set themselves as someone important., not that i totally despice them., it's just that sometimes they would act and strout around as if the've made he whole place., or is it just me????????????
The Importance of Being Very Important
By Tals Diaz
Inquirer
Last updated 18:32:00 12/14/2007
MANILA, Philippines—A line snakes outside a non-descript door. There is a stand-off at the front of the line. A guy is flailing his arms passionately, arguing with a burly, blasé man in black standing his ground. Overheard:
“But I’m on the list! Hindi n’yo ba ako kilala?”
The burly guard remains unmoved, and the guy slinks away sheepishly. The next one in line, a girl this time, makes the attempt with: “Kaibigan ako ni (so-and-so)!” punctuated with a look as dagger-sharp as her patent stilettos.
Pity the poor bouncer who has to contend with such declarations of self-importance outside this door, the entrance to the hallowed V.I.P. room. Since when has nagging and verbal harassment merited one V.I.P. status? Oh wait a minute, since when did supposedly important people have to line up outside a V.I.P room to get inside for that matter? See, in a country where the velvet rope is about as appropriate as a fur coat in the Serengeti, “V.I.P” has come to stand for “Very Important Pila.”
Cut to: nocturnal scene number two, a cocktail hour where waiters are offering dainty hors d’oeuvres to a perfumed crowd. The waiter is stalled however, in the midst of girls dressed alike and holding similarly colored pink cocktails, who are shoveling those canapés into their mouths as if they were storing food for the winter. Which brings me to V.I.P. meaning number two: Very Important Pataygutom.
A photographer then passes by, he is a well-known visual chronicler of the party and product launch circuit that seems to happens nowadays on a near-daily basis. As soon as the social paparazzi raises his camera lens at eye level, those same girls, upon instinct and in perfect cadence, tilt their heads to the precise, practiced angle (you know—turn to the left, chin down and pout). Herein lies V.I.P meaning number three: Very Important Photo-op.
I take all these with a grin and a grain of salt, of course. After all, who has never wanted to feel important and be treated as such, particularly in circles that seem to be obsessed with entitlement? Who has never felt in a party the need to smile artificially, and hope to God that the next phrase coming out of your lips while in conversation with an acquaintance would resuscitate the steadily decreasing smallness of talk?
The other room inside
Yet when social caterpillars get together and don The Attitude, it’s hard not to control your eyes rolling so far behind your back that it touches your spine. And nowhere else do I feel this more than inside yet another room, the girls’ bathroom.
The years have conditioned me to be terrified of this place, this scented den of lionesses, the central base of lipstick and gossip, the great equalizer by virtue of our collective need to heed Mother Nature’s call. I found myself recently in line inside here, by another non-descript door. I was waiting, waiting for forever for that very important door to open. Finally after fifteen minutes had passed, I rapped my knuckles hard on the door. Suddenly, two very angry, jumpy girls had come out and in tandem had stared me down with the heavily-mascara’d Look of Death. I was absolutely aware that there is a throng of other girls behind me in the line, delightedly watching this stand-off. What else can one do but try to fight back—hopefully with more class and higher heels—in this silent game of territorial claim? In my head, a voice screamed out, who the f*** are you? And I could almost read their thoughts, “don’t you know who I am?” Then I counter telepathically with “don’t you know who I am …with?” The winner of the showdown is obvious. Their heels were much higher, after all. My head is bloody, but unbowed.
What is most important, then, in these nocturnal habitats where the ground you stand on, and space you dance in, is emblematic of your perceived status in the world? It is knowing that your true worth is shown in the dignity held at those volatile moments. And it is also the fact that, big smile on your face, you know the bouncers personally, ensuring that those lipsticked female dogs will never hog the most important room ever again.
but these are the people i really like., the real rich whose banks accounts suggest that they no longer have to be working for the rest of their lives., yet they dont act as IF! they instead devote their life towrds philanthropic causes.,
much like:
Brooke Astor, the celebrated New York philanthropist extraordinaire, died on August 12, 2007. She was a remarkable 105 years of age. This is a portrait made by Fred Conrad of the New York Times. Mrs. Astor was a widow for 48 years and spent all of that time helping worthy causes by sharing her wealth.
I have long admired this woman - what empathy for the ordinary person of the world, what generosity, what a delightful legacy.
