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Appreciating Rizal...

Nope, this is not an academic post. More of a reflective and wrote-because-i-was-enlightened type post. Anyway, I just passed a paper on Rizal's notion of a nation according to Quibuyen (a local writer who devoted a book -- A Nation Aborted -- on his treatise on Rizal). Chapter 6 was an interesting read, and a definite eye opener. Rizal all of a sudden became interesting, especially to someone like me who could care less.

It seems that most of what Rizal aims for and wrote about is still evident in today's Philippines as I see it. I wonder why I didn't get to appreciate Rizal and his work when I was still in high school -- might be the fault of the high school and the curriculum, or might be because I was still considerably immature then. I wasn't able to understand most of Rizal's writings though even if I got to reading them basically because they translated from Spanish to Filipino/Tagalog. I don't have problems with Tagalog, until you put it in writing. I prefer english, which comes as a more natural literary language for me.

Rizal seemed to be more interesting and smarter than I took him for. Though he wasn't really all that interesting if you just read his biography or works. It takes a critique by someone else to make him look smarter and more interesting -- see, in my eyes Rizal needs the hype. I never really agreed as to why Rizal is considered a national hero of the Philippines, whereas all he did was write -- and evidently, hardly anything else. Who writes novels while your countrymen are being abused and maltreated and deprived of their primal rights and proper treatment? Obviously it was Rizal. And low and behold, it takes a critic to make him sound like someone important.

Past presidents could qualify for heroes in my eyes, only if they succeed in doing something -- not because they become a catalyst for anything. A lot of people could be catalysts, which could hardly make them qualify for heroism. Take Ninoy for example -- he was a traditional politician like every other politician during his time. It was just unfortunate that he was murdered -- which again in my eyes hardly makes him a hero. If Ninoy was murdered and considered a Hero, then why isn't every other Mayor/Official/(insert your favorite position here) who gets murdered considered a hero? Does more TV exposure and media headlines give you more right to be considered a hero than a hardworking true servant of the nation (referring to everyone earning a living for and in this dung hole we call the Philippines)?

I believe that being Filipino doesn't require you to stay in the Philippines. It just requires you to be Filipino wherever you are. And Filipino in the good sense, not the spit anywhere, piss anywhere, God couldn't care less what I'm doing Filipino that we all meet almost everywhere in this God given crap hole of a country we have. Do I sound cynical? Well, that's because I am cynical about the Philippines and how every other person who cared for it before I did do a horrendous job of improving it (the nation).

Oh well, but that's just me and my hands -- I wouldn't want to be the new Rizal, because frankly I don't even think about trying to improve the hopeless situation the Philippines is in right now. Maybe if every Filipino started really to think about the welfare of the whole country, then I might change my mind. Until then, I remain cynical and hopeless about the Philippines.

But time might come when I won't have a choice anymore. Que sera sera.

Chill...

Comments

  1. If Ninoy was murdered and considered a Hero, then why isn't every other Mayor/Official/(insert your favorite position here) who gets murdered considered a hero?Because Ninoy went up against Marcos, who was big. The fact that Marcos paid attention to Ninoy makes Ninoy just as big.

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  2. The fact that Rizal's views are still relevant today just shows how deep in a rut our country is..

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  3. Rizal was an idealist, a reformist. He really didn't want secession from Spain; what he really wanted were universal human rights, etc. He couldn't care less if the Spaniards ruled, as long as they ruled with the Filipinos' welfare in mind.

    His profile doesn't deserve to sit on our currency. He's such a dumbass. For Rizal, there's no such thing as "Filipino", only "future recognized Spanish citizen of the Province of the Philippine Islands". I bet Rizal recanted every sh*tty word that he ever wrote just before he died. He probably thought "Oh no, the Spanish officials misunderstood me, my appeal for the fair treatment of those who belong to the darker-skinned race are now being treated as insurgent material, I better rectify this so that I won't burn in hell blah blah blah blah".

    When approached by the K3 (Katipunan) and asked to be their leader, he turned it down, believing that the revolution would fail. He didn't want to take any part in revolutions or anything that would bring chaos (ugh... yakky-kadiri!) to his beloved "Spanish province" whatchamabangbang.

    Rizal probably didn't even write with the "Filipinos" in mind. Oh, hell, he probably just wrote for the sake of all his fellow mestizos. Yeah, he could really care less about the pure Filipinos, since he's not an "indio" really. "I'm a Spaniard! Look at me! I'm not a Filipino! I'm a Spaniard!" Also probably some dumbass punk elitist college radical activist junkie. Look at the Rebel Perspective (UPLB's underground biased press). Yeah, Rizal would have fit right in there with those loony bastards. Leftist, my ass. Proud, stuck-up kids with tantrums is more like it.

    Yes, he did inspire the K3. Without his books, the K3 wouldn't have been formed as it is known today. And forget those history books that attribute a "national" character to K3; 1896 is just as dumb and worthless as any other revolution, like Diego Silang's, etc. The only things that made it big were that it got a lot more planning, and that it wasn't an act of vengeance. Think 9-11; if Bush were there, he'd brand all of those goddamn K3s as Christian-hating terrorists.

    Our national hero shouldn't be Lapu-Lapu either. What a wuss. It's a good thing that they already phased out those plastic rounded square one-cent coins, those that have Lapu-Lapu's profile on one side and the Philippine's smallest fish on the other. I don't know the gory details, but I assume that Magellan probably stepped on Lapu-Lapu's joint and they eventually got into a drunken fistfight, with Lapu-Lapu finally burying a barbecue stick down Magellan's throat.

    PI100 is sh*tty propaganda, I tell you! "We want you to love Rizal! We order you to love Rizal! You should love Rizal! You should kiss him, f*ck him, crawl on your knees for him, emulate him, tell your kids about him, worship him!" Dumb nuts. Makes my blood boil, and it's only nine in the morning.

    Then again, your post was not an academic post.

    Remember, the role of the youth is not to make a difference, but to perpetuate the sh*t for the next generation of dumbass losers.

    RN

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  4. Comments appreciated. :) Very much.

    Sana lang may sarili kang blog diba, para mas marming tao makakita nung gusto mo sabihin. :)

    Opinion vs Opinion is the best discussion: there's no right and no wrong. :) Please keep reading and commenting, it's very much appreciated. :)

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  5. I idolise Jose Rizal a lot imagine in the age of 8 he can write a poem "sa aking mga kababata" at "ang di marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay masahol pa sa mabaho at malansang isda". Grabe no?! At napaka talino sobra biruin mo ilang language ang alam niya... Basta idol ko siya sa lahat ng bagay... Yun lang ang pinakamasasabi ko...

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