my neighbors' kids should be on the omen series

Watching Welcome (by director Philippe Lioret) I was amazed at how normal it was for a next-door neighbor to call out the other for making a riot. Since Day 1 of moving into my apartment, which was a year ago, I discovered with reasonable distress that both my next-door neighbors house the spawn of Beelzebub. I swear not a day will pass without either of the two brats disturbing the peace with their bratty screaming and their loud, spoiled demands. There are of course very special days when they decide on a duet. I have yet to decide whether they're teaming up to bring the whole building down, or if they're locked in a strong, close competition and are trying to out-scream each other.

I watched in awe and fascination (which of course mean the same thing) how in the movie, being confrontational about the noise a neighbor was making was a convention. It made me wish, for the thirty-eight time in my life, that I was living in France.

There are some things that I don't agree with about the Filipino culture and silently suffering tops the list. We hate being confrontational. We hate calling people out when they're being an ass. We would rather gossip about it and flourish in the thought that we are not alone in our hatred of something or someone. Heck, we would rather blog about it.

Not that I've never thought of going up to my neighbors', banging loudly on their doors until my knuckles bleed and yelling to their faces that if they can't rein in their little monsters, I would be happy to.

I've never done that though. I have suffered silently. Maybe because I am a Filipino, but largely because I'm not gutsy that way. My bravery is limited to clicking the "proceed anyway" button after a "Malware has been detected" sign pops up during my frequent trysts with the internet.

I've been practicing on my recorder for as long and as loud as I can be though, in hopes of perpetrating vengeance, but it's just too amateur a method to compete with the wails of the Devil's spawn.

Presently, I've been on the lookout for the biggest earpieces that the little money that I have can buy. Also, I'm working on number 25 of my "Destruction of the Brats: Methods of Torture" list and enjoying every minute of it.

Here's to all the silent sufferers out there! I am with you in praying for relief.