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Ta-daaa! Deliberations for our Passengers’ Choice contest.

Judge Otsu: Have just realized that in the case of the Sulpicio ferry sinking, choice WAS possible–and crew members, according to some survivors, simply jumped off the ship. They made no efforts to save the people in their charge. In stressful situations, humans do not react uniformly. Some will be noble, some will fall apart, some will passively meet their fate, some will fight for survival unthinkingly.

All in all, a chaotic situation. Therefore, highly unlikely that a coherent voting process could take place. Most likely, many alpha types (pro- and anti-detonation, pro- and anti-jumping ship) will begin speaking at once and drown each other out. Then make a messy grab for the detonator.

Meanwhile, the Pinoys will have been the first to surreptitiously jump off the ferry, because we believe that even a powerful entity cannot possibly keep all of us “maliliit na tao” on his radar (Eye of Sauron), and “baka makalusot.” Plus the Virgin of Manaoag is watching over us, and will not let the evil Joker blow up either ferry anyway.

This being my view, my vote goes to #2 LittleMsSunshine, who admitted that a “bazillion” things would go through her mind, and shared her husband’s knee-jerk (therefore honest) reaction: blow up the other ferry. Special mention to #8 jayclopso3,
who also felt the scene called for more “chaos and paranoia”, and #11 jeg, who would “get the hell out of there.” The Pinoy hobbit survives and gets home in time for Letterman.

Note: Their realistic (or what I consider their realistic) takes on the ferry scenario come from asking themselves, “What would I do, in such a situation?” Kudos to Jara who notes unrealistic details, but who unfortunately does not profer a more realistic alternative, and instead takes refuge in abstraction.

Incidentally, it’s curious how many of the commentators accept the binary division of passengers into “civilians” and “non-criminals”, and assume a set pattern of behavior for either group. “Block voting.”

Judge Ernie: Most realistic outcome goes to abid. Love the equally realistic twist, which is consistent with Joker’s character, of the passengers blowing up their own boats instead. A special award to Cacs for the alternate ending depending on nationality breakdown – in spite of the racial inaccuracies you and Jara have earlier pointed out. In my case, I think ruth’s all-Filipino passenger scenario is far more accurate: the palakpakan system.

The Most Socially Relevant Ending goes to: Spooky. Jara’s thesis while well-appreciated is a political analysis of the ending. He/she never really offered any alternative ending.

So my Top 3 choices are abid, cacs, and spooky. In that order. Honourable mentions: ruth for Most Authentic Filipino ending. Blueboy for his accurate assessment of how human beings really behave given power.

Me: I took 21 pieces of paper of equal size, wrote the numbers 1 to 21, removed posts # 12 (mine), 13 and 19 (follow-ups to previous posts), folded the pieces into four, put them in an empty container of Chef Tony’s Popcorn (Parmesan – large), and picked a number. My winner is #10: ruth.

So LittleMissSunshine, abid, and ruth each get a Batman T-shirt. I hope medium works for you. Please post your mailing addresses (they won’t be made public). Your T-shirts should arrive in a few days. Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest.

Got the names and addresses of the winners. To ensure that the T-shirts arrive safely, could you give complete names and addresses (barangay, district, etc)?