A fiasco

By Paul Anthony Eso

(Vol. XXVII No. 26, Editorial Cartoon)

A fiasco

The inter-school live band competition dubbed as “Chaos of Love” which was organized by the Student Government of Dumaguete City I (SGDCI) turned out to be a one big failure. The SGDCI headed by Christopher Don Catacutan may declare that the recent “Chaos of Love” band competition was still a success despite the poor crowd, yet the fact remains that the main goal of the event was not achieved.

When Catacutan first declared that they would stage a live band competition which will be called Chaos, in early interviews with him this school year, he emphasized that the purpose of the activity is to build the Norsunian spirit which, according to him, is slowly deteriorating and could no longer be felt in the university unlike before. He said that Chaos would be a great project to bring back to life the weakening spirit of most Norsunians.

There were two Chaos staged this school year. The first Chaos was a live band competition featuring different colleges and satellite campuses of Negros Oriental State University (NORSU) and was staged on October 2, 2009. The second Chaos was dubbed as ‘Chaos of Love’, an inter-school live band competition for the universities and colleges of Dumaguete City in which NORSU’s representative was the winner of the previous Chaos. The second Chaos was staged last February 19, and the very poor turnout of audience is a solid indicator that it was a flop.

To recall, Catacutan first scheduled the second Chaos in November last year just in time for the Founders Week Celebration. SG only moved it to February this year because, according to him, Chaos needs ‘heavy marketing’ which by that time, they could not do because they were focusing on staging Mister and Miss NORSU 2010 pageant.

Now here are the questions.

Firstly, where was the strengthening of the Norsunian spirit during the activity when there were only few Norsunians who participated during the event? And those few means, it can only be counted by the fingertips. Secondly, where was this ‘heavy marketing’ that Catacutan said? Was the few audience and few Norsunians already the product of their so-called ‘heavy marketing’? More Norsunians and other students could have watched the event because the weekend was extended that time since there was no class the following Monday.

Some students claim that the Chaos was a flop because of the poor dissemination of information about the event which Catacutan denied. According to the SGDCI president, SG did its part and even went as far as advertising “Chaos of Love” in a local radio station. Sure thing they advertised it in a radio station, but what about Norsunians? Do all Norsunians know about it? Was their posted advertisement enough?

The bottom line here is that SG could have advertised it first among all Norsunians before going into the whole Dumaguete City community. After all, Chaos was not only staged as a mere fund-raising activity-it was supposed to uplift the Norsunian spirit.

Obviously, SG made their goal a success during the first Chaos. It can be accepted if they will say that the first Chaos was a success, but the recently staged Chaos? No way.

Catacutan was probably shallow when he said that it was successful because they gained a P5,000-profit. What has the profit got to do with Norsunian spirit? Given that there were ‘some’ who attended and witnessed the event, but a few number of crowd, most of which are people from the participant-bands, was still not enough for the Norsunian spirit to be uplifted.

Let us admit it: “Chaos of Love” was definitely a flop no matter what the head of the SG might have said. The few people who were there and the contestants could honestly attest to that.