Filipinos always complain about the corruption in the Philippines . Do you really think the corruption is the problem of the Philippines? I do not think so. I strongly believe that the problem is the lack of love for the Philippines
Let me first talk about my country, Korea. It might help you understand my point. After the Korean War, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. Koreans had to start from scratch because entire country was destroyed after the Korean War, and we had no natural resources.
Koreans used to talk about the Philippines, for Filipinos were very rich in Asia . We envy Filipinos. Koreans really wanted to be well off like Filipinos. Many Koreans died of famine. My father & brother also died because of famine. Korean government was very corrupt and is still very corrupt beyond your imagination, but Korea was able to develop dramatically because Koreans really did their best for the common good with their heart burning with patriotism.
Koreans did not work just for themselves but also for their neighborhood and country. Education inspired young men with the spirit of patriotism.
40 years ago, President Park took over the government to reform Korea. He tried to borrow money from other countries, but it was not possible to get a loan and attract a foreign investment because the economic situation of South Korea was so bad. Korea had only three factories. So, President Park sent many mine workers and nurses to Germany so that they could send money to Korea to build a factory. They had to go through horrible experience.
In 1964, President Park visited Germany to borrow money. Hundred of Koreans in Germany came to the airport to welcome him and cried there as they saw the President Park. They asked him, "President, when can we be well off?" That was the only question everyone asked to him. President Park cried with them and promised them that Korea would be well off if everyone works hard for Korea, and the President of Germany got the strong impression on them and lent money to Korea. So, President Park was able to build many factories in Korea. He always asked Koreans to love their country from their heart.
Many Korean scientists and engineers in the USA came back to Korea to help developing country because they wanted their country to be well off. Though they received very small salary, they did their best for Korea. They always hoped that their children would live in well off country.
My parents always brought me to the places where poor and physically handicapped people live. They wanted me to understand their life and help them. I also worked for Catholic Church when I was in the army. The only thing I learned from Catholic Church was that we have to love our neighborhood. And, I have loved my neighborhood. Have you cried for the Philippines? I have cried for my country several times. I also cried for the Philippines because of so many poor people.
However, they do not love the Philippines. I talked to two prisoners at the maximum-security compound, and both of them said that they would leave the Philippines right after they are released from the prison. They said that they would start a new life in other countries and never come back to the Philippines .
Many Koreans have a great love for Korea so that we were able to share our wealth with our neighbor-hood. The owners of factory and company were distributed their profit to their employees fairly so that employees could buy what they needed and saved money for the future and their children.
When I was in Korea , I had a very strong faith and wanted to be a priest. However, when I came to the Philippines, I completely lost my faith. I was very confused when I saw many unbelievable situations in the Philippines. Street kids always make me sad, and I see them everyday. The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia, but there are too many poor people here. People go to church every Sunday to pray, but nothing has been changed. My parents came to the Philippines last week and saw this situation. They told me that Korea was much poorer than the present Philippines when they were young. They are so sorry that there are so many beggars and street kids. When we went to Pagsangjan, I forced my parents to take a boat because it would be fun. However, they were not happy after taking a boat ride. They said that they would not take the boat again because they sympathized with the boatmen, for the boatmen were very poor and had a small frame. Most of people just took a boat and enjoyed it. But, my parents did not enjoy it because of love for them.
My mother who has been working for Catholic Church since I was very young told me that if we just go to Mass without changing ourselves, we are not Catholic indeed. Faith should come with action. She added that I have to love Filipinos and do good things for them because all of us are same and have received a great love from God. I want Filipinos to love their neighborhood and country as much as they love God so that the Philippines will be well off.
I am sure that love is the keyword, which Filipinos should remember. We cannot change the sinful structure at once. It should start from person. Love must start in everybody, in a small scale and have to grow. A lot of things happen if we open up to love. Let's put away our prejudices and look at our worries with our new eyes.
I discover that every person is worthy to be loved. Trust in love, because it makes changes possible. Love changes you and me. It changes people, contexts and relationships. It changes the world. Please love your neighborhood and country. Jesus Christ said that whatever we do to others we do to Him. In the Philippines, there is God for people who are abused and abandoned. There is God who is crying for love. If you have a child, teach them how to love the Philippines. Teach them why they have to love their neighborhood and country. You already know that God also will be very happy if you love others.
That's all I really want to ask you Filipinos.
6 comments:
That is a very touching perspective. As A Filipino immigrant, that is the question I ask myself everyday. Why did I leave the Philippines? An American friend told me, maybe what I was and had in the Philippines were not valuable enough for me to stay. I ponder on this everyday. Why did I leave? Is the Filipino worth loving? What do I love about the Phiilippines that would make me want to go back and serve the people? I guess, most of us are just impatient. We want the easy way out. A lot us don't have the patience for government leaders to start loving us back.
To think that it took a foreigner to convince us and was able to move us filipinos to love our country.
There is a true story book, "Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl" written by Renée, with an analytical interpretation by the Milan psychiatry gold medal awardee, psychotherapist Marguerite Sechehaye. The pattern of situation of Renée is the same as that of Filipinas at a different scale.
Renée discussed her struggles against invading unreality, losing grip of her place among humanity and how alienated and alone she was heading to. She was unable to differentiate between herself and things outside of herself. With such a psychological experience, Renée heard an internal voice that lingered declaring her as guilty. This made her struggle between self destruction and self preservation.
Therapist Sechehaye believed that Renée’s oral needs were not met as an infant, and her ego was therefore built on a shaky foundation that could not hold up under the strain of impending adulthood with its demands and responsibilities. Renée’s ego disintegrated under the stress, and she retreated into an infantile, “pre-logical” state. This accounts for her unable to clearly differentiate between what is of herself and what is outside of herself.
Without the use of psychotic drugs, therapist Sechehaye seeked to satisfy the fundamental needs of the patient Renée and repaired the initial frustrations not only by interpreting the patient's fantasies but also by establishing a real, even a physical, contact with the patient. This attitude is considered to help the patient to regress in order to be able to progress, resume the interrupted course of infantile development, and thus recover the sense of reality. This was accomplished thru a series of “regression sessions,” to the fetal state, and experienced psychologicaly being nurtured by a mother thru the psychotherapist. This provided Renée a foundation upon which to recover her ego. She finally become a social and independent being. Her self destruction tendencies was replaced by self-grooming and self-nurturing capability.
We filipinos lost our national identity when we failed to recover control of our economic resources from the american invasion in the 1900s. Many chinese also entered our country during that time and wrestled from us economic control. When we tried to control them, the americans having their mighty military behind them, intervened. Another loss of our control of our economic resources. In fact, the invasion made us lose our control of our governance, defenses and our destiny. Such frustration disintegrated our national identity into individual identities. With a none existent nation- the nurturing paternal image, we turned to the only social unit accessible to us. The americans replaced all of our systems with a system they developed that would program our damaged developmental code to become worshipping dependents of the americans. Thus we turned to the americans as the symbol of a protecting mother. Unfortunately, the americans have a different agenda in conflict with our own interests up until now.
This accounts for the answer to your questions, "Is the Filipino worth loving?" and "What do I love about the Philippines that would make me want to go back and serve the people?", seem very elusive.
The good news is, we have enough information that would show that there are answers to your questions. This is why this blogsite and my facebook account was created. There are also a number of brother filipinos and even some foreign friends who have gathered data buried deliberately and undeliberately into oblivion, and created their own websites and facebook accounts for this purpose.
For a start, I suggest you network with a filipino expat or immigrant in the States, Brycéo González Lusterio (Céo González) thru: lusterio_81@yahoo.com or thru facebook.
Thanks mlv for your inspiring comment.
I thought the author's father died of famine...but then in paragraph 12, he/she mentioning about his parents in their recent visit to Philippines...
But then again, the essay is inspiring
You are right, Jhun. The author did write in his letter that his father died while wrote later that his parents visited the Philippines. It is possible though that since the author wrote in not so perfect English, it was more of a grammatical error than anything else.
Thanks for reading this article which I posted. Yes, the letter is inspiring. Another material which is inspiring is the information on how the zionist movement of the israelis who had lost their land and state and were scattered all over the world for 2000 years, reclaimed, and rebuild them. Jews from all over the world used their intellectual, professional or material resources to contibute to that rebuilding. Another inspiring information is on the basque movement in the north of Spain which led to their having preserved their organic national developmental code and finally to their having become autonomous. Both of these nations had a nationalism ideology which became the basis of their historical development towards becoming a sweet home where their people could come home to.
The essay of Jaeyun Kim is indeed a great awakening...It crushed my heart because there are many grains of truth in there! There was this thanksgiving dinner we had few days ago with my American colleagues and Korean friends, and we were sh...aring stories about expat life. Then along in the conversation, there was this Korean Engineer who mentioned that Korea was once poorer than the Philippines and a proof of that is a big gymnasium in Korea built by the Philippines(I'd got no chance to ask more about the gym because I'm eager to hear the rest of his story)but today it's the opposite. And he went on saying, "Filipinos are very skilled workers. They are the most favorite hired and I always hire them..." The general reaction from the group was a nod, if translated in words it would be like this, "Yes, you Filipinos are skillful." I was numbed because it was a mixture of emotion- proud, rebuked, flabbergasted, ashamed, mocked, doubtful? Can't explain really. After six days of that unexpected comment I read this essay from another foreigner in my Facebook. Now, I'm in the moment of pondering. It's really an ironic scenario, skilled people but poor country. However, I and with many Filipinos out there believe that there is hope! It's overwhelming to think where should we start but it's clearer now to me...Next time I receive/hear a comment like that I won't think twice and say, "Thank you for your comment but/and I'm proud to be a Filipino."(with a smile). Seriously, we Filipinos need to wake up...Let's stop rationalizing our country's current situation and think and act how we could help our country...And as a closure, I'm not only preaching to whoever reads this but most of all, to MYSELF!(-:
I am sorry for having published your comment only after around ten days already. I was out of touch with this blogsite for many days because I had to function as an individual so that I may also able to sustain my function as a filipino being a member of this social unit, the Filipino nation. I lately had been attending to my own individual concerns such as work and solving problems which has immediate bearing to me and/or my family. In this way, I am hoping to solve my personal problems so that I can have the means to sustain this endeavor which in my own little way is a means of communication with us, the filipino people regarding information about our situation. Thru these sharing of information, I am hoping that they would be valuable enough and reach enough number of us, filipinos for us to recover that nation which existed in the 1900s that made us function as a nation and enabled us to act cohesively even to the extent of sacrificing our individual needs for the benefit of the whole nation. It was during that period when the nation benefited from the skills of individual filipinos as individual filipinos benefitted from the resources of the whole nation.
Your comment is right, Bona. Today, this is the opposite. We have skilled people but poor country. We may not be sick individually, but we are sick as a nation. We may be functional as an individual but we are dysfunctional as a nation. We have an Alienized, Individualized, and Denationalized Syndrome.
And because it is a disease, it has an underlying cause.
I too, am basically addressing this information first and foremost, to myself. Thanks for your enlightening comment.
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