Now look at the Philippines. It’s everything that Singapore isn’t: loud, inefficient, dangerous in places, dizzyingly corrupt, hurtling gleefully — karaoke mike in hand — toward ever more chaos. It’s a barrel of monkeys, as far as countries go. And yet, in its quiet spaces — and yes, there are many if one knows where to look — it is also a country of deep compassion, of great suffering and even greater endurance. It is a country of grit, one that takes its hard knocks and soldiers on regardless. Today we signed a peace deal to end decades of armed conflict in Mindanao. We stuck to the process, no matter how tough it was and how long it took. That’s backbone; that’s character. In his essay, “To the Young Writer,” F. Sionil Jose says: “write wherever you can do it best, in exile perhaps, but never, never leave your village, your town, your beginning. Enshrine it in the heart, sanctify it in your mind, for your beginning gives you your soul, your humanity.” We’re reminded of that old Filipino adage, “ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.” (“He who does not remember where he came from, will never reach his destination”).
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:01:09 +0000
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