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Something tragic has befallen us Filipinos.The tragedy is our
national amnesia about our heroes, the values they sacrificed for,
and their vision of a happy, well-educated and prosperous Filipino
people.
Of today’s celebration of National Heroes’
Day some commentators have lamented the present generation’s lack
of knowledge of and appreciaAtion for the heroes of our race. The
Filipino youth today, they say, don’t care about the history of
our country and the deeds of the heroes whose writings, sacrifices
and death made us an independent Republic.
It is not just the youth, though.The majority of
Filipinos in every generation—young and old—do not have the
proper sense of history, no thirst for knowledge about our heroes
and the conditions they labored in, no wish to learn what the
Filipinos of earlier generations did to survive and develop, what
amused them, what made them weep, what gave them joy.
Those among us in the sunset of life remember
that the youth of their time also did not know and did not care to
know more than the names of Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario
Mabini, Marcelo del Pilar and their companions in courage and
gallantry.
Read the writings of Filipino commentators in
the 1920s, 1940s, 1960 and 1980s. You will find authors lamenting
the youth’s ignorance and unwillingness to learn about the heroism
and dignity of the past.
The unrelenting rain of humiliations under both
foreign and native oppressors, the debilitating poverty in money,
goods and spiritual nourishment, the crushing injustice and pain of
inequality must have made the majority of every generation of
Filipinos ignorant or amnesiac of their history.
Poor nutrition, bad breeding, inadequate
education through the centuries—from the time of our animist
ancestors, through the centuries of subjection to Spanish and
American colonial masters, to the present rule of mendacious, greedy
and corrupt leaders—have made most of us too ready to forget and
eager live in other countries.
That is why every generation of national
lawmakers and municipal councilors could guiltlessly expunge the
name of their streets and landmarks to honor their current idols and
trash the memory of yesterday’s heroes.
In celebrating National Heroes Day next year,
there must be a drastic change.
Something must be done to persuade the TV
networks to suspend their inane and idiotizing entertainment
programming and prevent the sponsors not to pull out their
commercials from their usual time slots.
Shows of a higher quality, cultural level and
patriotic tone must replace the gyrations of graceless dancers.
Powerful mass media must help Filipinos become prouder of themselves
and their country by knowing the greatness of their heroes.
Heroes too: The Magsaysay Awardees
The Ramon Magsaysay Awards are being presented
to this year’s six awardees this afternoon at the main theater of
the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
This is the 51st year of the awards. We
congratulate the trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation for
their good management of what some call the Asian equivalent of the
Nobel Awards but others say is something even greater.
We congratulate also the awardees, heroes and
models of selfless service to their fellow Asians:
Krisana Kraisintu. The Thai pharmacologist gets
the award for working to produce much-needed generic drugs to fight
HIV/AIDS. When AIDS became an epidemic in Thailand, she researched
on antiretroviral drugs despite the lack of government support and
lawsuits from drug companies. After months of solitary work, she
successfully formulated the generic version of AZT, so far the most
effective drug for HIV, which also reduces the risk of
mother-to-child transmission. She took her expertise in 2002 to
sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by AIDS. She urges the
Filipinos to build a major generic-drug manufacturing factory.
Deep Joshi. He is honored for his vision and
leadership in bringing professionalism to the NGO movement in India.
Yu Xiaogang. The Chinese environmentalist gets
the award for being a founder of the nonprofit Green
Watershed—which helped communities flooded by a dam project in
Yunnan province—and Green Banking, a network of NGOs that
recognizes banks for their contributions to environmental
protection.
Antonio Oposa Jr. The Filipino lawyer and
environmentalist is awarded for his efforts to help Filipinos
“maximize the power of the law to protect and nurture the
environment for themselves, their children and generations still to
come.”
Ma Jun. The Chinese former journalist is honored
for launching the first public database on water pollution in China
and establishing the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Ka Hsaw Wa. He gets the “emergent
leadership” award. He was 17 when he became a pro-democracy
student activist during the 1988 demonstrations in Burma. Arrested
and tortured, he fled to the jungle and exposed atrocities committed
by the military rulers against villagers. In 1996, EarthRights, the
nonprofit group he had co-founded, filed a precedent-setting suit in
the United States against the oil company Unocal. He accused Unocal
of complicity in human rights and environmental abuses committed by
Burma’s military in the building of the Yadana gas pipeline. After
10 years of litigation, Unocal agreed to compensate the 11
petitioners. EarthRights operates a school in Thailand that trains
young people from Burma and other countries in nonviolent social
change.
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