q_sharon
02/05/08, 10:47 PM
I found this article not only inspiring but worth sharing. It was written by Paolo Azurin, who used to teach Economics and Sociology at the University of the Phils., Diliman, published by Phil Daily Inquirer years back.
CURSED
I have made it. I am now in the United States.
Most Filipinos would love to be in my place. I know that our generation has been the most willing to emigrate. Our seemingly stagnant society leaves much to be desired. The real incomes of Filipinos have barely breached the levels in the 1980's. Job creation is slow. There is overcrowding with more and more people being born into poverty every year. Worst of all, people do not follow laws. It seems that nothing good can ever happen to the Philippines.
It is probably well that I have left the people who have hurt me in so many ways. I have left the people who held up my younger brother with a knife. I have left the people who have murdered my ninang for the paltry sum of 80,000. And I have left the people who choose to be led by corrupt officials who have no business running a country.
I am lucky. I have an excellent chance of making it in the United States. I graduated from the UNiversity of the Philippines and I am entering the MBA program in the University of Illinois. After graduation, I can expect a starting salary of about $80,000 annually, plus the signing bonuses and other perks. In two years, I can be made.
But the United States is not where home is. I came to America to learn and plan to return home. i think of myself as following the footsteps of a long line of Filipinos who have gone back. Many of the ilustrados, pensionados and foundation fellows of earlier years have returned home and I have every intention of joining their ranks.
In an age when pragmatism offers the best option for survival, I am going against the tide to try to rekindle the long, lost ideal of nationalism. Many people have given up their lives to pursue the freedom that still eludes us Filipinos.
It has been said that before Jose Rizal was shot in Bagumbayan, his heartbeat was normal. He was not afraid. He was happy to give his life to a society that he himself said was afflicted with social cancer. It made him happier to be shot than to pratice medicine and have a lucrative career.
I guess I am just everyone else. I am looking for happiness, too. I know that $80,000 can buy a certain degree of happiness, but that kind of utility is ultimately futile. The thing that would make me happiest is taking part in the never-ending job of nation building. Joy is ultimately found in love, a love for the people who seem to hate their own kind and who seem to hate me.
No matter how much Filipinos have hurt me, I know that I will go back, driven by a seemingly mythical hope that things can be better. It may not even come in my lifetime, it is just a blind hope that I can start something that will ultimately bear fruit. This belief is my curse, and my blessing. And I wish many others are as cursed as I am.
I flew to Chicago a few days ago and my classes start next week. Now I am beginning my journey home.
:applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud:
CURSED
I have made it. I am now in the United States.
Most Filipinos would love to be in my place. I know that our generation has been the most willing to emigrate. Our seemingly stagnant society leaves much to be desired. The real incomes of Filipinos have barely breached the levels in the 1980's. Job creation is slow. There is overcrowding with more and more people being born into poverty every year. Worst of all, people do not follow laws. It seems that nothing good can ever happen to the Philippines.
It is probably well that I have left the people who have hurt me in so many ways. I have left the people who held up my younger brother with a knife. I have left the people who have murdered my ninang for the paltry sum of 80,000. And I have left the people who choose to be led by corrupt officials who have no business running a country.
I am lucky. I have an excellent chance of making it in the United States. I graduated from the UNiversity of the Philippines and I am entering the MBA program in the University of Illinois. After graduation, I can expect a starting salary of about $80,000 annually, plus the signing bonuses and other perks. In two years, I can be made.
But the United States is not where home is. I came to America to learn and plan to return home. i think of myself as following the footsteps of a long line of Filipinos who have gone back. Many of the ilustrados, pensionados and foundation fellows of earlier years have returned home and I have every intention of joining their ranks.
In an age when pragmatism offers the best option for survival, I am going against the tide to try to rekindle the long, lost ideal of nationalism. Many people have given up their lives to pursue the freedom that still eludes us Filipinos.
It has been said that before Jose Rizal was shot in Bagumbayan, his heartbeat was normal. He was not afraid. He was happy to give his life to a society that he himself said was afflicted with social cancer. It made him happier to be shot than to pratice medicine and have a lucrative career.
I guess I am just everyone else. I am looking for happiness, too. I know that $80,000 can buy a certain degree of happiness, but that kind of utility is ultimately futile. The thing that would make me happiest is taking part in the never-ending job of nation building. Joy is ultimately found in love, a love for the people who seem to hate their own kind and who seem to hate me.
No matter how much Filipinos have hurt me, I know that I will go back, driven by a seemingly mythical hope that things can be better. It may not even come in my lifetime, it is just a blind hope that I can start something that will ultimately bear fruit. This belief is my curse, and my blessing. And I wish many others are as cursed as I am.
I flew to Chicago a few days ago and my classes start next week. Now I am beginning my journey home.
:applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud::applaud: