Kabataan Partylist Representative Sarah Elago has it all wrong. What Filipino “nationalists” believe to be things that make a great nation are all obsolete. If we are to believe people like Elago, one would think “activism” is such a be-all-end-all of the people of a modern nation. A statement posted by the League of Filipino Students on Facebook, confirms this…
Ang pangarap niyo para sa amin na magandang kinabukasan ay pangarap din namin para sa marami pang nilugmok ng kahirapan. Pangarap naming makapagtapos ang lahat ng kabataan, maging sapat ang sahod at regular ang trabaho ng mga manggagawa, makakain ang mga magsasaka, mabigyang-hustisya ang mga walang habas na pinatay at pinagsamantalahan, makamit ng lahat ang kanilang karapatan. Pangarap namin ang isang malayang bukas- para sa aming mga sarili, sa ating mga pamilya, sa susunod pang henerasyon.
Translated to English:
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“You, [our parents’], aspiration for us [children] that we face a good future is also our aspiration for the impoverished masses. We yearn for a future where all young people can complete an education, that wages be fair, that all workers be made “regular”, that our farmers could eat, that justice be served to all who are murdered and exploited, that everyone enjoy the rights they are entitled to. We hope for a free future for both ourselves, our families, and subsequent generations.”
Reading this makes one appreciate the utter pomposity of these “activist” leaders. They’d like everyone to believe they hold a monopoly on having the best interests of the broader Filipino public at heart. They also see their flavour of “activism” as the only means to achieve this and put forth the idea that “activists” that fit their mold are a cut above all the rest. Worst of all, they presume to speak for both existing members and future recruits to send a message to Filipino parents that their sort of “activism” is far nobler than a conventional education.
Forget for a moment that everything these commies are saying are nonsensical to begin with…
(1) That workers are entitled to “fair” wages (They are not. Wages are set by the free market);
(2) That regularised workers are necessarily good (Not necessarily. It depends on the nature of the work required);
(3) That murdered and exploited people deserve justice (They already do under the current system); and,
(4) That they hope for a free (and, presumably prosperous) future for all (Everyone does. Commies don’t enjoy a monopoly over the virtue of aspiring for universal justice, freedom and prosperity)…
…among others.
While all of this is good, the fact is, there is one inconvenient detail communists and the wider community of snowflakes routinely leave out of their lame rhetoric: achievement.
You need to achieve things to become a great person and achieve consistently as a collective to be a great nation. More importantly, concrete quantifiable achievement is what creates capital and wealth. Thus it is not surprising that achievement is measured in terms of how much money one makes — either through profit (earning more than what you spend) and through capital gain (increasing the value of one’s assets).
Filipinos are increasingly recognising that the communist and mainstream “activist” rhetoric is obsolete. This is good because it is high time Filipinos embrace a different approach; yes, so that any hope for a different outcome becomes more realistic.
It’s simple, really.
Filipinos need to celebrate achievement.
This is fundamentally different from communist and mainstream “activist” sloganeering. While communists and conventional “activists” emphasise a focus on “helping the poor”, there is a long-overdue need to transition to a modern approach to nationalism — one that celebrates success.
And here is the bottom line. To be successful — one needs to focus on getting a good education (or on learning a skill to enable one to be measureably successful in some other way). Certainly, prioritising “activism” over education will not deliver those results. Indeed, communism and the stereotypical “activism” we see today have so far delivered poor results as far as contributing to the building of a nation of achievers. How can they? They celebrate the plight of those who fail to measure up!
The reality is, great nations were built not on good intentions but on shrewd business sense. The countries today we look up to for their prosperity and the liberal values their people live by rose on the back of scientific, technological, and military achievement plus the commercial acumen to convert all of the outcomes of these endeavours into capital gain upon which they derive sustained national income. What the communists and their circle of conventional “activists” propose will lead Filipinos down a path opposite to this. It’s time Filipinos ditch this failed rhetoric and embrace what it really takes to be a great people.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
Mike Defensor is a former activist yet he became one of the controversial figures during the Arroyo administration. That is because your perspective will change when you enter in your respective field.
These commies are the abusive ones, I tell you.
Communism and Socialism are failed and obsolete political ideologies. These ideologies have been tested in the : former Soviet Union; Mao Tse Tung’s China; Polpot’s Cambodia; Fidel Castro’s Cuba; Kim’s family North Korea; Communist Eastern Europe, etc…
Communism has produced: Soviet Union Stalin’s Gulag labor camps, where they worked political opponents and dissenters on slave labor until they die. ..It had produced also China’s MaoTse Tung’s Cultural Revolution; where Mao Tse Tung murdered millions of Chinese in his labor camps, and humiliated and murdered his political enemies in the worst way, until they died. Fidel Castro’s Cuba is the remnant of communism, where the country remained in backward condition. There is a monarchial succession in Cuba…Fidel Castro is succeeded by his brother, Raul Castro. North Korea is the same; the country is ruled by the Kim family. From Kim Il Sung to Kim Jung Un…the country remain in poor and backward condition ; inspite of its nuclear capability. In Eastern Europe, the former communist countries now became democratic/capitalist, and are now in a better conditions… Polpot’s Cambodia is the worst example of communism. Polpot murdered millions of Cambodians, in his Killing Fields. The Killing Fields exhibits can be seen, in Cambodia anytime.
As for socialism,: everything is free ! Sure, but nothing comes from nothing…where do they get this “everything” ? They tax everybody, very high. So, “everything ” is free, until we run out of “everything”…and we all become poor as seen in any socialist country…
Young people, especially the activists think they can solve the complicated problems of our country, thru their activism. This is part of the, “youth is wasted on the young” stages of their lives. Problems are too huge for us to solve; even for us, in the older generation…
Get a good education; learn good skills and use your God given talents…and contribute for the solutions of the problems in our country. ..There is no other way. ..Unfortunately, these young activists are being used by self serving politicians on both of the right and of the left, to further promote their political agendas !
I don’t think and worry about the “poor”, only heroes, martyrs, and saints think and worry about the “poor”. The word “poor” is just an idea to validate the existence of hero/martyr/saint. This is the concept of activists today, they use the word ” poor” so that they will be seen being above the ordinary, and later on be looked up upon, and then later, become themselves, an elite, and once handed the “power” they start to rule over society.
>> While all of this is good, the fact is, there is one inconvenient detail communists and the wider community of snowflakes routinely leave out of their lame rhetoric: achievement.
What a bunch of turnips.
I suspect the quote above explains why Communism is perennially popular in the Philippines: Filipinos want all that stuff the “activists” are blathering about … but they don’t want to have to work for it. The “fair wages” bit is especially telling. The Filipino wants to be paid like a first-world worker, without actually being competent, or without giving up his “right” to steal company property that isn’t nailed down. The fact is that competent Filipinos do get paid a fair wage. Unfortunately, they have to leave the country to do it, because competence isn’t valued in the Philippines.
Sad part is, competence probably won’t be valued here, not until at least Filipinos regard it as a zero-sum game (i.e., others’ competence merely makes them look bad)
Communism, as an ideology is best fought with a counter-ideology, however, the Filipinos, in spite of their shared history, experiences and aspirations, are still divided among themselves what’s there to embrace… there’s always the reality of schism between those that are western-loving, the pseudo-patriots and the common folks.
Communism is so closely intertwined with poverty because by definition it is a social system that rewards you based on your needs (not success).
Notice how almost always the words communism and poverty/poor will always pop up in the same paragraph.
The question these activists should reflect on is this: are you communist because you’re poor, or are you poor because you’re communist?
This is so spot on!
Not so spot on with China though, when “China proves that might – and MONEY – makes it RIGHT”! 🙂