I am for educating our youth about history. To be effective, it has to be a COMPLETE education, and not a politicized spoon-feeding. Teach them about the Cold War and how Asia was carved into spheres of influence. Teach them about the Oil Crisis and hyperinflation of the 1970’s. Teach them about Marcos, but also about Suharto, Mahathir and Park Chung-hee.
I am a Martial Law baby. As a child, I remember seeing the almost daily riots of the First Quarter Storm. The first corpse I saw was the body of a student demonstrator lying face down on the road after Fidel Ramos’s PC Metrocom clashed with a huge red phalanx of them shouting “Marcos, Hitler, Diktador, Tuta!”
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I lived through the economic crisis when my family could not afford meat everyday even if we were solidly in the middle class. I can sing you the propaganda jingles of Kit Tatad. The songs and slogans. The New Society. Pulong-pulong sa Kaunlaran. Masagana 99. The metro aides. I remember riding the Love Bus to Escolta. There was no traffic then.
I was at EDSA in 1986. There was Chito Gascon and Rissa Hontiveros, then just student activists from UP and Ateneo, with megaphones giving instructions. We followed them, the leaders of our student government.
My history teacher told us that Marcos, like any other president, had some good points and bad points. She left it at that. So we had to decide for ourselves. This being the Ateneo, we sniggered and thought, “Marcos loyalist pala si Ms. A.”
Later on, after much reading and studying, travelling and living, I still remember what that history teacher said. I just hope my children can make up their own minds, not be slaves to politicians’ purposes, think critically and be able to use different lenses to view the world.
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I remember when I was in elementary school, my mother told me: “they tell you about how Emilio Aguinaldo is a hero now, but as you get older, you will learn things that might make you change your mind about him. Not everything you learn in school is necessarily correct, just be critical.”
Emilio a hero huh… well yeah okay.
If I remember correctly, he was an Illustrado, the higher class of Filipinos. He never wanted Philippines as a separate nation, but as a province of Spain with equal citizen rights of Spaniards be given to Filipinos.
But revolution happened, and he apparently killed off Bonifacio and Luna, among other unheroic deeds “for the greater good”.
Back at Marcos, I could argue that he was both the best and worst president in Philippine history. I tend to keep an open ear on both sides, but it’s rather hard to filter out truth from both as one has undying loyalty to the strongman and the other profound hate.
CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
“Teach Your Children”
You, who are on the road must have a code that you can live by.
And so become yourself because the past is just a good bye.
Teach your children well, their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
And you, of tender years can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth, they seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well, their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
CSN&Y thought they were going to change the USA, and it did nothing of the sort.Its more fucked up now than during the Vietna War era.The establishment figured out that by giving 40 million jobs away they would not have to have a ‘CONSCRIPTED ARMY’ because the youth would have no jobs and have to join the Army.
If Filipino’s are going to teach their children anything, lets hope its not history of the last 50 years of Fillipines.
It would be best to rip the last 50 years from the collective Filipino memory and start anew, BUT THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN.
SO, WEE, round and round on the Marcos/Aquino Mery-go-Round while they get rich,steal everything that is not nailed down….and as they wink at each other and toss the idiotic ‘MASSA’ a few crumbs. And the ‘MASSA’ say, like the niggers of 1940’s USA, ‘Thank you boss MAN’. Just like ’em.
NO FUTURE FOR YOU, NO !!!!
The last sentence of this article is just too much to hope for.In the last 30 years since those words were spoken, look at what happened.the people failed to think critically as the Filipino could not even come up with alternatives to the failed leadership of the country since 1965.WHAT HAPPENED? 50 years down the tubes, and the country on the heels of a turd down the crap hole, thats what.
Yeah,so now what? Elect another Marcos? Aquino?”Its all we Filipino’s can think of…” ?
KILL THEM ALL, start all over again. You will all be better off…..and confiscate what they stole too.ITS NOT THEIRS !!
Your lack of knowledge of America and the Philippines is plain scary. Corporations like microsoft and nike moved their factories overseas for cheaper labor and to make bigger profits. Guess what no president can stop that and guess what “Capitalism is the American way and dream” The country is actually better than it has been before except for losers who do not want to work. The Philippines does something even crazier. They have Nike factories and call centers here own by the Chinese and Koreans who are getting an big cut of the money and paying the the people less. America,imports healthcare workers from all over the world, because we can not get people to go to university for useful degrees ranging from nurses to doctors. We import computer specialist all over the world, because once again we do not have enough people to do these jobs. Half of the USA has started importing teachers to teach, seriously? No immigrant or anyone else is taking jobs away from American. Americans are giving them away. The Philippines is happy with Chinese and Koreans opening American factories to employ Filipinos, instead of trying to cut out the middle man and bring more money into the Philippines.
@ William E. Jackson:
Actually, America welcomes people, who are good in Science and Technology. In colleges, Americans are not graduating enough graduates in these fields.
The Atomic bomb was developed by foreign scientist/physicists like: Oppenheimer, Fermi, etc…
The Rocket Scientific field was developed by NAZI German scientist: Werbner von Braun . Operation “Paperclip” was made to take the rest of the NAZI rocket scientists to work for America.
If you are a foreign student in the field of Science and Technology. The Green Card visa is dangled infront of you; to stay and work for them ….
@ WILLIE, LACK OF KNOWLEDGE? LOL, you have no clue about what I know.FREE-TRADE AGREEMENTS have decimated the USA middle-class and TRUMP’s election is Middle-Ameica standing uo and saying they want their fuckin jobs back. Wheteher or not Trump delivers onhis promise remains to be seen, but judging my knowledge based on three sentences is “SCARY’, if your not a ‘FLIP’ you have been in the filippines to long,married to one for tto long or jus
Your assertion that the USA IMPORTS workers from abroad because ‘WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH TO DO THE JOB’ is BULLSHIT.and ‘AMERICANS ARE GIVING JOBS AWAY’ is bullshit too. The people who enter the USA illegally (25 million of them,I SAY GET THE FUCK OUT, and go to jail first!) live like rats and work for wages that REAL AMERICANS,that want to live in their own house, not with 20 relatives, will not take because it doesn’t pay enough.Illegal immigration has driven the wages in the USA into the crapper so far that only an immigrant willing to live with 20 family members will take it. Registered Nurse’s in Florida USA are making $25K /year because of this.Think you so fuckin smart? got it all figured out? I DONT THINK SO…..
This is a long,complicated subject BUT I CAN SEE,that YOU THINK YOU HAVE IT ALL FIGURED OUT, BUT NO YOU DONT.
THINK YOUR ALL SMART,HUH? EDUCATED? YEAH? I’ll not get into a pssing contest with you WILLIE, but you are far from havung anything figured out, especially what you THINK I know.
I have worked in hospitals all across the country. The hospitals bring in nurses, pts, ots, and doctors from other countries due to the lack of people in the jovs. Have you actually ever looked at the jobs on the special workers VISA program for the USA. It includes jobs ranging from STEM teachers to computers to the medical field. Explain why we have to import science and math teacgers to nurses. Hell we have progeams at the federal level to pay for college for people to attend some of the high demand jobs. Too much freedom is what is made our country weak. Too many people unwilling to work for a job or join our military and people like you who hand thier hands and baby them telling them to do what makes them happy instead of putting money abd food on the table
@ WILLIE, YOUR ‘too many people like you’ comment AGAIN, presumes you know me and what I do/have done. YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ME AND NEVER WILL.
I will not repeat myself about what has decimated the working-class in the USA but will say that your ‘too many people did not join the Army’ is ,AGAIN, proof that you do not know what you are talking about. THE USA has been fighting wars for 15 years and has notnot had to go to ‘CONSCRPITION’.It is a volunteer force that has its ranks filled with the people in the USA that wish they had one of the 40 million jobs that have left the country in the last 25 years since NAFTA.ANY one of those jobs would be better than digging a shit-hole in Baghdad, and would be gladly taken by those that have no alternative than to join the military.
If our children can learn of a good example of political propaganda brainwashing. They can get hold of the book of the late , Albert Speer, titled : “Inside the Third Reich “… Albert Speer, was an Architect by profession. However, he managed the war effort of Nazi Germany. A very intelligent man, who knew the propaganda tactic of , Jossef Goebbel, the Minister of Propaganda of Adolf Hitler.
Martial Law was necessary. As I read information, books and articles, during those times. It was a smart move by the late Pres. Marcos, to save the Philippine Republic.
The country prospered, during the Martial Law.
However, Pres. Marcos overstayed , during his term as President. Marcos was a doer…like Trump and Duterte…
The Aquinos and their YellowTards were political opportunists. They have their hidden agenda: to protect their Hacienda Luisita, grab power and become a willing tools of the U.S./C.I.A. , and an extension of the U.S. Dept. of State. The Aquinos ruled with Feudal Oligarchs, and continued Feudalism in our country…
Ramos and Enrile wanted power also, during those times. They were political opportunists.
The Pope just decided to approve abortions by the way since we are speaking of children. I am waiting for the article about this to be written or to hear people’s thought on the subject. Pope Francis has just said abortion is forgivable. What is do you think is going to happen to the membership of the Catholic church? Will it increase, go down, or stay the same?http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/21/europe/pope-francis-absolve-abortion/index.html
Pope Francis I is a liberal. I am a Christian. I believe that life begins in the moment of conception, to the time of natural death.
Only God can terminate a life, whether in the womb of a mother, or a full human being…
Try telling that to Filipinos, who seem to view murder as a form of entertainment. Not to mention their driving “skills”, which result in all sorts of mayhem.
The only thing they’re not allowed to kill with complete impunity is fetuses. Because that would be, like, wrong and stuff.
No, no we’re not murder fanatics.
You’re right, Pallacertus, Filipinos are not murder fanatics. They just don’t care what happens to others, especially if they get in the way of what they want.
Marius, yeah, funny thing, that “thou shall no kill fetuses”, eh no? Looks like Filipinos can follow commands, given the right “incentives”.
Pallacertus: I’m afraid your option doesn’t fit with my general observation. As Mr Al Bahr said there, Filipinos simply have no regard for the lives of others. Someone upset you? No problem: just have your shady friends shoot them or run them over with a truck. Then you don’t have to feel upset anymore. The nasty person has gone away.
You think I’m exaggerating? Almost everyone I know in the Philippines has had some family member, friend or acquaintance killed in some violent altercation, or straight-up cold-blooded murder. It goes without saying that the police are simply not interested, so such things don’t even make national statistics. Ho hum, that’s the way we do it in the Philippines.
You might also have noticed that the national sport revolves around the slow and painful death of an animal. If you point out to Filipinos that this is a barbaric, heathen practice, there’s always someone who will threaten to kill you for insulting Pinoy pride. Try it.
Maybe God has instructed Filipinos to go forth and multiply simply to keep up with the murder rate?
Actually, marius, according to the CIA’s World Factbook, the estimated death rate here (deaths per thousand for this year) comes up to about 6.10, placing us at 161st on its list of more than two hundred countries and territories listed. Of course you say that we’re indifferent to people dying and getting killed, but here’s the thing: maybe your “general” observation has its faults?
Also, arnis is the national sport, not cockfighting. Just a heads-up.
Right. When all else fails, compare to the rest of the world. And just because we supposedly rank relatively low, in that regard, compared to the rest of the world, then we should not treat it as a problem? Is that the kind of thinking you espouse?
I’ve heard you, and some other people who are “liberals” use that argument before! (In particular, your argument against the approach to the drug problem) Why disregard that, within one’s own space, there are people affected by that very problem? Don’t you think that telling victims, “we rank low compared to the rest of the world, so the problem is negligible”, comes off as condescending?
Hahaha, arnis. Ok, noted. Did you have to consult a fact book to look for what the actual “national sport” is? The national sport, as deemed so by some highfalutin “authoritative body”? Duh, go look at what people do in the streets! Not just the streets of your gated subdivisions, mind you, but the streets of the world that the “haves” in our society simply refuse to admit exists!
While “the slow and painful death of an animal”, is not always the case, Filipinos like applying painful, in extreme cases, deadly stimuli to objects/subjects that/who will be meek, docile, and compliant, and taking glee in the reactions. If the subject is not compliant, they will complain about his/her lack of pakikisama, katuwaan lang naman ito (this is just for fun), and KJ (killjoy).
Observations are observations. There is no right or wrong because we all went through different circumstances. I just happen to have been able to relate with what marius said. We are going to have a problem if you insist that only your interpretation of the world around you is the correct one. Which is what “liberals” are being pilloried for nowadays.
@ WILLIE, Saying abortion if is forgivable IS NOT THE SAME AS APPROVING ABORTIONS. FAR FROM IT, stretching the truthdoesn’t change anything either.’FLIP-OUT’ !
Hyden,
“Only God can terminate a life, whether in the womb of a mother, or a full human being … ”
I dont want to start a religious war with you but I wonder what will happen if you tell that to all next of kin of those who were in MH17, MH370 and other casualities?
Thank god (no pun intended), I will decide about my own body myself, when its time to go and not to meet my creator.
Why do you think Bergoglio said that in the first place? Because he also notices that worldwide people start to stray away from (too) strict religious dogmas. So, to keep his flock at reasonable numbers he has to give more and more. Its quite Obvious, to me.
@ Robert Haighton:
That is my belief…I do not mind other people’s beliefs. Whether, they are: Atheists, Agnostics, Satanists, etc…
If you hang yourself today, or take a cyanide pill. I won’t mind it…
Killing is against Christian beliefs. I do not believe in wars, terrorism, or plain killing of fellow human being, because of any reason !
Hyden,
“I do not believe in wars, terrorism, or plain killing of fellow human being, because of any reason!”
I am sure you will be the next Nobel peace prize winner.
You dont have to believe in wars, they will happen and are happening anyway.
I also dont believe in water, but I do drink it.
@Robert Haighton:
I do not believe in the Nobel Peace Prize…I do not want to be a winner of that prize.
The late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat is the father of modern day terrorism.
We cannot live without water; but we can live peacefully, without war !
Hyden,
“I do not believe in the Nobel Peace Prize…I do not want to be a winner of that prize. The late PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Arafat is the father of modern day terrorism.”
I totally agree with you on this one. Also with the latest Nobel prize for literature (Bob Dylan). How on this god’s green earth can someone like Dylan win that prize?!
“We cannot live without water; but we can live peacefully, without war!”
Water. For some it is available in abundance, for others its a curse (floods, drowning in the Mediterraenan Sea, drought) So you see that everyone looks at this subject differently.
War. The only industry that benefits from (civil) war (and from gun ownership) is the manufacturers of guns and other machinery of war. Even the american NRA benefits from who is the current/next president of the US of A.
You will have more peace if the gun and war industry gets destroyed and governments have laws that forbids carrying and owning guns.
Ouch, this was a political statement.
Back to the original topic. Teaching history is by far nonsense. We all have much bigger problems that need to be solved. And history is not one of them.
We have to look to the future (move forward).
Bob, as George Santayana said: Those who can’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Pallacertus,
We were educated by remembering dates from the 15th and 16th century (duh). The last (or most recent) incident that took place was WW2 (in my country). Since then the Dutch government became pro-Israel and pro-USA. Very understandable but times do change. I am more critical about Israel and critical about the USA. And that latter country certainly does not stand for the so called ‘free world’.
We learn from our history and we will try not to make that (stupid) mistake again. So we are moving forward. What happened, happened. We cant change history as if it never happened. So why talk about it constantly? And I see that a lot here in GRP. Focus on the future. Stop living in the past.
if we are going to teach our youths straight forward it’s greed and betrayal to the pilipinos on hacienda luisita. the farmland belongs to the farmers eversince the spaniards came to the philippines. it was sequestered by the spanish governor and gave it to his best friend the spanish lopezes’. after ww2 the hukbalahaps threatens the lopezes to give it back to the farmers and it was paid as compensation through the peoples’ money in 1957 with 10 years agreement signed by ninoy’s father in law Jose Cojuangco sr. to be distributed to the real owners the farmers come 1967. the sale was offered by the president that time to cory’s dad using peoples’ money. ninoy was assigned as the administrator of the farmland to guide the farmers. and the war in hacienda luisita continues till now. it’s the root of all this mess happening in the Philippines the youth should know. a Greed and Betrayal to the Nation.
Vae victis!
In honor of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom,
and to remind us of the urgency of resistance,
Dutch poet van Randwijk wrote the visionary
a nation that gives in to tyrants
will lose more than body and goods
doused will be the light
I never fully understood the import of these lines
until they became saliently relevant with
succumbing to demeaning American foolhardiness
Filipinos lost more than their ancestral home
they lost their soul,
became traitors to what they had become,
and their world-shaking accomplishment of
defeating a Western power,
lighting the torch of liberty in Asia,
establishing their First Republic,
inspiring leaders from Sun Yat Sen to Sukarno,
and giving hope to the downtrodden nations of Asia,
in brief, acts and feats that are, sixty years into the Second Republic,
steadily withheld from the people,
the Philippines, a tragic place indeed.
Niels Mulder
A conceptual approach in teaching & learning could help a great deal if we want to improve on quality. Esp. with the vast amounts of information today, we need to improve in terms of processing..
I like how this is not a shill-piece.
fidel ramos should explain to the pilipinos who told him to sell afp camp fort bonifacio and where the money goes. this is another thing the youths should know.
do not define democracy in the streets, you are misleading the kids
we read the “his story” in books, have we read/heard the “others’ story” in every page of it.
why do we need to live in the past and even pass on the present generation how we want change to happen while in fact EDSA is not a successful experiment of change!
Teach the children to go out and claim justice, not just whine about it.
After the Holocaust, the Israelis and Jewish communities knew that Europe wouldn’t help them, so they deployed their agents everywhere to hunt down everyone from the planners to the lowly prison guards. Their dedication is so long-lasting that those responsible either end up caught or spend the rest of their lives in hiding.
During the Civil Rights movement, people put themselves in front of water hoses and angry guard dogs to make sure that everyone could be treated equal, and that continues today. As I mentioned, these so-called protests after Trump’s election won’t be enough. I actually like the idea of people volunteering to be put on the “Muslim registry” and face deportation squads.
The children need to know that the world is a harsh place, and to change it they need to get out of their “safe spaces.”
Our history is every human history; a black and gory business, with more scoundrels than wise men at the lead, and more louts than both put together to cheer and follow.
There’s something about those slogans too. Conditioning? It’s what their camp often projects about the other. Sariling gawain.
here’s the first stanza of the song “Greatest Love of All” by Whitney Houston
I believe the children are our future
“Teach them well and let them lead the way”
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be
-> Teach them well and let them lead the way
Let’s teach our children to think critically and not be indoctrinated by this yellow cult that marcos is bad and aquino is a hero. let’s teach them to be curious, ask questions, etc.
I saw this photo of students (around 3rd grade or something) with a nun. thy have this banner (or cardboard or something) saying Marcos is not a hero.
marcos did more than the 30+ years of aquino/conjuanco/oligarchy/oligopoly.