For the Love(?) of Country

Signing on

A group member in the Bobong Pinoy forums posted a short essay written by a Korean student here in the Philippines about his observation about, in his own opinion, our lack of love in our country. His work may be far from being scholarly, but what snaps his work awake is that how the author parallels our current economic and political situation with that of his native South Korea years after the Korean War.

This Korean jives with my point of view concerning patriotism.They, when they struggled to get on their feet again, felt that they have an obligation for their country. They had their run-ins with bad administrators and poor governance, but they brushed them aside and worked hard to help South Korea into what they are now. Some were sent abroad to work; others by their own will, but it's clear to them that they are working for their country and not just by themselves.

It is sad to know that we Filipinos easily break under surmounting pressure of our sluggish progress, but the point is, where's the bayanihan spirit that we've been known to outsiders? Now more that ever that bayanihan is needed if we ever want the Philippines to regain its former prosperity as it had half a century ago, when are are second economically to Japan. I, if given a chance, am willing to work abroad; should somebody ask me why I did that, my answer will be 'I'm doing this for family and for country'. The conjunction 'and for country' spells the difference between working abroad and coming home, and working abroad, then bringing over the rest of the family to live there permanently.

Our government sucks, that's for sure, but we cannot leave the burden on them alone. We as citizens have to do something as well in this situation. After all, it takes two to tango. Maybe some of our officials are corrupt, maybe our social welfare services are pathetic, maybe our national security is flawed, but shouldn't we take them as challenges to show our resiliency in face of such odds?

The writer may be just another foreigner in our land, and someone may retort "anong paki mo!?" or "mind your own f@#%ing business!" but his work reflects his concern on us, to the point of telling what his country went through to become an economic giant as they are. He knows that what South Korea was is what the Philippines is now. There's no difference on that part however, except for one thing--they never gave up.

Signing off