Barbarian

Another young life, full of promise and potential, has been wasted in the name of brotherhood and belonging. One more victim of the cult of fraternities – and sororities – that is so very deeply tentacled into our higher education institutions has been added to the horribly long list of frat hazing fatalities. 

We have a law against hazing, universities and colleges have banned hazing and regulate fraternities and sororities by “accrediting” such organizations, and yet every year we have victims who die or very nearly die from such neanderthal practices as paddling and otherwise being beaten to a pulp.

For what? To “belong,” to have “brods” and “sis-es” who will supposedly come to your defense and succor whenever and wherever you may be for the rest of your natural life.

That was what I was promised when I was “invited” to join a sorority at the University of the Philippines, during a very civilized and genteel afternoon tea orientation session. But no matter how nice and smiling the potential “sis-es” seemed, I could not forget the words of our founding chairman, the late Betty Go Belmonte, who had warned me against joining a sorority by saying they would make me eat a live butiki (lizard) as my initiation (which is the sorority counterpart ritual for fraternity hazing). So I didn’t sign up, although most of my barkada joined (I enjoyed the tea though). Besides, one of the conditions for my parents allowing me to study at the UP was not joining a sorority (the other was not joining rallies; at least I met one of the conditions). So I remained a barbarian, which is what they call the non-joiners.

But I wonder who the real barbarian is, who will only accept as brother and friend someone who will allow himself to be beaten black and blue, who will accept punishment and torture from “masters” so that, if they survive, they can call those masters “brods.” You can say I have serious authority issues; I refuse to be – even only for initiation week – the absolute slave of anyone, to run around campus with a basket on my head or perform some other stupid, idiotic, maybe even dangerous task just because my master said so. Maybe, not having a biological sister, I cannot appreciate the supposed value of sorority sisterhood. 

Has even one of the frat boys who beat or otherwise tortured their brods-to-be to death or near death been thrown in jail? There have been many celebrated, headline-hogging incidents of hazing deaths – particularly in connection with supposed “blue chip” frats – and yet these frats continue, happily hazing away under the radar and under the noses of school officials...until the next death. Maybe their brods who are now in positions of power – judges, justices, legislators, Cabinet officials, professors, deans – are indeed doing what brods are supposed to do, which is to protect and defend them no matter what. But they are in truth protecting murderers, and fostering an atmosphere conducive to future murders.

So tell me, who’s the barbarian?