retaking values part two

RETAKING OUR VALUES - II: Victorino P Mapa John F Kennedy prefaced his presidency by telling America, “Ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country”.With this message JFK led America to a bright shining hill and for the next thousand days until his assassination the legend of Camelot came alive before the world. That same challenge very well applies to our country today if we are to restore our place to where the Philippines used to be – a time when we were the envy of every nation in Asia, when neighbor countries sent the best of their best to our schools and universities; our leaders were respected for their intellect and probity; the economy was thriving , the peso was strong at the exchange rate of four to one and life was good. Nearly everyone was employed. There was no inducement to find work overseas.. We had agrarian unrest and a communist threat but our able and efficient army efficiently handled the problem. Life was too good to worry about the little chicaneries committed by a few minor officials. Unfortunately we are a tolerant and forgiving people and we allowed the doors of our values to open just a bit. In the 60s that door was violently pushed ajar. The youth of our land saw where the country was headed and took to the streets. It was near-anarchy. Martial law was imposed. We began to play loose and easy with our morals. That was when we lost our way. The Philippines with its new leaders is currently striving to bring us back to our own “bright shining hill.” . We cannot simply rely on the few men at the top to do all the work and damn them once more if they fail. They need help from each and everyone of us. We can no longer afford to just watch what is happening build walls in our compound and be grateful it’s happening someplace and to someone else and not within our own backyard. The Philippines is the only land that God has given to us, the only ship that we’re all in. If it sinks, we all sink. Filipinos have been buffeted by typhoons and floods and survived through it. When we could no longer abide the abuses and excesses of corrupt leaders we rose as one through “People Power” and cast them out. . We transplanted ourselves to other lands and despite discrimation and at times unfair treatment have risen above it and succeeded in creating a better life. The love of country is innate in every Filipino, including this Balikbayan and thousands of others like me who have exiled themselves to other lands in search for a better life. Time and distance can never diminish our love for the Motherland. One might as well ask the expat Filipino to stop breathing as to stop loving the land where he was born. Like JFK’s call to action we must all ask ourselves: What can I do for my country? How can I be a better citizen? We must ask these questions and follow them up with deeds as if our lives and our children’s future depend on it because they do Only apathy and indifference stand in our way. We once had men who asked these same questions , ordinary men who became extraordinary because They gave their lives striving for the answers. We are the heirs of what they died for. I believe in the strength and resiliency of the Filipino.. With the resolve and strenght of character that is inherent in all of us we can achieve our hopes and dreams of a brighter tomorrow and someday return to our own “bright, shining hill.”

retaking our values Part 1

RETAKING OUR VALUES: Victorino P. Mapa Gloria is forgotten for the moment. All attention is focused on the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the first ever case in the Philippines. Whether or not he is ousted is still up in the air. Whatever the outcome the attention will eventually focus back to Gloria who has more cases piled on her than a brewery truck loaded with six packs. She and her FG (stands for Fat Guy) stand accused of just about every crime and venality that’s happened before and during her watch as prez except raiding Fort Knox. Given the dark mood of the people she may even be accused of that. The ex-prez unfortunately has become the poster child of all the tribulations that have fallen upon our country all these years. It’s all part of the “Moro-Moro” that’s been going on since time immemorial: After each election new leaders conduct investigations, blame is placed, charges are filed and the incoming officials try to place the guilty in jail. Justice is served, the people are satisfied, life goes on and within a few weeks the cycle of corruption resumes. But it shouldn’t worry GMA. History is on her side. Everybody gets sued. Nobody goes to jail. One of the sins La Gloria stands accused of is how she has stolen our values.I disagree. They weren’t stolen. We haven’t lost them either.. We just set them aside without realizing it. Decades of unrelenting poverty, incessant graft and the uncertain future she and her predecessors have placed the country in is what caused us to develop temporary amnesia of our morals. It’s a shocking indictment and many may not care to admit, but take a close look and see how civic discipline is almost non-existent: We drive through city streets filthy with garbage. People nonchalantly toss away thrash anyplace they want ; men simply stick close to any wall to relieve themselves. As long as it’s not in our own backyqard, who cares? The well-off create enclaves, build high walls and hire security guards to keep beggars and the homeless away from their front doors; squatters occupy private lots and violently demonstrate when they are evicted from land they do not own.We commit traffic violations, bus drivers run their own Indianapolis 500 with impunity, cops quickly catch and arrest, bribes are offered and we damn the taking ways of the policeman; Licenses are given to illegal loggers who denude our forests; unlawful fisheries jampack our lakes and rivers causing massive fish kills. All that is needed is some pesos slipped here and there to “expedite” Gifts, kickbacks and inducements is the accepted norm to coax higher officials to get things done. Everyone participates in the bribery. Then we get indignant, participate in rallies to complain about the corruption that pervades. We rail at the sleaze that pervades. - until we find ourselves in our own civic violation. We shrug our shoulders,initiate our own “kotong” and fail to see that we have jumped into the same cesspool. Conscience be dammed. We must look to our own hide first if we are to survive. “Looking out for number one, I’ve got mine, go get yours” have become our mantras. Election year comes along and once more we search for another Moses to lead us out of Egypt. We look to the new leaders for salvation, to remove the ills and miseries we are mired in and leave everything to these leaders to fix the problems we helped a create. The newly elected assume office and the “rigodon” begins again.. There are idealists and well-meaning reformers who suggest several remedies to get us out of the plight we’re in. All are sincere recommendations. A recent one from no less than Vice President Binay said : “…..we need to make the people see that they have a government they can trust, that we have a government that is not out to lie and cheat,” and so many similar etceteras echoed again and again they no longer mean anything because we’ve heard them so many times. We’ve gotten so inured in our world of ill governance for so long we seem to have lost the resolve and desire for a better tomorrow . Modified morality and modified honesty has become a way of life. Despite all that is happening, of mere Customs clerks driving Porsches, government officials equaling the riches of Croessus, of late, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court allegedly stashing Millions of US doillar accounts and ordinary cops owning mansions, all is not lost. The divine spark that defines the Filipino as a good and decent person is still there. Our churches overfill on Sundays;. The majority continue to believe that we must be governed by God – or be ruled by tyrants. We spontaineously took to the streets with “People Power” when we were up to here with the excesses of corrupt officials. And what Filipino parent does not continue to dream of a better future for their children? We may have set our morals aside but we have not lost them. The desire to change is there but we just can’t leave it to the officials we elect. A man once showed us the way. He had a fierce love of country and pride in himself as a Filipino. He gave his life for these beliefs. He was our first Filipino – the Pride of the Malay race. Change is not going to be easy.There are no quick solutions, no magic medicine that can cure the cancer that the country has been sick of these many years. The changes must ensue from every Filipino. Each of us must be involved.Like it or not we must accept the fact that we are all partly to blame for allowing the corrosion that is eating away our morals. When we do we shall be more responsible with our right to vote and choose leaders not because of their athletic skills or show biz clout but “men whom the lust for office does not kill; men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; men who possess opinions and a will; men who have honor and will not lie; men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his treacherous flaterrings without winking; tall men, sun-crowned, who rise above the fog in public duty and private thinking ……” * Only then can we get out of the rut we’re in, restore the ethics and values inherent in all of us and perhaps contribute to the world something more meaningful than having the largest crocodile in existence. Actually not a big deal. Hundreds of these crocs have been roaming the halls of our government for years. Many are bigger than Lolong.. *words of essayist and poet, J. B. Holland To be continued