A people without a purpose
Led and manipulated by corrupt, self-righteous, greedy, and arrogant politicians, so-called leaders who have no vision or sense of purpose for the nation and for the people, and governed by notoriously dishonest and incompetent bureaucrats, we, the Filipino people, more than 105 million of us, rise and fall in every natural calamity and crisis, surviving only because of our relentless faith in God and our fanatical devotions to hundreds of patron saints and relieved only intermittently by our rituals and religious festivals that serve as palliatives for the social cancer. Religion and family are the only remaining anchors of the nation but both are being threatened by an array of socio-economic and technological threats.
In this country, education, like justice, is compartmentalized: public schools for the poor and private schools for the rich and famous. Taught and reared, schooled and educated either by public schools (for the children of lesser gods, or those whose fathers are subsistence fisher folks, farmer-tenants, or lowly clerks and janitors, and whose mothers work abroad as helpers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, or Kuwait, or other difficult, dirty, dangerous, deceptive, and degrading jobs as OFWs), or exclusive schools for boys and girls (for the lucky children of taipans and their executive minions and underlings, and scions of big-time officials from Customs or BIR, or children of actors and actresses, basketball players, boxers, and comedians-cum-politicians). Whether in public or in private, the school curriculum does not include being purpose-driven at all.
The Church has lost its moral ascendancy because its leaders do not walk their talk. They call the poor blessed and perhaps that is the reason why they do not help address the issue of poverty. They preach the value of life and condemn any form of killing, but they denounce only the police that allegedly abet summary executions, while turning a blind eye to the many killings, rapes, destruction and violence perpetrated by drug-crazed criminals who murder infants and octogenarians after molesting them. The priests have harsh words against immoral and corrupt politicians but they have many records of pedophilia and extramarital affairs. Many of them have paramours and bastard children. They molested boys and girls. And so, what moral right do they have to preach against immorality?
And so, the people have lost a sense of purpose because the tripod of family, school, and Church has collapsed. The only way to save this nation and to regain our national soul is to strengthen the family, and overhaul our education philosophies and school systems. The Church, if it wants to recover its credibility, must also undergo cleansing and renewal. What this nation really needs is total healing. What the people require is reaffirming their sense of purpose. Today, the people are not bound by a common purpose. Thus, there is no sense of nationhood. The country is just a bunch of individuals with their own respective desires and instincts. There is no sense of vision and mission. And everyone is doing his own thing. What a shame.
- Latest
