Challenges Facing Phil Society - Challenges 8

Our apathy and indifference is reinforced by our doubts and our fears. Inside us, we tell ourselves: The problems are too many and too complex. We are too few to make a difference. We are too ordinary to galvanize mass action. On top of these, we are a divided people. We are no match against the trapos and the corrupt elite. They are too powerful to resist. They may arrest and even kill us.  Our doubts and our fears become a self-fulfilling prophecy. When we doubt whether we can overcome our regional and linguistic divisions and be united against corruption and the trapos, then we empower trapos and elites to ruthlessly exploit this division for their own benefit. Our external prisons start with the prisons we have constructed in our minds and in our hearts. Our external defeats have their origins in the inner defeats we have allowed to fester inside.

Trinaidor natin ang Inang Bayan sa ating pagbaliwala, kaduwagan, at pagdududa. Our apathy, cowardice, and doubt betray the Philippine Spirit.

May pag-asa pa! Angliwanagngkagalinganngbawattao

Ngunit sa ngitngit ng dilim, may liwanag na nagaanyaya sa atin na gumising at lumaban.  In the darkness of night, there is hope.

Filipinos, if they want, can succeed and rank with the best in the world. It is a good sign that, while the media concentrated on the disgusting and sickening developments in the Philippines, a number of Filipinos quietly gave honor to the Philippines by winning prestigious global awards in many areas of life. Recently Filipinos were awarded for global excellence in journalism, urban architecture, science education, governance, business and financial management, environmental protection, solar energy, children’s choir, globalization analysis and critique, social innovations and the theory and practice of social movements for a better world.

But this is only a small part of the story. Many Filipinos, from all walks of life, all over the country, are quietly engaged in exciting efforts to create a better Philippines. We do not know about them only because most of our mainstream media prefer masochism and trivia to celebration. They want Filipinos wallow in the melodrama of their own dirt because they think that that is the news that sells. They resist bringing greater recognition to the thousands of decent and honest efforts done by ordinary Filipinos across the archipelago.

The question therefore is not whether we have excellence as individuals and as a people. Rather the question is how to mobilize this excellence that is in each one of us and then unite it to renew the Philippines.

This is where MISSION (Movement for Imaginals for a Sustainable Society thru Implementation, Organization and Networking) comes in. Its mission is to bring together individuals of good will and love for the country to stop our on-going plunge into perversity, mediocrity, and suffering. (Click link to “What is MISSION?”)

Yes, we can shift the future of this country. Defeat and death stalk the countryside. But we can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and death if we release the resurrection power that resides in each and everyone of us. Yes, we can make a new reality, now!