Friends for sale in ukay-ukay

LONG AGO, I RECEIVED a message saying: Kung ang isang kaibigan ay maibebenta sa ukay-ukay, ibebenta kita sa halagang piso. Bakit? Para lahat magka-chance na makilala ang isang tunay na kaibigang tulad mo....

Isn’t that dulcet and bewitching? Well, I suppose it’s not.

The thought of that message says if a friend could be vended in an “ukay-ukay” – these are the stores that sell low-priced genuine goods because they are cast-off – then the sender would sell the recipient, who is supposed to be his/her friend, for as low as Php1.00 only. Why? So that everyone would afford to purchase that person thus everyone will have the chance to meet a very special, congenial and unfeigned friend like him/her.

My argument: Why would I vend my precious friends if I know there are oodles of people out there who are “USERS”?


Cynically speaking, the meaning of “friend” has already been distorted. Just like what April Boado – my fellow columnist, a co-editor, and a friend – said, “It’s not that I don’t like socializing but I think nowadays the word itself doesn’t justify its real meaning.”

When she said “word”, she was pertaining to the word “friendly”. (However, when I say April is my friend, that’s not distorted; that’s unfeigned!)

Conversely, affable people socialize with you because they want something from you – an obscured agenda. (Just like what April said.)

She’s not generalizing and I’m not generalizing too. However, these kinds of people have emerged in the world, just as counterfeit Havaianas and Crocs have emerged in the market.

So, why trade my friends?

It’s ghastly!

“Social-climbers” might grab then ASAP....

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