⌛ Let us all unite for our country

The Filipino Today: Let Us All Rise As One People
Posted on September 1st, 2010 under*Inspirational Views**

By Alex Lacson


After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.
“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general. There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.
Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.
It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.
We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.
The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to Hong Kong, China and to the whole world.
But there is so much more about the Filipino.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely -thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.
In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.
The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.
The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.
The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!
Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.
Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!
Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “New York’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.
In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.
The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.
I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.
What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has a beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.
So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.

 

The inventor of the ship probeller was austrian. Should I be proud of it?
No, I´m not. I´m not proud to be austrian but I´m glad.
There is no need to be proud of anything you did´nt achive yourself. But of course, if nobody else is telling you how good you are, at least you have to tell it youself.

 

cardijo the thread title is "Let us all unite for our country". And if being proud is the way to unite us then why not. Being proud only when we achieve it ourselves is being selfish and that defeats the objective for unity. FYI we don't need anybody telling us how good we are, we just need to respected in as much as other race want it. If in the US there is African black slavery. The world should have known we Filipinos have been treated slaves long time ago.

 

Kewl: There is nothing wrong with being proud of your fellow countrymen's achievements
The Article was very open.
However we must all strive to unite in this World for the good of all mankind.
Yes there are things from the past in the Western World that I wish could be changed, we can only learn from past mistakes and look forward to a better future.

 

i am very proud filipino to those pinoys who made their names outside the country but vary shameful to the politicians here

:(

 

i am not telling all politicians were like that.. but mostly the corrupt ones outnumbered those straight ones

 

World Wide Problem!

Gene, believe me it is not confined to PI, Last year when I was working in Spain, 17 of the Marbella City Council were arrested for Fraud and Misappropriation of Government funds, 11 are still awaiting Trial, 3 were imprisoned. Only 7/8 weeks ago the mayor of la-Linea the Border Town of Gibraltar was Dismissed and arrested for losing YES losing over 24.000.000€ of pension money, The Street cleaners and gardeners have not been paid for 5 months. Corruption is all over the World, a Spaniard told me just before I came home that he was no longer proud to be Spanish, Silly man I told him, it is not your fault. Being Proud of one's Heritage is Important to ourselves But My Wife is the proudest Filipino I have met, a proud family, I admire them all for the struggles they have come through. My Brother-in-Law ( North Dakota) and I ( British ) were Welcomed with open Arms to the family, This has made us Very proud of the family.

I will always be Proud to be English but also Proud to be part of Wonderful Environment, not perfect at all, despite all the much Talked about Corruption and Paper work " Home is where the Heart is " My heart is here, The Majority of Filipinos have Every Right to be Proud people and may that Never Change.


Jack P.


Opps! seems I have had 50cents worth today.:o

 

"Let us all unite for our country" is certainly a good advise to me.
I can best agree with the last sentence of the article of Alex Lacson:
"So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system."
But the listing of people in his article who have done very well as Filipino's, as a proof that we (I mean now 'the Filipino's") can be so proud of the country is not so meaningfull to me.
To explain: I am from the Netherlands. Yes I am proud on many achievements the country (or certain country men) have made.
From the many good painters (van Gogh, Rembrand, Frans Hals, and many others, even modern painters), sailors and admirals (de Ruyter, Piet Hein, and the like), some architects, hugh water protection constructions, sportsmen (world- and olympic champions), and I better can stop to try to mention them further.
But I also have to realise the other side of the coin, done by my country/country men on which I am far from proud.
It is not wrong to be proud but it should not be (imho) overtaken by loss of reality.
Being proud can unite a country. That's what this country needs: being united and work for the future of the country united.
A lot has to be done. It has no use to mourn long.
It also has no use to swank much.
Only actions can bring a country at the right trail, provided that these actions are part of a united and clearly distributed plan.
The present president hopefully can bring that spirit into the minds of his nationals. Gos bless him.

 

Heart Warming Post!

jelly Fish, Thank You! For Sharing your Thoughts, In deed a very Heart Warming Post.

Jack P.