Patriotism
August 27th, 2004 at 5:31 am (General)
Last night, my friend told me that I am a patriotic person, which is rare nowadays. He added that I can afford to be one anyway. In a time when it is getting harder to survive without working extra hard, it is increasingly difficult for Filipinos to care about anything else but themselves and their families. Understandably so.
When learning our elementary (and even high school) Philippine History, Jose Rizal, Marcelo del Pilar and the other reformists and revolutionists were painted as living in a hand-to-mouth existence. Isang kahig, isang tuka. Having to give up financially rewarding endeavors to spend their every peso for the pursuit of national democracy. Even now, the patriotic is seen as either the NGO (non-government office) worker who of live a simple, if not below average (financially), life lacking in luxuries or the socialite who has enough money to not be compelled to earn anymore.
What most people fail to see is that patriotism does not necessarily mean self-sacrifice. One does not have to be assasinated or live a life committed to a specific to be considered patriotic. To be patriotic is to be truly Filipino in every way. Every choice, every decision matters.
The simple choice of living here in the Philippines and making do with whatever is available here can be counted as patriotic enough. Although the choice of living and working abroad is a question of survival for most, there are some of us who would rather thrive abroad than tough it out here in the Philippines. Doctors, teachers and countless other professionals and businessmen would rather take up Nursing to make it big in the USA than help our economy here in the Philippines.
The simple decision of choosing to patronize quality (read: good) Filipino products over imported ones would help our economy a lot if more people did it. Buying local products wold ensure jobs for some of our kababayans and secure the business of others. Patronizing quality Filipino films would also eliminate or at least minimize the slew of R-rated trashy movies that are constantly being shown.
Even choosing local tourist destinations over Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore would help our country a lot. Not only would we be boosting our tourism industry but more so the countless Filipinos working in the tourism industry.
There are a lot of simple choices and decisions we make everyday and if we choose to make the good of our country part of these, we would be patriots without having to shed a blood or sacrifing our personal economic growth.
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