You, me, and everyone we know

A great deal about this nation does not add up. The contradictions are endless as they are varied. We all want to save the republic, yet in our everyday mundane lives, it’s really every man for himself in this nation of 100 million.

We curse and condemn corruption, yet we protect cronies and everything they own.

We go to church every Sunday, pray to the Black Nazarene and call the saints, yet we steal millions from taxpayers and hide them in our vaults.

We call for justice, yet we elect plunderers into office.

And then there are the “good” contradictions. We laugh and smile in the face of tragedy – be it Haiyan, be it Mayon’s fury, be it 20,000 dead in the drug war, or the four horsemen of the apocalypse walking in our midst.

Someone once told me that maybe we weren’t meant to be a nation because we have wasted every opportunity to become a better society – from the time the Philippine flag was first raised in a balcony in Kawit at five in the afternoon of 1898 to the time we toppled a dictator in the bloodless uprising of 1986. 

Love letter to Manila

I disagreed. I thought it was cruel and unfair to say that this country of great minds was not meant to be a great country. I believe – as I did yesterday, as I do today and as I will tomorrow – that we will be the great nation that we all long to be. 

One may call this a stupid, idealistic piece. Go ahead. But it is what I believe in. It is a love letter to my country, and love -- whether unrequited or not – is never stupid. 

Nation-building

I thought about this rough terrain of nation-building over many sleepless nights as I was working on my story for Philippine STAR’s 33rd anniversary issue. The issue came out yesterday. I hope you were able to get a copy. Thank you to the billionaires and tycoons  for accommodating my interviews and requests for materials. I wasn’t kidding when I said I could lose my job if you didn’t reply. 

But seriously though, today is a good time to think about nation-building as we journey toward the next decade and as we all find ourselves in the heart of Duterte’s Philippines, made unwitting participants and for some, unwilling participants in this Netflix-like existence. We’re thrust into a society now governed by an unorthodox leader supported by a cult following of diehard supporters. 

What happens next is still anyone’s guess. 

But we should all help steer this country to where we want it to be, hopefully to a better place than when our parents or grandparents first found it to be, and make it an even better society for our children and their children as well.

After all who wouldn’t want a society that is truly fair, just and free? Who wouldn’t want to see a nation where the moral fabric is one we can all be proud of? Who wouldn’t want to see a nation where economic growth is inclusive and far-flung villages are developed enough so that the rural folks don’t have to leave their families to work abroad? 

Utopia

No, I am not talking about reaching utopia, a term coined by the English statesman and philosopher Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the south Atlantic that is perfect. 

There is no such thing, of course, but we can dream of something close to it – a society that strives for constant betterment and not one that just goes around in circles, an endless and senseless roundabout. 

That seems to be what’s happening now. After fighting for our sovereignty from our foreign colonizers, for instance, we are letting outsiders fish in our exclusive economic zones, making a mockery of the independence that our heroes have shed their lives for. 

Nation-building is, indeed, a rough terrain, but it is the responsibility of each and every one of us. Citizenship does not end in our passport or visa forms. It is something we should hold dear and value in our hearts, something we should remember everyday. We are Filipinos and love of country is a fundamental duty of every citizen.  We should be obsessed with moving the Philippines forward - invest more, build more, create more jobs – care more.

Sustainable change needs to be rooted in the people and for that to happen, education is important. Education can help us understand and discern the changes we face so we can make the right choices.

So as we ponder on nation-building and bask on how great and almighty Duterte is or how much of a threat he has become to our little mundane lives, we should all realise that while nation-building requires great leadership, it also requires people to be great.

Thus, what happens to this country in the next decade and the decades after that, really depends on all of us -- you and me and everyone we know.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com