THE PROBLEMS AFTER RIZAL

by Peter Jaynul V. Uckung

The real problem with Jose Rizal is that he was gone too soon. He never had the
chance to see the social cancer he so aptly described in his two novels, the Noli me
tangere and El Filibusterismo mutate into something more virulent, oppressive,
controlling way of life. By being dead, he could do nothing against the reincarnated
social cancer, which continued to wreak havoc on the lives of the people, whose
freedom he had tried to redeem with his blood. Born rich, Rizal had little touch with
the daily miseries endured by the mass of Filipinos during his time. Capable of
furthering his studies, Rizal was the embodiment of the intellectual who firmly
believed that the enlightened, no matter what race, is above unreasoning prejudice.
His scholarly sojourn in Europe convinced him of the infallibility of Science, not only
as a source of truth, but as a conqueror of oppression. This belief was clearly based
on an assumption which presupposed the existence of willingness, a reservoir of
goodwill and simple goodness within the colonizer that would move him inevitably to
correct the injustice done to the Filipino. Rizals call for reform and assimilation
attested to this unshakable belief. He died disowning the revolution. But his death
sounded the death knell to the colonial government of Spain in the Philippines.
Down came the tyrant priests, and with them came tumbling down all the feudalistic
systems they helped imposed on the land, in the name of unrestricted control of
power and profit. Two years after Rizals death, there was national euphoria with the
opening of the Malolos Congress. Freedom and democracy, it seemed was here to
stay, the colonial crisis was finally over. Or so it seemed. In trying to find meaning
and relevance between Rizal and the Filipinos after a hundred and fifty years of his
birth, even the shallowest of sceptic could say that the problems are not yet over, they
were never gone, theyve just been molecularly restructured into something barely
recognizable, and, therefore, generally acceptable. History is a very powerful tool for
peace and progress, for it is only in assessing history that we could justify social
change. But to purge history of the lessons therein, one must be unforgivingly
critical. One must be like Rizal. Here, the first sign of a revived colonialism is evident.
It is the silencing of the critic. The critics are silenced with assassination. Critics are
silenced when they are killed, like Rizal. Just Like the missing activists, or the
broadcasters who were shot and buried in Cotabato. Rizal certainly never

experienced facing a problem which is defined by what happens to the stock market,
or the banks. When these two financial entities get into trouble and begin to collapse,
then it is called a crisis. And when big financial institutions collapse, too often the
government bails them out by using tax pays money. The rich, then, get richer and
the poor get poorer. Is Shade of Colonialism? The advent of technology has given the
Filipinos a new range of jobs needing technical knowledge, knowledge to use
information and communication at the touch of a finger wherever and whenever. It
created companies needing legions and legions of Filipino call center agents with
knowledge in computers, giving a semblance that we are providing computer
wizards, which is the cutting edge in labor employment. But being high-tech is a
myth of economic prosperity. There is a reality of low skill, low-wage non-unionized
job. A modern day Rizal would have noticed this deceptive technological bonanza.
Rizal had always champion education as the key for eventual independence. He was
no longer around when the Americans implemented an educational system which
gave even the poor the chance to go to school. Today public education hardly serves
as an avenue for acquiring critical thinking and transformative reaction. Education
mostly serves today as the initiator for the transmission of knowledge instrumental
to the existing society. A society dominated by the will of business corporations and
foreign powers who openly declare themselves democratic while ruling that the
workers rights were literally against the law. A modern day Rizal would have no
problems finding his Capitan Tiago pandering around business corporation owners
and bowing to their wishes in exchange for monetary considerations, in every nook
and cranny of the government service. Rizal was declared national hero and
protector of the Filipinos, but will he be surprised with the program of globalization,
which has the underlying assumption that nationalism and protectionism are
incompatible with social and economic development. Rizal wrote that the Filipinos
were not naturally lazy. He defended his countrymen by explaining the reasons
affecting the lives of Filipinos. But mostly, he blamed the economic imperative of
colonialism that brought about social decay in the Philippines. Today, it is often
heard that the Filipinos themselves are to be blamed for their sorry lot, that
culturally the Filipinos are inferior. And sometimes there is a subtle acceptance
encouraged by the schools on this assumption. The English language of the elite is
named correct usage, making the English of ordinary people inferior outlaw
language. The nuances of the elite have become the gauge of status symbol. This was

an old colonial rationale which was supposed to show the superiority of the colonizer,
which linguistically disenfranchised many Filipinos. Rizal had known long ago that
the colonizer needed to inculcate in the Filipino a negative attitude toward his own
culture. The colonizers encouraged the Filipinos to reject their own culture by
instilling a false comprehension of their culture as something ugly and inferior.
When Rizal wrote the Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo, he dramatized as no
one before had done, the bitterness and alienation of the people. His reformatory
approach to social change was to exercise influence within established institutions
rather than fighting institutions from the outside. It did not work out. During the
American regime, people shifted in strategy, perhaps remembering the futility of the
propaganda movement, and used legislation and court litigation to secure
constitutional rights. Later on, there were direct action techniques, utilizing the
potential power of the masses along political and economic lines. Example of this was
mass civil disobedience, which will create the kind of social dislocation that would
bring attention and remedial actions from the government, a hero is a social
anomaly, the necessity for heroes reveals the ineffectivity of the government to
remedy the problems beguiling society. Often, as in Rizals time, the government was
the one abetting the problems, profiting from them, in expense of the people. In
reading and re-reading Rizal, especially his novels, which were twin vortices of truth,
the reader will be pulled deeper into a different hidden plane of philosophy that is so
unlike Rizal, and more of the dark, brooding filibustero we have come to know as
Simoun, whose final purpose in life was to infiltrate the colonial authorities and
spread the fire of revolution among his people. Rizal and others like him. Are a
menace to people and governments who derive super profits from an impoverished
people and who employ coercive instruments to keep the people meek and
subservient, the better to control them with, They have to stop Rizal even when hes
already dead. But how can they stop an immensely popular national memory like
Rizal? They cannot stop him, thats for sure, but they can mitigate the impact of his
legacy. By encasing Rizal in layers after layers of trivialities, so thick and
obfuscatingly complex that Rizal will only b

Final Requirement in Soc Sci6 Code: 07417

Submitted to Prof. Teonette F. Gonzales

Submitted by Khimberly C. Pila

Poverty is also the basis of terrorism

Rizal has been dead for a long time now, 117 years to be exact. Still, we see the
injustice in our country, as well as the widespread poverty. Because of that poverty,
there is injustice and oppression. When you go to Mindanao, you see the most
poverty stricken areas in our country. It is sad since Mindanao is a paradise. If this
is fully developed, this could feed another 60 more million Filipinos. That is how rich
Mindanao is. But what do we see in Mindanao?

Poverty and deprivation that is

what Rizal said still applies. During Jose Rizals time, the oppression came from the
political structure. Now, we have a constitutional and liberal democracy, but we still
have poverty because of economic unfavorably. This poverty will produce
oppression, injustice and a great amount of unhappiness. Thus, Rizals dream has
not yet materialized. When we look at the miserable conditions of the great majority
of our country, we feel self conscious. If you have so much and see the rest of your
countrymen have so little, you feel guilty, I quote from the Bible, Those to whom
much is given, much is expected. Thus if you have a social conscience, you start
asking, why is this happening to our Mother Filipinas? What have I not done that I
can do? This should be asked by all Filipinos.
The desperate search for true leaders today
What is a true leader? A leader originates and does not imitate. A leader keeps his
eyes on the distant horizon and sees what an ordinary person does not. This is the
evidence of his leadership. He does not accept the status quo, but instead
challenges it. They follow their genius not just the party line.
Jose Rizal set the pattern of an extraordinary leader. He possessed a great mental
caliber that prodded him to enhance his education all over Europe. This, combined
with a high sense morality and unselfishness, he found the Filipinos disunited,
voiceless, and not ever aware of their miseries. Especially eloquent in Spanish,
although familiar with German and French, he wrote and spoke profusely, exhorting
the Filipinos to fight peacefully for justice. He was neither fair skinned nor mestizo,
like our actor politicians, yet he had a great following among the foreign and local
intellectuals as well as the down trodden.

The Kingdom of God is like a merchant who searches for a precious pearl. When he
found one of great value, he sells everything that he has to buy it (Matthew 13:4516). In the same way a true leader will have to sacrifice much to bring Gods
Kingdom to us.

Hymn to Labor

For the Motherland in war,

For the Motherland in peace,
Will the Filipino keep watch,
He will live until life will cease!
MEN
Now the East is glowing with light,
Go! To the field to till the land,
For the labor of man sustains
Family, home and Motherland.
Hard the land may turn to be,
Scorching the rays of the sun above...
For the country, wife and children
All will be easy to our love.
(Chorus)
WIVES:
Go to work with spirits high,
For the wife keeps home faithfully,
Inculcates love in her children
For virtue, knowledge and country.
When the evening brings repose,
On returning joy awaits you,
And if fate is adverse, the wife,
Shall know the task to continue.
(Chorus)
MAIDENS
Hail! Hail! Praise to labor
Of the country wealth and vigor

For it brow serene exalted

It's her blood, life, and ardor.
If some youth would show his love
Labor his faith will sustain
Only a man who struggles and works
Will his offspring know to maintain.
(Chorus)
CHILDREN
Teach, us ye the laborious work
To pursue your footsteps we wish
For tomorrow when country calls us
We may be able your task to finish.
And on seeing us the elders will say
"Look, they're worthy 'f their sires of yore!"
Incense does not honor the dead
As does a son with glory and valor.

Copyright 2004 Jose RizalUniversity

send e-mail to rizalweb@jru.edu
A POINT AWARENESS By Preciosa S. Soliven (The Philippine Star) | Updated
January 30, 2014 - 12:00am
In Jose Rizals time poverty of our country is their issues until today we still
encounter. What is poverty and why we are suffering poverty? Rizals never had a

chance to see the social cancer, in his two novels the Noli me tangere and El
filibusterismo which is mutate into something more virulent, oppressive controlling
way of life, because his already dead, he could do nothing against the reincarnated
social cancer. He tried to redeem freedom wish own blood. During his time he was
embodiment of intellectual who believed that no matter what race, is above
unreasoning prejudice. But as a conqueror of oppression when his a scholar in
Europe which convinced him of the infallibility of science and it is not only a source of
truth that is clearly belief based on his assumption which presupposed the existence
of willingness, his inevitably correct the injustice done to the Filipino, a reserve of
goodwill and simple goodness within the colonizer that moved his unshakable
beliefs. He died disowning the revolution. However the death of Jose Rizal knelled to
the colonial government of Spain in the Philippines. Down came the tyrant priests
and with them came tumbling down all the feudalistic systems they helped imposed
the land, in the name of unrestricted control of power and profit. Today in our
generation we should the leaders should be just like Jose Rizal He was neither fair
skinned nor mestizo, like our leaders or actor politicians, yet he had a great following
among the foreign and local intellectuals as well as the down trodden they have to
stop Rizal even when hes already dead. But how can they stop an immensely popular
national memory like Rizal? They cannot stop him, thats for sure, but they can
mitigate the impact of his legacy. If we have a Great Leader today he/she should be
like Jose Rizal yet unstoppable of what is his goodwill and promise to his
countrymen his good leadership to fight against poverty and freedom to his country.

The Last Poem of Rizal

His friend Mariano Ponce gave it the title of MI ULTIMO ADIOS, as it originally had
none
Farewell, my adored Land, region of the sun caressed,
Pearl of the Orient Sea, our Eden lost,
With gladness I give you my Life, sad and repressed;
And were it more brilliant, more fresh and at its best,
I would still give it to you for your welfare at most.
On the fields of battle, in the fury of fight,
Others give you their lives without pain or hesitancy,
The place does not matter: cypress laurel, lily white,
Scaffold, open field, conflict or martyrdom's site,
It is the same if asked by home and Country.
I die as I see tints on the sky begin to show
And at last announce the day, after a gloomy night;
If you need a hue to dye your matutinal glow,
Pour my blood and at the right moment spread it so,
And gild it with a reflection of your nascent light!
My dreams, when scarcely a lad adolescent,
My dreams when already a youth, full of vigor to attain,
Were to see you, gem of the sea of the Orient,
Your dark eyes dry, smooth brow held to a high plane
Without frown, without wrinkles and of shame without stain.
My life's fancy, my ardent, passionate desire,
Hail! Cries out the soul to you, that will soon part from thee;
Hail! How sweet 'tis to fall that fullness you may acquire;
To die to give you life, 'neath your skies to expire,
And in your mystic land to sleep through eternity!
If over my tomb some day, you would see blow,

A simple humble flow'r amidst thick grasses,

Bring it up to your lips and kiss my soul so,
And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow,
Warmth of your breath, a whiff of your tenderness.
Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry,
Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light,
In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh,
And should a bird descend on my cross and alight,
Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site.
Let the burning sun the raindrops vaporize
And with my clamor behind return pure to the sky;
Let a friend shed tears over my early demise;
And on quiet afternoons when one prays for me on high,
Pray too, oh, my Motherland, that in God may rest I.
Pray thee for all the hapless who have died,
For all those who unequalled torments have undergone;
For our poor mothers who in bitterness have cried;
For orphans, widows and captives to tortures were shied,
And pray too that you may see your own redemption.
And when the dark night wraps the cemet'ry
And only the dead to vigil there are left alone,
Don't disturb their repose, don't disturb the mystery:
If you hear the sounds of cittern or psaltery,
It is I, dear Country, who, a song t'you intone.
And when my grave by all is no more remembered,
With neither cross nor stone to mark its place,
Let it be plowed by man, with spade let it be scattered
And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored,
Let them turn to dust to cover your earthly space.

Then it doesn't matter that you should forget me:

Your atmosphere, your skies, your vales I'll sweep;
Vibrant and clear note to your ears I shall be:
Aroma, light, hues, murmur, song, moanings deep,
Constantly repeating the essence of the faith I keep.
My idolized Country, for whom I most gravely pine,
Dear Philippines, to my last goodbye, oh, harken
There I leave all: my parents, loves of mine,
I'll go where there are no slaves, tyrants or hangmen
Where faith does not kill and where God alone does reign.
Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me,
Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed;
Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day;
Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way;
Farewell, to all I love. To die is to rest.