3rd of July and Semi-Sweet Dreams

24 hours before the celebration of America's Independence, fireworks lit up the sky. For people in Santa Clara in Northern California, the spectacle of bright lights came early thanks to Great America Theme Park's decision to launch these mini rockets of fire on the 3rd. I don't know the reason behind this, all I know is that this meant that the annual family 4th of July barbecue would be a day earlier. I didn't care though; the entire family was there, the smell of barbecue was non-stop, and the alcohol was kept on the down low as usual from the inevitable raised eyebrows of my cousins' wives. So the 4th of July celebrated on the 3rd of the month came and later ended wth me puking tequila and beer in the parking lot of Molly Magee's Irish Pub, along with all the hotdogs and barbecue I ate.

Plans on the actual day of independence were up in the air and surprisingly I spent it with my fellow Filipino neighbors whom I never speak to except for the occasional "Hey!" when we coincidentally smoke a cigarette at the same time at 2 in the morning. It's been a while since I had to speak straight Tagalog. I'm getting rusty. Mix that with the slurred speech of drunk men and you'll have problems comprehending each other. The night was actually fun but different, and after eight bottles of beer I was ready to go to sleep thinking how I'd get out of bed and make it to work in five hours.

With the celebration of independence and freedom over, we can go back to our ordinary lives that are not free to fulfill our own desires and are dependent on the poor state of the nation with a lousy job market. America doesn't have a job market where you are free to feel fulfilled. Almost everyone I know that has a degree isn't putting it to use only because the economy sees no use. If you have a college degree or formal training in a particular field but your job is not related to it, most likely you're selling something. If you're not selling something, you're a laborer producing something that will be sold. And if you're not producing something that will be sold, you're someone's assistant in an office that provides and sells a service. In the Bay Area, the migration of foreigners is huge. The Philippines produces nurses that are sent to the US; the US produces engineers that are sent to India.

$1.00 = PhP55.84

In the Philippines, America is looked at as the promised land of fast cars, big houses and riches. The value of the dollar has a huge impact on the way the US is viewed. Foreign exchange rates are the most watched set of numbers only after the lottery. A single dollar will go a long way there. A pack of Marlboros in the Philippines would only cost about the equivalent of 50 US cents, or about 4 minutes of work on California's minimum wage. In the US, a pack of cigarettes costs around the equivalent of 275 Philippine pesos, or one day of work for some Filipinos. In the Philippines, 275 pesos is enough for two people to eat at McDonalds, watch a movie, then get coffee. The conversion of dollars to pesos will make you look like a big baller, but in America, everyone has to work hard and make ends meet for their share of milk and honey. Filipinos will never be free in America if they are reliant on conversion rates. Many still convert dollar prices into pesos to justify whether a deal is good or bad. Drinking with my neighbors on the 4th of July, I realized that a lot of these first generation migrating families come out here with nothing but a dream to work and provide for their families only to discover that life here is not as sweet as it appears. For them, being in America is a luxurious gift. Soon the gift grows old, the magic fades away and necessity overshadows luxury; then they feel like average society steps on them and eventually feel like they failed their own children simply because "Mary's parents bought her one, why can't you?!". We are free to be overwhelmed by a dream. For most of us the dream stops when the real America pours a glass of cold water on our heads and wakes us up. It's a wet dream and you find the gratification existed as long as you kept your eyes closed.

24 hours ago fireworks should have lit up the sky. I guess there's not much to celebrate in the land of the free. It's one day in America where most of us get drunk to forget our problems.