There’s one fact that we Filipinos cannot accept – we are being manufactured. We are being mass-produced by this elitist society and we are not aware of it. Why? Because we chose to ignore the rays of understanding that we could have if we took off the shadow of ignorance that conceals us from reality. Over the course of history, over the pile of books and records that we have about the stupidity that lingered our very well-being, after centuries and decades of fighting for our freedom, over the dead bodies of our ancestors whose blood became the foundation of this very nation, over the legacies of our forefathers who failed to deliver us from the hands of the oppressors, we became afraid. We got scared of learning, we resorted to search for someone who can do the thinking and the oppressed of yesterday’s slowly turned into maniacs of today. Oh, Rizal, if you only knew what happened.
During my days in high school, I became aware of the characters of Rizal’s Noli me Tangere. I read, and analyzed each chapter and wrote individual summaries of the events, as translated in Tagalog by our textbook writers. That was for the sake of grades. The heck with them, I really didn’t read it by heart because I felt that it will not contribute to my life. I was thinking that Pinoy Big Brother teens edition was more important back then.
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Fast forward, after eight years, I was able to obtain another copy of the English translation of Noli by Leon Ma. Guerero and San Diego started to take shape inside my head. I was able to hear the voice of the town people and the agony of Don Rafael inside the prison cell. Sisa’s pain pinched my heart as she prepared the meal of her sons and ended up being munched by her god/husband who cares no one but his gamefowl. And judging by the state of our country today, what do you think Tandang Tacio meant when he said that dying people don’t need medicine, but the ones who remain do?
Rizal’s legacy is to establish a good flow of knowledge among his people. But why? What will knowledge do to our lives? Ask Mr. Ibarra, who did his best to gain the approval of the officials to build a school for future children. Ask Tandang Tacio who wrote his books using sophisticated invented codes so that future generation will decode it and understand his legacy. Why did they want us to be educated?
We share the same attribute – ignorance. We ignore. It’s there but we ignore. Again. What will knowledge do to our lives? Will it make us rich? Probably, if you abuse the knowledge in order to deceive people. Will it give you power? Of course if you learn how to cheat.
But there’s this single destination that we share — death. Without knowledge, we forget that we are human. We will soon die, but will we say the words “worth it” at our deathbed? Several decades ago, the Spaniards made their pledge not to teach natives complicated knowledge. They just introduced us to basic reading and writing but they never taught us to reason, because they don’t want the people to raise questions. All they need to do is to pay and obey. Wealthy families sent their children abroad to study, some became crazy with Western influence, ask that to Dona Victorina, and some went back to their motherland to save his kin.
Today, yes, they granted us education, but the society is still dictating us what to do, what to wear, what to buy, who to worship, when to eat, what to eat, how to earn money, and continue to pay for nothing and live in the world of debts and bills and continue to live in misery under the spells of oligarch wretches until we die.
We were born to this cycle of life to be a part of the industrial wheels of oligarchy. And remember, the only duty is to pay and obey. Look around you, your balance in your bank, your parent’s plea to help them because they failed when they’re young and thus passing their mistakes to you, your church’s demands to worship them in an effort to raise influence and control minds, your school’s demands to reach a certain standard of achievement in an effort to train you to follow the rules, your boss’s boss’s boss’s demands to work overtime without pay in an effort to juice out everything they can from you , the judgment of the people based on your looks, the absurdity of the traffic systems that will waste your precious time , the society is gnawing us alive and consuming our remaining hours doing things for the sake of money and fake fulfillment . Fly seven miles above sea-level, or climb at the summit of the nearest mountain, look at the wide “civilized” community thriving our very country, widen your perspective and you will see that we are a bunch of slaves, holding our pathetic elementary , highschool and college diplomas.
So, why Rizal wanted us to learn? Simple. To understand life. To be happy. To fulfill the purpose of our human existence. To be with nature. To feel contentment even without the demands of the society. To cure the social cancer. Are we studying to meet the status quo, to slap the public with academic credentials just to be “accepted” and end up being a finished product of this giant factory of manpower, or simply because we want to learn? Are we human or just another zombie searching for Pokemon? Do you feel that you’re alive or just another warm body in existence as a part of the never ending pathetic system founded by the elites? The heck, do you even exist?
After the chase at the river, Elias wandered and ended up in the forest of San Diego. He found Basilio weeping beside his mother’s dead body few hours before Christmas. Elias obtained several wounds from gunshots. He’s dying. He instructed Basilio to gather wood and burn him along with his mother at a certain site. He directed the boy to dig at the place of the pyre and look for his gold. And his last instruction to the boy: STUDY.
And Rizal’s last instruction to us: STUDY.
Elias died without seeing the sunrise on his country. Rizal died without seeing the next day’s sunrise on his country. But, he gave the opportunity to the youth to, as per the words of Elias,
welcome it and not forget those who fell during the night.
When I die, please don’t use coffin and chemicals. Please just bury me, and put a seed of mango in my grave.
I am a Filipino but I do not agree with your opinion that I am one of those being manufactured by the elite to suit themselves. I believe there are millions of Filipinos who do not think like you do.
From your words, obviously you are manipulated…you don’t know it yet.
Ignorance and pride are the only things an idiot like you could only have. Don’t bother defending yourself with your bullshit.
But it’s the truth ngek ngek, you just don’t want to accept the fact. if we don’t study how will we end up in today’s struggle. just a peasant to oligarchs of this country.
@Cruel ink. Who are you to say that ” it is the truth but you do not want to admit it”. Are you crazy? You do not even know me personally that you have the hubris to say that !
Read first our pinned post in our Page Rationally Critical, Eclectic, Open-Minded Apolitical Filipinos before you accuse me anything. For sure, I can say with confidence that people who think like you are part of the very tragic and grave problem of this country.
This is a known issue. Anyone who is educated through the government sponsored school system has been indoctrinated even though they may not know it. Even if you live off grid, captains of industries, religious pursuits and other forms of existence—no one is really free. It is sad that humans who are sentient beings still pursue transitory ideas and materialistic endeavors. I shutter to think that the next great leap forward is colonizing the Moon and planer Mars. Imagine humans in space. It will be the Great Exploration Age only on a cosmic scale. It would be a fitting end to humanity when humans try to subjugate the cosmos and be brought down by an unknown entity, microbe or whatever unknown species who will not succumb to humanities agenda.
Anyone who simply wants the latest iPhone or the latest trinkets and wants to be trendy and wants to post selfies online – that’s the manufactured person right there. Unthinking consumers being milked. That’s what we’re challenged to not be.
Good luck with that, though. Bad enough that unthinking people are found all over the world, nearly everyone here are like that. Even the supposed educated ones.
“Noli Me Tangere” by Jose Rizal, was my favorite novel, when I was in High School…the characteristic of Filipinos, in the novel , are still in our midst. The hypocrisy of the clergy; the power of the “Guardia Civil”…the greed of the oligarchy (the Spanish colonizers)…the pretensions of Donya Victorina…the sexcapades of Padre Damaso !
Filipinos has not changed. ” The slaves of today, will be the tyrants of tomorrow”, stated Jose Rizal. ” There are no tyrants, where there are no slaves”, another qoute from Jose Rizal.
So, we indulge in : telenovelas, giling giling shows, teleseryas, dumbing shows, etc… to dumb us more !
Wow, that was a surprise! ‘Noli’ your favorite? You are very secretive Hyden Toro, ha? ????
@gnogid A.K.A. G. Nuguid:
There is a sophisticated Shabu Laboratory built at the foot of Mt. Arayat, Pampanga.
The arrested Chinese Drug Mafia syndicate people, gave information, that a man named G. Nuguid, was one of the contractors, who built the Shabu Laboratory.
This maybe the reason, you defended De Lima vigorously. Better give yourself up, and not hide in the GRP website. Gen. “Bato” de la Rosa, is coming after you !
海登·托罗，你是有趣！真搞笑。
???? Good morning, friend.
Very good read. It’s funny how I kind of always knew that I would not be able to achieve where I am now if I stay with the people around me. I never liked telenovela or watching the ” artistas ” variety show. When I was younger, I often looked around me and say to myself.. I’m not going to stay poor like this, I always felt like I don’t belong where I’m at. Like I’m not contented . I’ve read Noli Me Tangere in high school and I think it’s fair to say that it made me think of my Filipino heritage and my future. Than you Jose Rizal.
For some reason, I think like the ones how Filipinos you said, should act. If only I wasn’t plagued by abuse, misery, and depression. I could be pursuing this, relentlessly.
There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.
I commiserate and understand the feeling of lack of interest among Filipino youth on Rizal’s books (Noli & Fili). Maybe because it was written in Spanish or maybe not really promoted aggressively for reading in schools. Or maybe because the church was not really presented in an amiable way or it connotes an idea of resistance against establishment or whatever. I read the books in my school days but did not really digest the importance of the message and its relevance in my existence as a Filipino. Could be I was not guided properly. I simply didn’t get it. I mean, yes, it was explain to us and got to know the details of the stories, etc. but the mind didn’t really absorb its very essence.
Unlike the Bible which has several versions and attracted a lot of “geniuses” in interpreting it as well as “teaching” it, Rizal’s books had a difficult time crossing over the mainstream, at least, that’s my summation. It’s very seldom you will find Filipino students quoting passages, lessons or ideas, etc. from the books. They rather read the Harry Potter books and be entertain by the magic, sorcery and witchcraft than be inspired by Crisostomo Ibarra or admire Maria Clara or even be provoked by Padre Damaso’s notoriety.
I just hope that something be done with it, like coming out a version or edition that will encourage the youth without removing or sacrificing the important details of the story. It is also necessary that government leaders, private and popular personalities indorse and promote it. Vigorously. And Free. ????
I think a lot of schools don’t encourage the sort of critical thinking and analysis which should be an essential part of teaching a classic like this. It really has no meaning otherwise..
I trace my anti-religion roots to my high school noli classes. damaso’s scene with the chicken neck is etched in my mind. The lesson i learned: social hierarchy is a bitch, but the catholic church is a bigger one. From fili class, we see that basilio never got to dig up the treasure, because ibarra was a huge cockblock, thus remained at a low social status because he didnt go on and study to become someone who could make a difference. Fili was cynical (but i liked it better than noli, evident by my higher grade on it), though the plot tanked when isagani threw the lamp out because, you know, love trumps all. if it was a social commentary by rizal to the filipinos today (if rizal is some time lord), it is pure genius because it highlights one of the top problems with filipino attitude: priorities. Status quo or bloody change? The love of my life or the future of my country? Take note if that bomb went off, the story would have ended VERY differently. And if ibbara was hell bent on revenge, why was there no plan B? well, i digress at this point.
I once heard local tv wanted to adapt it into some telebasura. i guess the networks couldnt figure out how to make it “hip”,”cool” or otherwise commercialized so that the masses would swallow it like it does with the current garbage it churns out year after year.
Rizal’s works in schools were presented as another subjects for memorization, not for encouraging critical thinking.
Pro Pinoy’s G. Nuguid A.K.A. gnogid:
A.K.A. means “also known as”…
Mr. G. Nuguid, there is a sophisticated Shabu Laboratory , built at the foot of Mt. Arayat, Pampanga. The Chinese Triad Drug Mafia arrested gave information, that one of the contractors, is a man named: G. Nuguid of Pampanga.
Maybe, this is the reason the evidences against De Lima: you called them “allegations”…
You are a Chinese Triad Mafia Drug syndicate helper, hiding here at GRP website !
Good one, my friend! ???? ???? ????!
Did you retire the ‘yellow ‘tard’ title already? I suggest don’t because you’ll run out of ammunition.
See you, friend. ????
“your parent’s plea to help them because they failed when they’re young and thus passing their mistakes to you”
I agree. I know some of my classmates old enough to do what they want but they can’t because their first priority is to pay for their parents mistakes in the past.
Im sorry if this will disappoint some, but parents are treating their children as their property or investments.
And Senator Bambam Aquino wants a detailed educational material on Martial Law, what an a$$h0le.
What would satisfy Bambam [idiot] Aquino is a historical narrative that portrays:
1. Ninoy as a totally selfless hero whose only concern is the good of the country & who had no political ambition for himself (which is a lie of course).
2. Cory as a martyr-saint liberator of the country, that the Vatican needs to canonize.
3, “BS” Noynoy as a brilliant statesman with the maturity & wisdom of Yoda.
4. The Aquinos/Cojuangcos as the power of good & beacon of light whom Pinoy society has to perpetually repay. while Marcos is the evil dictator who did absolutely nothing of worth for the country.
Unless the textbooks matches Bam’s delusions of grandeur, he considers them flawed.
we don’t have attitudes: they have us.
Rizal is definitely rolling in his grave with the current situation of his people. Rampant materialism, elitist thinking and egocentrism are just a few examples that many Filipinos exhibit. Obviously, many of them think such attitudes aren’t evil.
For fuck’s sake, Filipinos must change for the better lest they become the #1 laughing stock of the world.
Ours is a consumerist society where privileges are accorded to those who consume or spend most. People with worldly materials and belongings are hailed, envied, and championed by peers. Also, they are projected as the happiest by the advertising world. For the poor, middle class, and the rich, these are the ultimate goal for studying, embedded in the fabric of our education, inside and outside of school.
Ironically, after all the education we received, we didn’t learn about human compassion, common courtesy, and mutual respect; poor, middle class, and rich alike.
All very interesting, except, knowledge has nothing to do with intelligence.
So studying wont help, as you wont be able to learn.
You can teach a bear to ride a bicycle, but it does not mean the bear will know what he is doing or that he will be able to change a flat tire.
Why are there so many unintelligent people?
Because the poor and uneducated have been breeding like rabbits. Each generation born just a bit dumber than the one before them.
Like when you copy a VHS tape and then make a copy of the copy, et cetera. The quality will get worst and worst. A gene pool that has been watered down to the lowest quality. It has actually come to a point in time now where people not only act, but actually look like retards. I see it all the time in children and young adults.
Now, that’s really bad.
I’m not saying that all Filipinos are dumb. But most are. Gullible and easily influenced by fairytales a.k.a. religion and other dumb stuff. They are not brainwashed, because there was nothing to wash out to start with.
The hard drive was delivered empty and over a period of 15 years completely filled up with nonsense, trash and viruses. Intelligence could be comparable to an anti-virus program that would automatically block any senseless junk.
And the Filipinos who are intelligent mostly leave the country. The ones that stay keep a low profile and do their job as good as possible, which is not easy when you are surrounded by complete morons and dull co-workers. They only have 1 child, not 3 or more, because they know it is easier to properly nourish and educate 1, than to educate 3 or more, because intelligent people know their actions have consequences. So then later on and out of necessity their children (the minority) again breeds with the half-wits (the majority). The imbeciles just drown out all the intelligence till one day only idiots are left. We are not far from that day.
In the 1930’s Louis Thurstone created a factor analysis for intelligence. He concluded that there are 9 primary mental abilities that show intelligence.
Inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, word fluency, speed of perception, verbal comprehension, verbal fluency, memory, spatial visualization and mathematics. Most Filipinos seriously lack all of these 9.
If I have to give examples for each item, then you don’t understand what I’m talking about in the first place.
As the saying goes, if you would know that you are dumb, you actually would not be that dumb.
Jim: the Philippines is an academic case study in dysgenics. I spent perhaps my first year in the Philippines refusing to believe what my eyes told me: that a large fraction of the population are borderline retards. It was just too frightening to admit the truth.
The causes are quite obviously as you describe: a deliberate selection of faulty genes, coupled with all the best ones leaving the gene pool.
I know we’re both going to get screamed at for these posts. In my defence, I’ll offer Exhibit A: a young lad in his 20s who is employed at the local DIY store to open and close the door. That’s his job: opening and closing the door. I’ve never seen him do anything else.
Now, is he doing this because there is no other means for him to earn a living? Or could it be that, in fact, opening and closing a door is the only thing he’s capable of without messing it up?
And it’s not just him.
– Slack-jawed “assistants” in stores, who don’t know what products they sell or what those products are for;
– Store managers who just don’t know how to avoid the perennial “out of stock sir” situation;
– “Security guards” whose job is to stand around doing nothing all day, or prodding customers in the kidneys;
– Banks that can’t carry out the most basic financial transactions, and whose ATMs are endlessly “offline” or empty;
– Lawyers who don’t know the Law, or can’t perform the most basic legal tasks;
– Engineers who would have failed high-school physics in any other country;
The list is endless. I have met a few clever Filipinos. However, most of the people I interact with day-to-day are hopelessly incompetent.
I feel terribly sad when I see people like the door-opening guy. I guess he wasn’t born the sharpest tool in the box, but no human being should be employed in a job that could be done equally well by a motion sensor and a motor. I wonder what he could have been if he hadn’t had been brought up by stupid parents and stupid teachers, on a diet of junk food? He wouldn’t have ever got his astrophysics PhD, I’m sure, but maybe he would have been a great mechanic, or plumber, or racecar driver. But nobody ever told him: “That’s not good enough. Do it again, better this time”.
That really is mind-blowing. Why even spent a second with the most stupid people in the world? What is the purpose? Were you trying to improve them? Or you’re trying to gather more info to find out if there are still more despicable and hateful things to say about them?
Don’t get me wrong, you already made it clear that Filipinos/Phil. has a “special” place in your heart. I get it. What I don’t get is why continue expressing your “affection” to them over and over again instead of offering ideas that may help or clarify matters in the viewpoint of the readers?
Example after example, you have given us a clear picture of how destitute Filipinos are. How dumb we are, pitiful scums of the earth etc. We are hopeless, worthless people. That’s the entire message I get from a fellow Filipino like you. Fine. But where’s the beef in all those proselytizing? It’s all bone.
I’d rather read you tell your readers that every Filipino you meet you shoot in the head because you want to improve the world. That would make more sense that rehash and repeat the same old boring story over and over again.
Is what you’re doing an example of the saying that a lie you continue to tell over and over again would eventually become true? If so, good luck to that! ????
Yeah, I know, we’ve done this before and got nowhere.
I’ll try it again, for the hard-of-thinking:
As I said before: I don’t. I doubt they bother to teach you any statistics at school, but even if the majority of Filipinos are hopeless, there is the ‘tail’ of the Normal distribution, perhaps three standard deviations down from the average, where the smart people are. I spend time with them.
I am not here, incidentally, to make Filipinos better people. There is no chance of that happening, for the reasons Jim outlined (crudely, Filipinos choose the worst over the best, therefore the worst increases). Besides, it’s not my business to fix anybody or any country.
I’m here for my own satisfaction. I’m learning about stuff that I find interesting. This country is a convenient place to do that, unimpeded. I plan to take that knowledge to some other country later, and start a business around it. I can’t do it in the Philippines, because I’d be shut down. Socially-useful enterprises are all shut down. The government can’t have people getting ideas above their station. It just wouldn’t do.
No, it’s an example of Filipinos being completely unable to face the truth about their society. While you, and people like you, scream that it’s quite normal for human beings to be employed to open and close a door, or to stand around looking vacant, nothing can ever change.
I agree that overpopulation is a problem. Dire implications and consequences happen when a lot of people competes for a meager resources and scant opportunity.
However, if the VHS analogy is correct, does that mean that China and India, both billions in population, are more dumber than us? More retard looking? ????
If making ‘copy of the copy, etc.’ lowers the quality of the product, then, are we not the only one who should be deteriorating because ALL have ‘originals’ where the copy of the copy came from? The descendants are poor copies of their ascendants?
The world is regressing because the gene pool of humankind is deteriorating? If that is true, how come we continue to have advancement in technology, in scientific discoveries and in the thinking process than our ancestors did?
I think the VHS analogy oversimplified the problem to the point that it makes it look easier to solve. Which is not. The VHS analogy, because of its simplicity and direct to the point attack in analyzing the problem, would really make the readers think that such a brilliant idea would only come from a genius mind.
That the process of VHS copying after copying indeed lowers or decreases the quality of the product overtime is without doubt true. However, there is only one problem.
The same cannot be said of the DVDs of today.
????
gnogid: the analogy is simplistic but not a bad one. DNA copying is a digital process, but DNA itself is subject to various physical processes that produce random mutations. The role of natural selection is to eliminate useless or problematic mutations while keeping the useful ones.
This only works when there are suitable selection processes. If the selection processes favour the weak, the stupid, or the criminal, while discriminating against those who are smarter, nicer, or hard-working, you’ll eventually end up with a population of unpleasant, useless people.
This is exactly what has happened in the Philippines. People who are feckless, unemployable, or socially disruptive are rewarded. People who are responsible, intelligent, or co-operative are punished.
The outcome is entirely predictable.
A simplistic analogy per se of a serious issue is a bad analogy because it tends to cloud and confuse the issue. Simplicity is a deodorize term for the word poor. Maybe you agree with the simplistic approach, that’s fine, but you don’t qualify it as ‘not bad’ because that would be setting up a standard that, for all you know, is a low one for everybody.
The idea in your comment is completely detach from the post of the other guy. It’s your own interpretation, your own simplistic approach, your own faulty analogy.
Although from VHS to DNA, I say, you injected another layer in the conversation. A layer that is tainted with hate and discrimination. What’s new?
If I will follow both analogies, I’m very sure both are right in terms of proving that humans are, in spite of technological and scientific advancement, unable to overcome their biases and prejudices where mental regression emanates.
Blue-Ray anyone? ????
gnogid: as per the standard pinoy response, you’re just emoting instead of replying to the content of my assertion.
The reason the VHS analogy is not bad is that the analog degradation is still present in DNA copying, but the mechanism is a bit different. The end result is the same.
As for the rest of your rant: you are aware, I suppose, that DNA is involved in reproduction?
Perhaps they teach you in school that natural selection doesn’t apply to Filipinos? That the Filipino is a higher creature, not subject to the laws of nature?