Writing from Europe 120 years ago, Jose Rizal traced the causes of why Filipinos were so unproductive (which is a more refined term compared to the word that Rizal used: indolence). He began with a medical explanation that made it more natural and even healthier to refrain from heavy labor in hot conditions. Besides, he reasoned, tropical soil was more fertile to compensate for the reduction in manual input. He then proceeds to make clear that our ancestors were more motivated before we got colonized by citing ancient texts that celebrated the “activity and honesty” of the earlier inhabitants when they dealt with Chinese traders.

In what he described as a “fatal combination of circumstances” Rizal provided two major classifications: Spain’s fault and our very own fault. He rips the existing corrupt bureaucracy in his age and unsparingly describes the multitude of obstacles that totally wiped out any incentive for hard work. Upon reading this 120 year old essay, you can no doubt easily replace the governing colonial power with our various administrations. The substitution is seamless.

But if Rizal was brutal with the Spaniards, he was also able to call the shots as they appeared to him and he issued a ruthless indictment: we were as much to blame despite our ignorance and lack of education. “In order that he may make progress it is necessary that a revolutionary spirit, so to speak, should boil in his veins since progress necessarily requires change; it implies the overthrow of the sanctified past by the present, the victory of new ideas over the old accepted ones…. The lack of a national consciousness gives rise to another evil, which is the absence of all opposition to measures prejudicial to the people and the absence of any initiative in whatever may rebound to their good. A man in the Philippines is only an individual; he is not a member of a nation.”

In Rizal’s time, it was the Friars who constituted the constant ruling class. In our time, they have become our traditional politicians who have made politics into a thoroughly dishonorable manner of making a living. It was way obvious then, it remains crystal clear today. If we want change, we will have to get together and implement it ourselves. We need to rise above our differences no matter how strongly we might feel about certain convictions because what can be worse than witnessing our youth receive substandard education, practically no healthcare and wallow in subhuman living conditions?

We must all become extraordinarily conscious that we belong to one nation and it is our obligation to assume an active role in the development of our future.