A comment from S.S.
Mr. Vic, in your comment to the AJ article "A Valedictory Speech from UP Diliman (UPD), you said "…..during the odd time of the day, I muse:"What are you still doing here in this foreign land? Why don't you go home back to Asingan?.". I do mine this way: "Why have you retired from teaching at an Academy and came last year to live for good in a foreign land?" To relate here now my answer to that question, which is a very long story, would make me miss my point why I sent you this comment. Hence, I better not.
At my age, which is nearer to the grave than to the cradle (isn’t life a journey?), I tend to look at things at their ‘big picture’ level. The ‘big picture’ question I often ask myself about things in the country is: Since we gained independence in 1946, has the quality of life of the Filipino masses improved, stagnated, or retrogressed? Improved?…..I doubt very much; Stagnated?…..Same; Retrogressed?…..A resounding yes. (Please see "Why are Filipinos so poor?" at http://www.philpost.com/0800pages/poorpinoys0800.html; also "Philippines is stuck in a rut? At http://www.sixsigmaway.us/blogs/." (The word "rut" here means the "rut of underdevelopment")
What ails the country then? Why are the majority of the Filipino people so poor? Let us hear F. Sionil Jose: "We are poor because we are poor -- this is not a tautology. The culture of poverty is self- perpetuating. We are poor because our people are lazy….. our nationalism is inward looking…..we have lost our ethical moorings. We condone cronyism and corruption and we don't ostracize or punish the crooks in our midst. Both cronyism and corruption are wasteful but we allow their practice because our loyalty is to family or friend, not to the larger good.
Are we really lazy as a people? Maybe yes. Didn’t Jose Rizal write an article titled "The Indolence of the Filipinos. "Our nationalism is inward looking…..we have lost our ethical moorings". Oh boy, these needs a little thinking. I leave to the reader to muse over these things.
If we go for a "says it all", "big picture" phrase that encapsulates what’s wrong with the country, I’d recommend the one coming from James Fallows: "damaged culture" (Please see "Philippines is stuck in a rut?" At http://www.sixsigmaway.us/blogs/.)
I think Mr. Fallows diagnosis (damaged culture) of our country’s sickness is very encompassing to include Filipinos leaving the country to look for "greener pastures". Where it was called "brain drain" in the 1950s and 1960s, it is now termed "Filipino diaspora" --- the dispersal of the Filipino people. Since the U.S. had made it hard for a Filipino doctor to come here and practice, there is now a phenomenon in the country of great numbers of Filipino doctors taking up Nursing course in order to qualify to come to the U.S.
In the above words of F. Sionil Jose, he mentioned about "cronyism". To have a true picture of the real thing, I think it should be termed "political cronyism". Don’t you think it’s the kind of politics and the breed of politicians that we have had in the past and are presently having that is the root cause of the mire and misery that the country is presently trapped in?
Speaking of politics, I think it was Abe Lincoln, the 16th President of the U.S., who said "You can fool some of the people all the time. You can fool all the people some time. But you cannot fool all the people all the time. With how politics is being practiced in the country before and now, I think it has become an art of "fooling all the people all the time." Why is this so? Well, maybe because of immaturity of the electorate, one of the imperfections of democracy.
It’s election time in the Philippines and one of the issues being raised by one tv channel is on political dynasty. In the present constitution, an elective official is only allowed up to 2nd re-election term. Unable to run for a 3rd term, one Metro-Manila Mayor let his wife run for the position, and came back as Mayor after his wife’s term.
One Congressman was interviewed in the program and asked if he doesn’t find it of "poor taste" (walang delicadeza) of him being Congressman, his father as Mayor of one town, his brother of another town, nieces and nephews as Councilors. His answer was "Not at all. That term ‘political dynasty’ was wrong, it should be ‘political destiny’.
If the results of the election in the country, which is due in a few days, favor those who have the campaign money, and "pogi", then we’re going to have a Senate with father-son, sister-brother, mother-son tandems, two leaders of coup d’etats and four movie stars. Since we concede that "blood is thicker than water’ and the primacy of the "me first policy" or "tayo muna" in the Filipino hierarchy of values, what kind of laws do you think are going to be enacted? Take your pick.
In fact, one Senatoriable has previously denounced the triumph of "Kamag-anak Inc." in the present and coming Senate.
Sorry if I have wandered far from my intended course --- to comment on Miss Mikaela Irene Fudolig’s Valedictory Speech. But before I do, let me say a few words about UP (University of the Philippines).
Having graduated at the height of the student activism period (1973), I viewed UP (although not my Alma Mater) as a bastion of Filipino nationalism, a breeder of nationalistic thinking future leaders that would correct the course which the country’s "ship of state" is heading for a brighter tomorrow for our children’s children. I used to debate with a high school classmate who was enrolled there on many "isms", e.g. nationalism, imperialism (especially economic), hegemonism, communism, elitism, Catholicism, etc. Sad to say, a few years after his graduation, he left the country and is now living comfortably in a foreign land.
Let me now concentrate on my comment to Miss Fudolig’s speech before you get pissed off and shoot me. Coming as it does from a person who embodies what Rizal has said "hope of the fatherland", I’m thrilled, not only by the speech, but by the speaker as well (Just like a legal tender note which is only a paper without the Federal Reserve backing, words are only words). She’s to me the answer to the following Rizal words: "Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their illusions, and their enthusiasms to the welfare of their native land? Where are you youth ….. etc." ("Philippines Is Stuck In A Rut?" --- please see http://www.sixsigmaway.us/blogs/.)
Mr. Vic, please move over. I’m coming to sit beside you on the fence.
SS
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Sure, buddy..there is always one more room for another fence sitter..:)
1 comment:
If we go by the surveys for this year's election, ganun pa rin. Name recall, money, popularity and kamag-anakan still are the determinants of an election. Heard of the slaying of san carlos mayor? Rumor has it that another politician paid 2M for his head. The reason? That 2M was a symbol kuno of the 2M that he paid the slain mayor in exchange for campaigning for his congressional bid. It is said the slain mayor took the money but endorsed another.
What will it take to get a person to vote for someone who has no history of violence, who looks down upon owning a gun for "protection" kuno, etc? For a person who will fight it out in the halls of congress, or the city council but who will look at killing as below him? I remember a young colonel, a PMA grad, who doesnt pack a gun even when in uniform, saying, 'medyo barbaric kasi ang baril, it is beneath me. he knows a lot of VIP have their faces taas noo carrying a gun or having private armies, but he just laughs saying, 'nasa breeding minsan kasi, Ive been taught by my father that pag inasa mo lahat sa baril (and force, money) hindi yun kasikat-sikat.
Where can you find a man like that willing to run for office? Nada, mahirap ma-talbog ang naka-ugat na. Even that colonel retired early, and went to manage his own grocery store.
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