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Independence Day Weekend

This is another reflection post, so if you don't like reading these kinds of posts, please stop reading now. Consider yourself warned.

So we've turned 109 years as a nation of false hopes and broken dreams -- of walking wannabe's and has been never were. We've reduced our independence into something we celebrate once a year and completely forget every other day. Can you really call the Philippines independent?

We can't even produce enough food to sustain our population.

We can't even produce enough graduates of quality to fill the jobs we create.

We can't even keep the people who can help change the Philippines in the country.

We can't even elect a decent set of leaders to lead the country.

We can't even be truly competitive in the global economy.

We can't even begin to realize our true potentials.

We can't even create our own identity.

We can't even unite to be truly independent.

We can't even stand on our own feet to become the country that we're meant to be.

We can't even fund the education of the children in our country.

We can't even be proud of what we've already become -- hypocrites.

We can't even say what being Filipino means.

This list is not nearly complete. We don't have the maturity as a nation to really look into ourselves and see what's wrong. We like pointing fingers at the past and the people who have wronged us before. We are chained by the bondage of thinking of our country as the victim -- either by foreign influence or by local vested interests.

This country has never stood up for anything. Never. Even during the revolution started by Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio, the motives were far from noble: the idea was to either accept the Spanish occupation and hope to be "first class citizens as well" (by Rizal... Sheesh, what a retard for a national hero) or to fight the Spanish occupation so that the Filipino's can rule the country (by Bonifacio with a wet-dream ideology of a national fraternity... Sheesh, what a retard for a national hero wannabe).

What are we fighting for? Who are we fighting? When will the hurting stop?

Every time we think of independence we think of the struggle to break free from something, to be subservient to the needs of the individual, to be self-sufficient and capable of not depending on others. We cannot do this if we are not united: so long as we have poor people who cannot identify to being a Filipino, the rich who will not identify to being "Pinoy", the rebels who will never want to be part of a democracy, the terrorists who will always spread terror and fear, and the apathetic who will never care. Unless we can call our country a united whole we will not move forward: we'll be stuck to celebrating a hollow victory of mocked independence.

We as a people love the past. We talk about it forever and while doing so we re-live it.

Sinumang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.

-- Jose Rizal


But if we keep on looking behind how do we see or even get to where we're going? This saying is just wrong. Nobody wants to admit it because it was said by the "national hero" but fuck that. I say it again, fuck the national hero: he did nothing to alleviate the plight of the poor, nor the direction of the country, not even the independence of the Philippines. I am not grateful to his writing a couple of novels in the guise of revolution because it didn't do anything but get him killed so he can become hero.

And what of this saying? It says "live in the past and get nowhere". We teach this in our schools and we keep churning out drug addict after drug addict, murderer after murderer, illiterate "dukha" after illiterate "dukha", and then in college we feed them illusions of grandeur and of ambition and how incompetent the Philippines is -- and then develop the next Trapo who will perpetuate the cycle to no end looking to the past for inspiration. The Philippines is run by people who cannot let go of the past and who have no clear vision of the future. We cannot move forward if we keep looking back. Fuck Rizal, he's a coward.

This perpetuating thought is the single most devastating disease that's crippling the country as a whole. Everyone knows this saying, and everyone lives by it. I live by it: I reflect constantly on what has happened to me and I even write about it in this blog. I've learned however that this is only useful if your intention was to see what was wrong and to move forward without making the same mistakes -- any other use is detrimental to your personal and collective progress.

What am I saying here? I'm saying people, let's fucking move on from just being "independent" and be competitive, progressive, and successful. Let us measure our success in terms by which we would want to see our country: literate, competitive, self-sustaining, prosperous, and principled.

Let us stop pointing fingers if it wouldn't help us move forward. Sometimes we have to point the right finger at the right person to help us move on -- and this time I'm pointing my middle finger at Jose Rizal. I'm moving forward and looking to the past doesn't make much sense anymore than to check how much progress I've already made. I hope the Philippines will do that too.

Happy "Let's Get Reminded That We're Not Yet Really Independent" Day to those in the Philippines!

CHill.

Comments

  1. What retards! hahaha. The quote was made so that we "MUST" remember him. Guilt ang style amp!

    Paradigm Shift!

    Nice ah, ranting ka pa sa lagay na yan! hahaha

    Pero tama, dapat accountable tayo. Funny nga na pag palpak, kasalanan ng iba, pero pag success, kahit marginal, "AKO ANG DAHILAN".

    It's true na we are to proud of being independent (a "mock" independence pa nga) that we become content with that. Dapat mas ambitious tayo and progress!

    What can we do when we are instilled with the notion that "AMBITION is BAD!" (Start the blame here! Ayan nanaman tayo. hahaha)

    *rephrase*
    We should start instilling in kids na ambition is a GOOD thing. (Ayan! meron na proposed solution. heheh)

    So pag natupad ang mga nakasaad dyan, "national success day" na? hahaha!

    ReplyDelete
  2. hello! napadaan lang po. he he he

    palagay ko nga naintindihan mo si rizal. di niya sinabing manatili sa nakaraan:

    "I reflect constantly on what has happened to me and I even write about it in this blog. I've learned however that this is only useful if your intention was to see what was wrong and to move forward without making the same mistakes -- any other use is detrimental to your personal and collective progress."

    yan ang ibig niyang sabihin. malamang.

    we cannot forget the past. we need to learn from it. we cannot move ahead properly without the wisdom gained from our past experiences.

    whether we like it or not, our past gives us an identity which we may take as our own or not.

    true independence means we are not defined by our past. however, we cannot fully escape our past unless we confront all the baggage from it.

    sabi sa isang palabas: "heroes may turn out to be total jerks or they may turn out to be just like you. either way, meeting them is disappointing."

    we may not like their motivations or their actions but at least in their own way, under the then prevailing circumstances, they did something which paved the way for what we have today. we may not yet have true (full) independence (yet) but we do enjoy better conditions than many of the other (say, african) countries and in a not so very limited way, our conditions are set under our terms.

    cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mm.. Ibang-iba pala pagkakaintindi ko sa Rizal quote na yun.. All this time, akala ko, tungkol sa mga tao yun -- na wag mong kalimutan yung mga taong nakatulong sa yo nung nakaraan.. Puro ganun kasi yung mga situations na tinuro sa amin nung grade school. =p

    Nag-a-agree din pala ako sa sabi ni Germs -- yung default sa mga Pinoy "ambition is bad".. Yun bang sobrang resistant sa change, kahit sana good change. Tapos, madami pa ngang ma-papel, nakikisakay lang sa successes ng napaka-konting successful.

    Wag na lang pag-usapan yung mga @!$@#% trapo. #$%#@%#$@% nila. Na-e-enlighten na naman yung mga tao, paunti-unti.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bash Rizal, go ahead. I agree. He was never for the country. But,

    "or to fight the Spanish occupation so that the Filipino's can rule the country (by Bonifacio with a wet-dream ideology of a national fraternity... Sheesh, what a retard for a national hero wannabe)"

    He was the first *hero* to introduce the concept of an inang-bayan. He wanted freedom. He started *the* revolution. Rizal started nothing.

    How is wanting freedom from Spain and *independence* retarded? During his time, being /competitive, /progressive, and /successful was not possible without being free. I'm sure Bonifacio had those in mind, to improve the lives of his countrymen, but all of that would only have been possible once we were free.

    He wanted freedom. Rizal just wanted to be a cronie. So yes, cheers, Rizal is a retard. But Bonifacio, a wannabe? Come on. Get your head out of your ass.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Apparently, Anonymous Retards read my blog as well...

    First, Bonifacio didn't do anything but start a fraternity. Then he got killed by the same retard fraternity brothers he had.

    Second, He wanted to rule the Philippines -- and that was the only reason there was a revolution. It hid under the guise of the "inang bayan" and "freedom".

    Third, Freedom does not equate to Independence. Only retards think that they're the same.

    Much like how you (an Anonymous Retard) wouldn't give your name, you have the freedom to do so: but not the responsibility for your words or actions. You Anonymous Retard do not have what it takes to be independent, because you apparently do not understand why Freedom is not enough.

    So while you keep looking at other's people asses, some people like us actually want to move on and not ever have to look back to the past (like the retarded Rizals and Bonifacios around now and a hundred or so years ago) for inspiration because it's apparent that there's nothing inspiring about it. Insisting that Freedom is enough and that you need to be "free" to be independent is so adolescent it's apparent you need to think first before you act.

    This is my blog, and I choose to call anonymous cowards anonymous retards -- I have the freedom to do so. But I present views which I myself am responsible for and have independently come up with.

    So while you think my head's up my ass, who's the ass now you Anonymous Retard?

    ReplyDelete

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