IT’S not just the celebrity allure. It’s the cut above all. It’s the public acclaim, the attention, and the limelight.
Every time you turn around, someone’s winning an award for something. There are many reasons why the nation seems caught in an obsessive pursuit of recognition. There seems to be no field of human endeavor without them, and no shortage of groups eager to give their version of a statuette with a funny name, trophies to knock you out. Every year these inanimate objects of recognition command audience and speak incalculable joy, jealousy and gaiety.
These passing of awards essentially over the same things — the movie business, arts and entertainment, civic or professional excellence…journalism, perhaps even worse, because in addition to the Pulitzer Prize, there are scores of national awards meant to praise outstanding media coverages, from the presidency to a plane crash, even a coup d’etat and bone surgery. It was always the more the merrier.
Considered the grandest of awards, is the National Artist Awards, proclaimed by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. Here in California, the Philippine Heritage International now on its 29th year.
Awards can be quite unusual and inventive, but tokens of recognition could be double-edged swords — it can swathe through it. There are real risks of resentment and jealousy if it is viewed as just a latest gimmick, in a process dominated by the politics of a specific field, people can be cynical. But the untold amount of good buzz that it produces outweighs the sentiments of those who are supposed to mock the pretensions and self-importance of awards when they have been seduced by the siren call of acclaim that no mantlepiece should be bare.
In the Fil-Am community, the most popular, renowned and the biggest following in the Southland derive part of their appeal from the format which closely resembles the classic variety shows which can serve up music, dance, or a prestigious beauty pageant in the same program. As the night rolled, there were a few pleasant surprises that continue to draw a widely diverse audience.
The show, far beyond their astute awardees and all its glitter and its ferocious supporters, only needs a host and awardees themselves. The best part is that some producers can draw and charm celebrities usually without pay. As their productions become big, huge self-promotions among the awardees, the crème de la crème of the community, but nevertheless those who regard peer acknowledgment as the basic full force of fulfillment of the deepest human desire, that yearning for acceptance and recognition and indescribable addiction for affirmation.
And if the audience is lucky, there were no feigned humility or mammoth egos or blinding pieces of jewelry that can feed a small nation. The real gems of the show might be but just, a supply of rare glimpses into the very human and unscripted side of the awardees as their family friends scream their greetings.
Like a compass through the storms of art and other noteworthy human endeavors, the awards culture, that human obsession for recognition and accolade is here to stay, at its own price.
But we will still worship the fantasy that its great panacea is when doors open and new friends ooze out of the woodwork and when it becomes the stepping stone, that one may collect its rose.
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E-mail Mylah at [email protected]
