus, far better than them. We are not less cruel when we allow children to die of hunger while we are enjoying lavished meals in and outside our homes. We are not less cruel when ignore the deprivation and sufferings of the children of the poor.

Unfortunately, the exploitation and oppression of children remain unnoticed to us because, like the people in the Capitol, we delight in the entertainment which the pain and suffering of the young bring to us. For us who love to look at TV screens every evening, children’s suffering and the laughter that occasionally muffles it are entertainment. And unless a revolution sprinkles our view with blood, some of us may even pretend that hunger and deaths do not plague the children of the poor.

At this point, we could only hope that our own Hunger Games will have a hopeful end. Somehow, the courage of the few—those who stand for abused and neglected ones—shall bring forth a vision of the place where children shall be equally cared for and loved regardless of whether they come from the Capitol or the poorer districts. And as Katniss Everdeen puts it, such is a place where one can say ‘I love you’:

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay
And when it's morning again, they'll wash away
Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you.”