My Rizal Blog MkII

Regarding the issue of Rizal writing a retraction letter, as much as I’d like to think that Rizal had bit written a retraction, it seems to be hard to believe that he didn’t write one. This may not be the obvious choice but let’s think it out a little more.

It seems to be quite true that Rizal had become a man interested in his life as seen by his attempt to travel to South America for a malaria outbreak. This interest in his own life had some believing him to be a coward. Yet if he stayed in the Archipelago, what would have awaited him? Death, that’s what. It’s thoroughly convincing that he believed in the principle that he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day. If he just had laid down his life, he’d be giving up. Rather, he chose to try and extend his life by travelling to South America, perhaps biding his time.

He was, however, captured and went to Dapitan without much of a fight, most likely thinking that struggling wouldn’t help. He is now faced with the Spanish authorities, read the Catholic Church, and is at their mercy. What other choice would he have than to sign a retraction with, perhaps, a promise of release or at least a prolonging of his life? Rizal wasn’t a fool. He thought with logic and despite his principles, he knew that if he were free, he could pull a 180 and fight with even more fervor to make sure that the contents of this retraction would be disregarded.

This would seem extremely hypocritical though. The Filipino people were deeply affected by words and actions, his signing a retraction would have been a liability to him if he ever got out of prison. It also wouldn’t be above the Spanish to force Rizal through any number of methods. His heroism would of course be affected by a retraction.

On the case that he willingly signed it to extend his lifetime, it would have been a great blow on his credibility and probably reduce his status as a hero by leaps. Imagine how the resistance would feel that he would throw away all he worked for in some desperate attempt for life. How could they bare such embarrassment? On the other hand being forced into a signing, as was most likely the case, it would add humanism to our hero and not as the spotless and incorruptible man we usually see him represented as yet still a representative of heroism.

I suck.

This is not an overstatement. Or an understatement. I just wanna take this time to hurt myself like the M I am. If you don't get what I mean by M, that might be a good thing but if you're curious try watching Gintama. It should be somewhere there.

Back to the self-loathing. Actually, this mostly came up because I lost my phone. Again. The first was a stupid mistake during a school-sponsored marathon. The second was F'ing stolen. Bastards. The third was on a tricycle ride with my sister. Thankfully she found it when leaving and gave it back later that day. The last one was a few days ago. Another tricycle. Mostly because of their low seats and my loose-pocketed trousers. Did I just say trousers? I must have; I typed it after all. That's besides the point. I'm such a spaz.

I'm also stupid academically. People praise me but I'm really quite dumb. I never bother to work at anything. HEY! I'm also lazy apparently. Anyways, I remember the last quiz I had in integral calculus. I got a 15. Bloody 15 points. >:|

I'm not fully to blame, or so I'm told. I was passing the class so I, along with 8 other people, got a special test sort of thing. That was totally the wrong thing to do, passing. Well currently I'm passing the class with 15 other people in a class of about 50. I suppose I should feel good about this but I'm only passing by the skin of my teeth. I'm not even sure teeth HAVE skin.

Oh. Did I mention I've spent an estimated 400 dollars on manga, figures, and posters? I mean, I've saved quite a lot on those purchases but it's kind of sad if you think about it in the local currency. It sounds even worse when you say that you've spent 20,000 pesos on this sort of thing. If I make an estimate... I have about 80 volumes of manga, 13 Gunplas [Gundam plastic models], 17 assorted figurines, a Deathnote box set, and say 10 posters. I feel a bit worse now that I list it out like this. Man. I know it's not that much compared to a lot of people but on a normal sense... I'm such a loser.

At least I've been on a date. Which brings me to another point in that I'm such a spaz with her. She even says that she acts more like the guy with her pushing of the relational type things. I just don't like pushing things that don't need to be pushed. Is that so bad? I'm not really the type to do or talk of this sort of thing so let's skip it. Just know that I'm a pansy.

Let's talk more of school then. I don't do anything, remember? I fe--

I lost my train of thought reading Princess Lucia. A newly translated manga somewhere. I have a short attention span. End post.

Now Playing: Ask DNA - The Seatbelts The theme song from the Cowboy Bebop movie. It's really fun. The movie and the song. I especially love the part where he sings out that Buddha loves you and Jesus saves.

Thought of the day: I suck.

Speaking of school...

You know, that was for my Rizal Class. I bet you couldn't guess. It's kind of rushed and sloppy. I wasn't too interested in the topic. It's pretty boring and plain a topic to be creative. And we had a limit of only a single page on MSWord, possibly with 1.5 line spacing which I didn't want to use. There's nothing to be proud of if you can write that much. A middle-schooler should be able to write that much. Hell. We had a minimum of words to write. 180 words. I've used more words in MSN conversations with my friend Lochy. 180 isn't much of a standard. Much less for a college level class.

Am I being elitist? Maybe I'm being extremely critical of today's youth. Maybe I'm just bitter. I remember back in elementary school when we were forced to read books so we could pass. I also remember that I got free pizza if read enough books. Reading was fun, I read bunches of books - Huck Finn, Desperation, Onion John, and things like that. That was in the 5th grade. 5th grade. This started not only in the 5th grade but as early as 3rd grade. It was a brilliant idea to force children to increase their literacy. Books are wonderful gateways to excitement and all that jazz. Now they don't. What the hell.

It might be that it's a different school system but that doesn't excuse the illiteracy that I have observed. I don't want to be so opinionated but I've observed it firsthand. My younger sister doesn't read that much. I'm ashamed. Deeply ashamed. Maybe not deeply but she doesn't read enough for her own good. We have several shelves of grade school level books, particularly in my older sister's room. I clearly know that there are dozens of Baby Sitters Club or Sweet Valley High books. One or the other. Maybe it's not that clear but that doesn't deter the point I want to show. We have the means but she doesn't use 'em.

I now want to vent a bit about my last few English professors. One teacher wasn't exactly a bad teacher, not in the least. However, there was one question in a certain quiz that discredited any faith I had in her profession. Stay with me here, it's not heinous for most people but if this was heard by sound-minded people, there will be RAGE. Now the question in... question: What is the book of all books, the greatest book of all time, etc. etc. ? Some of you might be anticipating the answer and I'm sure you might be right. Her answer? The Bible. The bloody Bible. I have no problem with the Bible as a piece of literature, it's actually quite nice, I've read it. But let's be honest, greatest book of ever? That's just too opinionated and close-minded to be in good taste. She's only lucky it's a Catholic-themed country or there will be head rolling.

The second teacher is also a fine teacher, I suppose. It's just that she's old. Yeah. Old. Geriatric. She isn't extremely old, maybe. In her 60's probably. It's a minor complaint really. It isn't the fact that she's old but that she thinks certain things are still a modern representation of the world today. The thing that caught my ear: "Negro people use the slang term flatfoot to refer to the police." Like I said, minor. First, she used the word Negro. I'm not racist or really aware of political correctness but I'm thinking Negro is more derogatory than Black. I remember watching The Color of Friendship on Disney a few years ago and that I realized that there are so many ways to refer to Black people that it's racist. I think most people can agree that saying Black is just dandy. At least better than Negro. Especially in a class of purely Asians where there is no risk in being a racist bigot.

Next word. Flatfoot. It's quite true that Flatfoot refers to the police, detectives in particular. It is not true that it is used purely by Black people. Notice how I didn't say Negro. It's mostly used by gangsters of the mafia sort. In the 1930's. Wow. Think about that. I would understand if she used the term Popos in that example but Flatfoot? Man. Get with the times.

I guess I'm just being picky but it gets on my nerves. Enough of venting though. I'm tired. I just hope that the school systems would some how pick up the slack. I also wish the libraries would have a better fiction section. Bookstores too. Eh. Too bad. One can dream.

NP: Vintage Queen - Goldfinger What can I say? I love Goldfinger to bits and this song is just honey in my ears.

Thought of the day: Don't believe in yourself. Believe in me who believes in you.

For school

My Rizal Blog

There is one main reason that Filipinos have in leaving their country, the Philippines, and that would be financial reasons. It is a somewhat common fact that Filipinos have a tendency to think that the only way to get the real money is to leave their country. We have come to believe in the saying that the grass is greener on the other side and have decided that we want that grass. A vast amount of Filipinos have gone abroad to the Middle East, Europe, and North America in the hope that they can better their own life as well as their family through the money that they expect to earn. Sometimes, though, this may not come to fruition.

This leads us to an underlying fact that many Filipinos believe that the only road to a fulfilled life is the road out of the Philippines. The privileged few are able to send themselves to school out of country for their tertiary education for a jumpstart in a career. They’re also able to find doctors out of the country for extremely complicated procedures that the doctors in the Philippines are not ready to handle, or so they believe. Going on this belief – that there are greener pastures – many also believe that sneaking out of the Philippines and into their country of choice will give them a new chance at life and a positive outlook.

In future response to this culture of leaving our own country, Rizal could have been saying quite a lot to us. He himself had left the Philippines in order to escape the prying eyes of the authorities and also to educate himself. He had a passion to establish a country of equality in the Philippines and saw to it that he would do everything in his power to make sure that he would succeed. Using himself as an example, wouldn’t it be possible that he wanted to tell the Filipinos to not only further their own comfort but to help Mother Philippines?

He could have been trying to tell us that we mustn’t think of purely selfish reasons when leaving the country but have the clarity to remember our roots and try to help our country in any way we can. For those working abroad, they should remember their family and help out in at least a financial way. For those being educated abroad, it’s quite obvious on what they should do – go use their newly attained skills to aid in the progress of the Philippines. It may be a reversal of what they did in trying to escape from the Philippines but it’s sometimes said that those who have forgotten where they have come from have forgotten their own selves.

The main aspect I want to show here in this short piece is how the Filipinos who go abroad in furthering their own lives need to live their life and try their hardest for success. In succeeding, they shouldn’t keep to themselves the fruits of their harvest but also share this success with their home country. This choice, as stated, is strictly limited to the Filipinos who have gone out of country to live a better lifestyle whether it is by working or learning.