Chivalrous Rhapsody

Filipinos are by nature indefatigable of showing positive values. These values became our bandwagon in the context of globalism. It is undoubtedly accepted. Filipinos are described and identified as hospitable and hardworking internationally. The Philippines is the top producer of the human workforce and has even occupied almost all foreign territories. These are not simple claims nor ruthless, but these claims are de facto.

Filipinos are the penchant of the universe as regards the human workforce. We export Filipinos from Arab nations to Africa. If there would be available jobs in the north and south poles, then Filipinos will be there as well. Our level of work and thinking is imperial. With this, we leave other races behind; thus, we will be the citizens of the world in due course because, at present, we are to be found everywhere. Once we started doing something in the international arena, we do not fizzle out. Our emphatic values impinge a very strong impact; hence, we can make an international hoopla and can cause a gridlock once our character is taken to account. We deserve to be an advocator of social responsibility. We provide care to those who need it most. We provide skilled-work to those who lack skillfulness. We provide quality education to those whose goal is not mediocrity. We entertain those who need to be entertained. We are everything as we do all things. Our worldwide service is tantamount to the existence of the universe. Our absence in the dome of the human workforce will probably cause other races teetering.

Those aforementioned ideas are pleasing platitudes. With those, we can be vanguards of emphatic values. Quebec Premier Jen Charest once mentioned that Filipinos are “efficient, hardworking, ambitious, and determined to improve their lives”. These assertions are our helms to achieve excellence. These good characteristics are honed by our own beliefs. We, Filipinos, are actually the descendants of good-will. I hope that these positive remarks can pacify the political turmoils we are experiencing. Let us look into the affirmations of Charest one by one concerning our values. We will look at each if these claims still exist, still on the right sharpness or simply allegorical.

Efficient! Yes, we are worthy to be described as that because we can work well with little waste. I hope that this is not paradoxical. We have proven the world how efficient we are. The provinces of Canada, Manitoba and Quebec, would not be eager or interested to sign labor agreements with the Philippines. Manitoba came last month and just recently, Quebec wants to increase recruitment of skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled Filipino workers who would be willing to work in Quebec. Their Provincial Nominee Program can hasten the application. The saddest part of this beautiful description is that there are some political leaders who display efficiency too. They are so efficient in corruption. They work well with their anomalies and they have little waste to be made known or not at all. We can never know the venalities in politics unless one who was not paid or given the right share of kickbacks would come out from nowhere. Money can really change lives and lanes. We remain to be hopeful that one day we can mean efficiency in the most positive definition and keep efficiency always on the right track.

Hardworking! Yes, we are also worthy to be called like that because it is the visible representation of our eagerness and dedication to work without ceasing and with or without supervision. Hardworking runs in our veins because it is our innate not to have a single moment of idleness. We also extend our services pro bono to others. That’s how responsible we are. In contrast, there are those leaders who are also hardworking when it comes to doing unrighteousness. We are all familiar with who they are. They make the worse situation to be the worst. I don’t know how they have done all these things. I believe that our leaders came from noble families. We expect so many good traits from them but sad to note, they are even an advocate of austerity. We can’t tell if they are like those agent provocateurs in France. Everything went wrong. I don’t know if Prozac can still take effect if to be taken as an antidepressant against these political upheavals we have.

Ambitious! What a world of experience it evokes! The Philippines is just a tiny spot in the globe yet it is too ambitious to make a difference. We want to be big the eyes of those who belittle our race and our land. That is really a good thing. It displays so much confidence despite of our size. I can remember one of the dearest Pulitzer recipients, Carlos P. Romulo, who was uncomfortable with his short height during the United Nations General Assembly in the 1940s and 50s, and where he was a representative of our country, was being dwarfed by the towering Soviet delegation. In one of the sessions, the discussion became frenzied when one of the Russians considered more of his dwarfism and the smallness of the Philippines. Carlos P. Romulo, an exemplary of ambitious Filipino, explained the metaphor of how little David flung a stone into the head of Goliath. He was the little David who opened the eyes of the lofty Russians for truth, those small things can be a leap of success. We have so many ambitious Filipinos now who do everything to make a spot in politics because they know that a big amount of money can be earned from there. They even kill those whom they considered the greatest rivals in politics. Ambitious is now synonymous with greedy in the context of politics.

Determined! It is exactly the common denominator of every Filipino. Each of us is so determined to improve our lives. By all means, we take all the risks to make our lives and our living conditions to be better. That is how Filipinos strive and that is why I said earlier that once we started doing something we do not fizzle out because we have everything it takes to be very determined, focused, and dedicated to everything we do. Does determination has a negative undertone? Yes, it does. I don’t want to sound so gloomy regarding the leadership of our leaders but the truth won’t stop us from scrutinizing the values and traits of the leaders. The leaders’ greatest task is to lead. They must lead us to somewhere unexpected. They must lead us in the formation and implementation of the good values we inherit. They must lead the way in doing good things. Where on Earth have all these expectations gone? It seems that we do not see those expectations for some leaders. In the game or world of politics, only a few want to lead in the transformation of worse practices to better, rather, many follow where the worse things go. They play the game of corruption. They play the game of bribery. What other games do they play? Do they have more games to play that are not beneficial to the masses and beneficial only to their own interests? I hope they play unrighteous games no more. This is really the usual resentment of people who are overly affected by political aggression. We have a better economy now then why concentrate on displaying political antagonism and belligerence? If the call for truth would stop all these crises, then why not accept the fault justly? Whoever is reliable from all these political oppositions should be accountable for the mess, then why keep the blatant brigands? We are as if in the lunatic asylum. We fight, we howl, we protest, almost everyday. We are not feebleminded so why let childish arguments and contentions be continued? Let us drink milk no more, rather, feed our minds with just things that are in accordance with the will of our Creator. I can remember how my professor and my colleagues in International Relations agreed with me when I said, “It takes divine intervention to make things right and do right things when surrounded by people with earthly motivations and selfish desires.” If we want to lead an orchestra, we must turn our back from the audience. I hope our leaders would have the same thinking. They must lead and not join the forces of unrighteous leaders. Upright and blameless leaders cannot beat the unjust in a snap of a finger, after all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but for sure unrighteous will be beaten.

I reckon Filipinos are somehow mysterious. The ambiguity behind our values is seen and felt in the hearts of those who indirectly experience the political mayhem. We still appear to them like an apple, precious to their sight. Let us not forget our training. Let us not forget the values being taught to us. We are by nature a person rich in those. If foreigners have seen us as efficient, hardworking, ambitious, and determined, then let it remain to its virtuous definition and let us escape from its negativity scot-free. Those avowals are courtly bliss. Let us make our character, the replica of our being a true Filipino, as our weapon to shake the world. Let us settle our problems with the weapons we have inside our hearts and in our minds. Our values, like a chivalrous rhapsody to some, should remain to be the strongest bludgeon against political oppositions.