Idleness from the Colonial Illness

Retrieved from https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indolence-Filipino-Jose-Rizal/dp/1545479089

Enough with the praises on how beautifully written "The Indolence of the Filipino People" is, because it is one of a kind, a true sate of the art piece from the National Hero. Rizal established his creative and critical literary skills in a wide span of diverse works and proved himself a master of uncovering the fact of the matter and abolishing the hoax that later writers imply of Filipinos as being indolent. This particular composition exhibits a different viewpoint in presenting the truth, the root, the origin of the label tagged to the Filipino people. Rizal with his annotations and references translated all of the miseries in Filipino history directly attacking the Spanish colonialists. As I enjoy reading and knowing the source of the how the term was patched to the Filipinos, I cannot help but be sad to find all the accounts to be of truth, that from the very start, the Filipinos were bound to face such fate, attributed to laziness and idleness. As I internalize Rizal's words I cannot help but connect the past and the future where I am stuck pondering whether the new generation of Filipinos can still escape this character.

In going about this work of Rizal, I have listed the points which struck me in a deeper level, these passages gave headstrong claims which undoubtedly makes sense in my perspective, in a Filipino of the modern time's take to all of these. I can relate to this modern era and that I can empathize greatly as I see the current condition of the Philippines. These points showcase what we call the cancer or the root of the indolence of Filipinos. He embodied being a historian, sociologist, medical practitioner in taking into account the points that he wanted to display at very resilient claims supported with trusted facts and analysis. I greatly believe that Filipinos are not indolent people, but are just tagged to be such, as I follow through Rizal's work, this is what I stand for.

Among Rizal's many points the first one is with regards with Christianity, wherein the Filipinos are discouraged by friars to not dwell on the thought of bringing the worldly possessions to heaven, which encourages not striving to attain great earthly ownership. This also reflect the state of the Spanish and Filipino setting where the heads of the offices which are Kastilas are either late in coming to work or do not comply with the needed work done by an official, while the Filipino staff arrive early to finish a day's work and more. This setup compromises the way of life and thinking of the colonial Filipinos leaving them with thoughts of unjustly working or flow of the world for them. They would rather stay in poverty than to be in a position of pure groundless and unjustified state in life where only minimal effort is needed to achieve much benefits in return.

The Filipinos also experienced a sense of betrayal from the western counterparts, for as they emerge from the social strata towards a higher post, example would be becoming the cabeza de barangay, they would enjoy the perks of the position yet one wrong move, one misunderstanding with the church r the government officials, they would be subjected to blasphemy and from there their careers would plummet down. As Filipinos witness this in three centuries, it had been instilled within them to only settle for what is simple and what is safe. They have become restricted with the fact that the Spanish have taken over the highest positions, therefore people's livelihoods, properties, skills, education, basically the entirety of the lives of the Filipinos, were under the Spanish rule, resulting to the so called indolence of the Philippines, the reason of why Rizal underwent all these research to present us with the origin of how this act of indolence infiltrated the bloodstreams of the Filipino people. This was one of the key points that have observed in the narration.

The Filipinos were "nangangapa" at that time for they were forced to work with the limited resources that they could put their hands and minds into. Fertile land properties were under the religious sectors  disabling people from managing their own or even working for these sectors without any conflict, and here comes education which the Filipinos were denied to be a part of the academe at first, so they resorted to learn Latin, Spanish and other subject of interest from the mere references they could afford to get a hold of. The Spanish were privileged enough to attain enlightenment while Filipinos were discouraged to do so for they will question and revolt against the crown. Filipinos settled at the bottom for what they could have to attain safety in a place and time of depression in a physically and emotionally unstable society. Noticing these points from Rizal's excerpts, I cannot help but see these in a new light regarding the correlation of all these in the modern world.

I call these accounts of unconscious resorting to being indolent as the modern day burnout. As people become more and more attached to the system of an institution, how things go or how life runs, people become robots, settling for a manual life of this and that, set A to set B only, to and fro. People tend to get tired, not tired physically, for the bodily strength can be regained in just one sleep, but a certain type of exhaustion of the mind and the soul, which are difficult to refuel once the power source or the light within has become busted. I can account my high school experience to this, where in a sea of people who are as smart or are way smarter than you breath the same air as you are placed in an institution vying and surviving a very demanding requirement system of the school, who would not be left out of light after six years of staying there. I have never felt so drained in my life, as a teenager I was left with tons of things to study on and do when my peers would be outside experiencing the world at their own pace. I felt that I was stripped down with this right, to chill as an adolescent. That is why I can say I can put my feet in the Spanish era, and feel what my ancestors have felt. Getting worn out by the system that supports you is something to be of concern, because it spreads like an illness, a cancer that mutates along the lines and transforms to other sets of malignant tumors that grow inside the minds and souls of people. I feel that it has no cure, but the least that us Filipinos could do to really show that the indolence tag is not for us, is to at least try and seek new horizons, by focusing on what the nation's needs, concerns and illnesses, as we find the elusive cure if there is any to the ailments of our society. Filipinos are not lazy, just burnt out.

Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/tips-for-identifying-and-preventing-burnout