We produced a Rizal:

Greatness is in our blood!

When the US Congress was debating the issue of Philippine independence, the day was won by a Representative who invoked Rizal: a nation that can produce a Jose Rizal surely deserves to run its own country. The thought comes back whenever the writer and his wife are on summer break by the Black Sea, and Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios is literally all over the resort – etched in tall (over 5-foot) cylindrical planters – operated by a Spanish hotel chain.

Our instinct to excel ought not to be subsumed by an attitude of que sera sera – keeping our head in the sand?

Rizal fought hierarchy tooth and nail. We have an excellent model in questioning what some may view as the inevitable – e.g., our social structure or underdeveloped status.

Government, industry, education and the Church are all critical if we are to mirror Rizal’s model.

We need a new People Power to simply tell politicians that enough is enough? If Rizal was able to offer his own life . . . what could they offer? Whatever happened to public service? What about the honor system – is it alien to us?

Industry is unwittingly reinforcing hierarchy (aristocracy?) by simply pushing financial goals, i.e., only a few would benefit from their enterprise? The ability to run an enterprise is God-given – it’s a privilege and an honor, and thus must benefit beyond one’s self, i.e., nation-building? We now know that focusing on the local market will not provide the economic benefits badly needed by our large population. We need to expand our economic pie by being competitive – regionally and/or globally. This demands a new paradigm and greater risk-taking – inherent in doing business beyond our borders. But we can dig into our instinct of excellence to overcome the risk?

We talk about reforming our educational system. But like most things that require change, it starts in the mind . . . before it comes down to the heart and eventually to the gut – i.e., instinct! Invoking nationalism at the core of education has not worked for us – it has isolated us from the rest of the world. The search for knowledge ought to be expansive and thus universal, not parochial. What about character-building? How do we turn out true public servants? The writer’s Bulgarian assistant recalled his graduation oath when the writer had stressed as an acquisition condition (in another ex-socialist state) that the books must first be cleaned and brought up to GAAP standards: “we put our hands on our hearts and swore that we’d use our knowledge only to drive progress and improvement; to always be honest and careful in what we’re doing and never use knowledge for bad.”

The Church was not spared by Rizal. We ought not to be subservient to the Church either. The Church ought to be lauded for making the Church more human, as Christ demonstrated. Spirituality and humanness can come together from within not necessarily from without like institutions or religion? For example, honesty is the best policy?

How do we pull them all together – bearing in mind that there’s no institution or system that can be everything to everybody? Not even Eden welcomed free board and lodging! Net, we need to fix our economy if we truly want to be compassionate . . . to over 30 million hungry Filipinos – and bid our split-level Christianity goodbye?