It is often said that amidst the trials, the difficulties, the hardships and all, life is still worth living.
Some people have given up the battle before it even started. This is bad because this is a defeatist view of life.
On the other hand, average people have a subjective take on what is true happiness and satisfaction. Surveys taken on this matter record respondents as Very Happy, Somewhat Happy, Somewhat Unhappy or Very Unhappy.
I have read of books chronicling the successful journeys of people who have helped made America what it is today – the Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Carnegies, etc. – and this has led the world to believe that anybody who has the guts and a dream can make it big in the US of A.
In our country of more than one hundred million, however, not much literature has been written about this aspect of existence. The heroes that we acknowledge as patriots and nationalists have only been noted for their fight for independence. Which is more political in nature than anything one will see on the surface.
The economic development and growth of our nation have not been ascribed to this same group of men and women because they were focused on liberating the people from foreign oppression and colonization.
This is the principal reason why Jose Rizal did not agree to an armed revolution because the Filipino people were not ready to stand on their own and operationally run an efficient and effective government. And wasn’t the man damn right?
The Philippines today is struggling to rise out of the ashes of despair and the ruins of corruption. There is a great divide – a chasm if you must – that separates the haves from the have nots, the privileged and the underprivileged, the powerful and the powerless, the connected and the disconnected.
Much of the country’s wealth is held by less than one percent of the nation’s old, landed elite families that have mushroomed into clans of nouveau riche’ heirs and heiresses who now hold the scepter of economic authority in the current millennial times.
The men who masqueraded as patriots during Rizal and Bonifacio’s era were men subsequently exposed to have self-serving interests and manifested only a nationalistic stance then because it was politically convenient.
Thus, these shrewd opportunists rose up the ladder of prominence and success from the Spanish stranglehold to the new wave of American imperialism because they knew how to ride piggyback. And they got handsomely paid.
But realistically speaking, the traditional Chinese traders and businessmen and their scions of Chinoys are the ones financially in-charge. Majority of them are among the top fifty richest Filipinos listed among Forbes’ magazines elite club.
I fear that should they suddenly just close shop and bring their wealth elsewhere, the country and this government would go crashing down and become bankrupt.
I therefore cannot imagine how the poor millions of our countrymen living under the poverty line can survive the harsh economic realities. Coping with the ever-increasing prices of staple food and commodities, unemployment, inflation, rising school fees and educational costs will drive daily wage earners crazy in making both ends meet; so how much more grievous impact will these do to them who are just utterly poor and helpless?
Encouragingly, somewhere above the horizon there is a silver lining.
One who is down deep in the mire cannot but climb out and go upwards. (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) Psalm 19:14. “May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight O Lord, my Rock and Redeemer.” GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
