La Indolencia de Los Filipinos Essay

La indolencia de los filipinos (y de los estudiantes tambien) 1. What was the effect of conviction of inferiority? -The infant or youth who tries to be anything else is blamed with vanity and presumption the curate ridicules him with cruel sarcasm, his relatives look upon him with fear, strangers go steady him with gigantic compassion. No forward movement Get back in the ranks and keep in bourne With his spirit thus molded the native falls into the most pernicious of all routines routine non planned nonwithstanding imposed and forced.Note that the native himself is non naturally inclined to routine but his mind is disposed to accept all truth, just as his house is open to all strangers. The beneficial and the beautiful attract him, seduce and captivate him although like the the Japanese he often exchanges the good for the evil, if it appears to him garnished and gilded. What he lacks is in the first place liberty to allow expansion to his adventuresome spirit, and good ex amples, beautiful prospects for the future.It is obligatory that his spirit, although it whitethorn be dis mayed and cowed by the elements and the fearful manifestation of their powerfulnessy forces, store up energy, stress high purposes, in fiat to struggle against obstacles in the midst of unfavorable natural conditions. In order that he may mature it is necessary that a revolutionary spirit, so to speak, should boil in his veins, since progress necessarily requires the present the victory of new ideas over the ancient and accepted iodine.It will not be sufficient to speak to his fancy, to talk nicely to him, nor that the light illuminate him like the ignis fatuus that leads travelers astray at nighttime all the flattering promises of the fairest hopes will not suffice, so long as his spirit is not free, his acquaintance is not respected. 2. What is the remembering of the statement, tila ka kastila? The pernicious example of the dominators in surrounding themselves with servants and despising manual or sensible labor as a thing unbecoming the nobility and chivalrous pride of the heroes of so numerous centuries those lordly airs, which the natives beat translated into tila ka castila, and the desire of the dominated to be the equal of the dominators, if not essentially, at least in their manners all this had naturally to produce aversion to activity and fear or hatred of survey. 3. What does Rizal mean by saying that indolence in the Philippines is a chronic but not an inherited indisposition? When in consequence of a long chronic illness the condition of the patient is examined, the question may arise whether the weakening of the fibers and the debility of the organs are the cause of the maladys continuing or the effect of the bad treatment that prolongs its action. The attending physician attributes the entire failure of his skill to the poor geological formation of the patient, to the climate, to the surroundings, and so on. On the other ha nd, the patient attributes the aggravation of the evil to the system of treatment followed.Only the reciprocal crowd, the inquisitive populace, shakes its head and cannot reach a decision. Something like this happens in the case of the Philippines. Instead of a physician, file presidency, that is friars, employees, etc. Instead of patient, Philippines instead of malady, indolence. 4. What proofs did Rizal give to show that pre-Spanish Malayans were not sense slight? -Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Malayan Filipinos carried on an active trade, no only among themselves but also with all the neighboring countries.All the histories of those first years, in short, abound in long accounts about the industry and agriculture of the natives mines, gold-washings, looms, farms, barter, naval construction, raising of poultry and stock, twist of silk and cotton, distilleries, manufactures of arms, pearl fisheries, the civet industry, the horn and hide industry, etc. , are things e ncountered at e very step, and considering the time and the conditions in the islands, prove that at that place was life, there was activity, there was movement. 5.How did it happen that the industrious pagan culture was transformed into that of an slothful Christian culture? -We have already spoken of the more or less latent predisposition which exists in the Philippines toward indolence, and which must exist everywhere, in the whole world, in all men, because we all hate work more or less, as it may be more or less hard, more ore less unproductive. The dolce far niente of the Italian, the rascarse la barriga of the Spaniard, the supreme aspiration of the bourgeois to live on his income in ataraxis and tranquility, attest this.It seems that there are causes more than sufficient to breed indolence in the midst of a beehive. Thus is explained why, after thirty-two years of the system, the circumspect and prudent Morga said that the natives have forgotten very much about farming, raising poultry, stock and cotton and weaving cloth, as they used to do in their pagan religion and for a long time after the country had been conquered 6. Why does the city of Hong Kong have more mercenary and trade activities than the whole of the Philippines? It has more commercial-grade movement than all the islands to achieveher, because it is free and is well governed. The great fuss that every enterprise encountered with the administration contributed not a little to kill off all commercial and industrial movement. All the Filipinos, as well as all those who have tried to engage in business in the Philippines, know how many documents, what comings, how many stamped papers, how much patience is needed to secure from the government a permit for an enterprise.One must count upon the good will of this one, on the influence of that one, on a good bribe to another in order that the application be not pigeon-holed, a present to the one further on so that it may pass it on to hi s chief one must pray to God to give him good toughness and time to see and examine it to another, talent to recognize its expediency to one further on sufficient stupidity not to scent idler the enterprise an insurrectionary purpose land that they may not all spend the time victorious baths, hunting or playing cards with the reverend friars in their convents or country houses.And above all, great patience, great knowledge of how to get along, bulk of money, a great deal of politics, many salutations, great influence, plenty of presents and complete resignation 7. Was there gambling in the country before the coming of the Spaniards? -Yes, we do not mean to say that before the coming of the Spaniards the natives did not gamble the passion for gambling is innate in adventuresome and excitable races, and such is the Malay, Pigafetta tells us of cockfights and of bets in the Island of Paragua.Cock-fighting must also have existed in Luzon and in all the islands, for in the terminolog y of the game are two Tagalog playscripts sabong and tari (cockpit and gaff). But there is not the least doubt that the fostering of this game is due to the government, as well as the perfecting of it. 8. What are the do of too many religious festivals on the country? Remember, that lack of capital and absence of means paralyse all movement, and you will see how the native was perforce to be indolent for if any money might remain to him from the trials, imposts and exactions, he would have to give it to the curate for bulls, scapularies, candles, novenaries, etc.And if this does not suffice to form an indolent character, if the climate and nature are not enough in themselves to daze him and deprive him of all energy, adjourn then that the doctrine of his religion teach him to irrigate his fields in the dry season, not by means of canals but with amasses and prayers to preserve his stock during an epidemic with holy water, exorcisms and benedictions that cost five dollars an anima l, to drive absent the locusts by a procession with the image of St. Augustine, etc.It is well, undoubtedly, to trust greatly in God but it is better to do what one can not trouble the Creator every moment, even when these appeals return to the benefit of His ministers. We have noticed that the countries which entrust most in miracles are the laziest, just as botch children are the most ill-mannered. Whether they believe in miracles to palliate their laziness or they are lazy because they believe in miracles, we cannot say but he fact is the Filipinos were much less lazy before the word miracle was introduced into their language. 9.What other evidence may be pointed out to show the lack of national sentiment? -The very limited training in the home, the tyrannical and sterile education of the rare centers of learning that blind mastery of the youth to one of greater age, influence the mind so that a man may not aspire to excel those who preceded him but must merely be content to go along with a march behind them. Stagnation forcibly results from this, and as he who devotes himself merely to copying divests himself of other qualities suited to his own nature, he naturally becomes sterile hence decadence.Indolence is a corollary derived from the lack of stimulus and of vitality. That stockpile infused into the convictions of everyone, or, to speak more clearly, that insinuated inferiority, a sort of daily and constant depreciation of the mind so that it may not be raised to the regions of life, deadens the energies, paralyzes all tendencies toward advancement, and of the least struggle a man gives up without fighting. If by one of those rare incidents, some wild spirit, that is some active one, excels, instead of his example stimulating, it only causes others to melt in their inaction. Theres one who will work for us lets stop on say his relatives and friends. True it is that the spirit of rivalry is sometimes awakened, only that then it awakens with bad humor in the guise of envy, and instead of being a lever for helping, it is an obstacle that produces discouragement. 10. How do we know there was no national sentiment? -Absence of all opposition to measures prejudicial to the people and the absence of any enterprise in whatever may redound to its good. A man in the Philippines is only an individual, he is not a member of a nation.He is forbidden and denied the right of association, and is, therefore, weak and sluggish. The Philippines is an organism whose cells seem to have no arterial system to irrigate it or nervous system to communicate its impressions these cells must, nevertheless, yield their product, get it where they can if they perish, let them perish. In the view of some this is expedient so that a addiction may be a colony perhaps they are right, but not the effect that a colony may flourish.