Saturday, October 22, 2005

11:21 AM | St. Imelda of the Cold War

This is classic Jessica Zafra humor (yes, people, she blogs!), this time on the beautiful delusions of our Imelda Marcos:

All this talk of the Imelda reminded me that I still have my friend's copy of the Imelda's latest literary opus, a metaphysical discourse called Circles of Life. While leafing through this handsome volume -- the pages are guilt, I mean gilt-edged -- I came upon a revelation most wondrous. Here it is, in the Imelda's own words:

"But the most significant and most exacting for me was the honor of having brought the image of Our Lady of Fatima to be consecrated with the Liturgical Service in Moscow at the height of the Cold War. That was 1985, October, the month of the Holy Rosary, and as I left the Church together with a large retinue of Catholic bishops from the Philippines, a spray of snowfall descended on our (delegation), when (an) old woman sidled close and whispered: 'Madam, for the blessings you have brought to Russia by opening our church to honor the Virgin Mother, much will be exacted from your life!'

"Those anonymous words were prophetic. In a few months, we were forced into exile, and shortly thereafter, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics began to dissolve and the freedom of religion was restored along with other fundamental liberties... It symbolized the sacrifices expected of my own life, the life of my husband, the lives of my children, my country and my people." (p. 91)

Now it becomes clear: By bringing the image of Our Lady of Fatima to Moscow, Imelda Marcos brought about the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. For this she became a martyr of the church. More importantly, the Imelda heeded the Fatima Letter urging the return of the true religion to the Soviet Union, thereby averting the Apocalypse. Truly we heathen scum are not fit to kiss her fabulous shoes.

No one then should wonder why Fatboy Slim and David Byrne are doing a musical about her. Title: "Here Lies Love." Oh, goodie. Move over, Evita! Byrne takes some notes on the project in his online journal:

Researching the Imelda music piece I'm working on I notice that her union with Ferdinand was as much political and economic as emotional. She, from a good family, but the poor side of it, was generally "attracted" to men who were in positions of power and who had financial stability. There were no stories of her dating the local shopkeeper or schoolteacher. No fool, she. (She was beautiful, so she had a leg up, too.) He, meanwhile, was no less pragmatic -- though she was poor, he knew that her relatives represented the South, where he was politically weak (he was already a successful Senator.) And she would look picture perfect in his future political life.

Though he might have been less smitten and more conniving than she, she was by all reports emotionally invested in their relationship, at least for a few years. So there was both love, of a sort, and pragmatism simultaneously. Sincerity and practicality too. For a while, anyway.

There are no permalinks, so scroll down to the September 18 entry.

[For related Imeldific sites, try this very funny one from The Wily Filipino.]

Labels: people

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