ALyXaNdRiA_BaRBiE (the Sexiest Spy of the Underworld)

@>----

I just finished watching the movie "Imelda" with my friends. It was a video documentary about the former first lady, wife of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Man, it was really enlightening. I don't want to sound like a traitor to my people and I don't want to imply that I've forgiven what she and her late husband did to my countrymen, but I just want to say that I kind of understand her for being what she was, and is. Not because I'm also from Leyte, but because I was also thinking, that if I had become the wife of the most powerful man of the regime, I would also want to buy beautiful things, expensive jewelry, beautiful clothes made of great quality, designer-labeled shoes and travel to wonderful places.

I love art, I love music, I love dance..... and that's something I want to share with people..... and she brought it into the country.

But that's how far my understanding goes because in my entire life, I can't believe I've ever known a woman as vain and self-centered as she was and is. She gave an entirely new meaning to the phrase, "vanity, thy name is woman." She really exudes vanity, in the classic sense of the word. I wonder what kind of books she'd been reading when she was a kid (maybe Greek mythology that centered on Venus or maybe Medusa before the curse) but it really made her way obsessed with "beauty."

She's too.....vain for words, but the thing is, there's something about her that makes people want to gravitate to her, be her friend, hate her, admire her. She actually said in the movie that she's not smart..... but I don't think that was the case, for her success and her failure indicated otherwise.

I didn't know whether to laugh or snort when she said "When I see ugly things ... like garbage or dirt ... I just turn my head the other way." I think that was her downfall. She never really understood that beauty comes hand in hand with ugliness and sometimes, people have to deal with it.

She was just absolutely, positively clueless about the real world.

In the documentary, she said things that made her seem like a child playing dress up and joining the grown ups for dinner. But she exuded strength that I never deemed she possessed.

Imelda's main problem, I think, was her lack of compassion. She treated people like her subjects and if they didn't conform to what she thinks was their role, she turned her back on them. That's
how she treated the people living in poverty. She treated them like dirt. And since those people qualify for what she termed as ugly, she turned her back on them. And that was a mistake, because they needed her to think of their needs too. The people needed a role model that always extends a helping hand and she came in lacking with the latter.

I had been wondering though, on my way home, that if ever I get the chance to talk to her, I really want to ask her: "If you were to go back in time when you were the first lady, would you have done everything differently?"

Previous Posts