December 30,2006 News

 
‘NOLI,’ PENGUIN CLASSICS
Rizal joins ranks of Dickens, Austen


By Lito Zulueta

Inquirer

Last updated 05:31am (Mla time) 12/30/2006


JOSE Rizal’s “Noli Me Tangere” has been published in a new English translation and released worldwide by Penguin Books, one of the major publishing houses of the English-speaking world, under the Penguin Classics imprint. The publication effectively canonizes the novel as one of the classics of world literature.

It is the first time that a Southeast Asian title has been included in the Penguin Classics, which was started in 1946 with the publication of E.V. Rieu’s translation of Homer’s “Odyssey.”

In the book’s blurb, Penguin bills the “Noli” as “the book that sparked the Philippine revolution” and “the great novel of the Philippines.”

“[It] was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province,” Penguin said.

The new translation of the “Noli” was done by an American writer, Harold Augenbraum, a scholar of Hispanic-American letters and the executive director of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards.

Filipino-American writer Jessica Hagedorn, author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling novel, “Dogeaters,” has said that Augenbraum’s “Noli” was a “beautiful new translation.”

Elda Rotor, Penguin Books Classics’ executive editor, said the publication “represents Penguin’s commitment to publish the major literary classics of the world.”

Rotor, a Filipino-American, said she was not the original acquisitions editor for the book, but “for me, it’s a particular joy on many levels, to place Rizal on the same shelf as Dickens and Austen, to share a classic that is read, studied and celebrated in parts of the world, yet unfamiliar to a wider audience.”

In Manila, the book is available at Powerbooks and Fully Booked.


Scathing portrayal

First published in Berlin in 1887, “Noli Me Tangere” tells the story of Crisostomo Ibarra, who returns from his European studies to find his old town in the grip of social iniquity and decay. His efforts to introduce enlightenment and modernism are defeated at every turn by the Spanish colonial establishment as represented by abusive civil and military officials and obscurantist friars.

Because of its scathing portrayal of Spanish colonial depredations, the book was banned in the Philippines, but copies of it were smuggled into the country for clandestine reading by educated Filipinos.

As a result, the “Noli,” along with its dark sequel, “El Filibusterismo,” which tells of the return of Ibarra as an avenging angel a la “The Count of Monte Cristo,” became the bible of the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1896.

Although Rizal denied any involvement in the revolution, his name became the password of the Filipino revolutionaries, and he was executed by the Spanish authorities on Dec. 30, 1896.


Fascinated

Augenbraum said he stumbled upon Rizal’s novel in 1992 while compiling a bibliography of North American Latino fiction writers. He said he came across the name of National Artist N.V.M. Gonzalez whom he thought to be Latino. He went on to read Gonzalez and “loved it” and thereby got “introduced to a whole world of Filipino and Filipino-American literature, which I began to seek out here in the US.”

“The name of Rizal came up several times, so I read the ‘Noli,’ which fascinated me,” he said. “Then I read the ‘Fili,’ which also fascinated me. Then I read the Austin Coates biography, and Rizal himself became one of my heroes.”

Augenbraum said he tried to get university presses interested in republishing the novels in the English translation by either Charles Derbyshire or Leon Ma. Guerrero, but none was interested. (The University of Hawaii Press has published the Soledad Lacson-Locsin translations of both books.)

In 2002, after editing and revising a Penguin book, Augebraum was asked by Penguin editors if he could recommend a new addition to the Penguin Classics line, and he suggested the “Noli.”


Very excited

“[They] knew very little [of the ‘Noli’], but when they began to investigate, they became very excited,” he said.

“This would be the first Filipino writer in the venerable classics tradition, and the Filipino-American community had been growing,” he said.

Penguin at first thought of adapting one of the existing English translations, but “concluded that it needed a new translation for the American eye and ear,” Augenbraum said.

Augenbraum said he enjoyed translating Rizal. “The ‘Noli’s’ Spanish was not particularly difficult to translate. Rizal wrote a clear, lucid Castilian without much slang and without overusing idioms,” he said.

“I would like to add that the pleasure of translating [and reading] the ‘Noli’ is that the non-central characters are extraordinarily rich,” he said.

Augenbraum said he found it more difficult to be editor than translator.


Bridging cultural divide

“The harder part was to compile the notes that would explain the many, many religious and cultural references Rizal used... The US is not steeped in the Catholic faith and many Americans will probably be reading about the Philippines for the first time,” he said.

Apparently, Augenbraum succeeded in trying to bridge the cultural and historical divide between the “Noli’s” 19th century-Philippines setting and American readers in the 21st century.

According to Hagedorn, Augenbraum’s introductory essay, “is smart and sensitively written, providing great background for Rizal’s rich, moving novel.”

Augenbraum said he liked the Derbyshire and Guerrero translations, but there should be new translations of Rizal’s work.

“Most translators will tell you that each generation should have its own translation of classic works. Language changes over time, political ideals change over time, information emerges over time, new critical thinking emerges. I hope that this translation will be the translation for our time,” he said.


Required reading

Augenbraum said the “Noli” should be required reading in Asian-American courses in US universities “because it is the foundational novel of the nation, with large implications for the diaspora and its influence on other writers.”

According to Rotor, Penguin has learned that the novel has generated interest among professors across the US who would like to make the novel a part of their curriculum.

The new English translation of the “Noli” comes at a time when Filipino critics and historians are starting to complain that there was too much lionizing and even deification of Rizal so that honest critical assessments of his work and legacy have become nearly impossible.

Florentino Hornedo, Unesco commissioner and a literature and history professor at the University of Santo Tomas, said rendering Rizal and his works as a “dogma” was “not good” since the novels were a “fiction” and a creative embellishment, with some exaggerations conditioned by Rizal’s masonic and liberal leanings.

Augenbraum agreed. “The Noli’ is fiction obviously, but [that’s] an interesting point about how historical fiction becomes perceived as history,” he said.

“In my introduction to the ‘Noli,’ I discuss Rizal becoming a sort of ‘santo’ in the Filipino diaspora, no longer a real personage, and I question whether he ever really was a real person, since he saw himself as part of Philippine narrative history and acted accordingly. Although some people have compared Rizal to Jose Marti [the 19th-century Cuban writer and patriot], Marti has never attained the supernatural status of Rizal,” said Augenbraum.

“[Rizal] is a prisoner of his own legend... Whoever he was in life has become irrelevant. He’s probably closer to Joan of Arc or St. George than he is to Jose Marti,” he said.





Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



* * * * * * *





Malaya : Bernard Karganilla Column

December 30,2006 - Saturday



‘Rizal was always conscious of his genera-tion’s loving responsibility to the Philippines and the next generation of Filipinos.’


Season’s greetings
from Rizal and Company

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like modern Filipinos, the generation of Jose Rizal, especially those living outside the Archipelago, engaged in frequent and lively Yuletide greetings.

Their Christmas felicitations were blended with family concerns, business affairs, health news and, of course, political stuff. Notice Rizal’s December 28, 1888 letter to Mariano Ponce: "Enclosed are the manuscripts. See to it that ‘La vision de Fr. Rodriguez’ is published. Use the money from the sale of my remaining books there. Print some 3,000 or 4,000 copies and see to it that it is done as quickly as possible."

"Give my regards to all our compatriots; I will not write anymore here their names but let them know that I remember them all. Happy New Year!"

Rizal in London was asking Ponce in Barcelona to produce and disseminate his satirical rebuttal of a friar’s attack on the "Noli." A more elaborate greeting was Rizal’s December 31, 1888 letter to the activist Filipino colony in Spain.

"Without wishing to parody the sublime words of Christ, I shall say to you nevertheless why I think and feel thus, that wherever two Filipinos meet in the name of the native land and for her welfare, there also I should like to join them.

"How I would like now to be in your midst in order to think and feel with you, to dream, to wish, to attempt something so that those who will follow us may not be able to throw anything in our face, so that we may give something to that country that has given us everything, in spite of her unhappy fate!"

Rizal was always conscious of his generation’s loving responsibility to the Philippines and the next generation of Filipinos. He was mindful at all times of the future and his legacy.

Rizal thus concluded that particular letter by citing a stanza from his 1879 prize-winning poem, "A la juventud Filipina."

"Lift up your radiant brow,

This day, Youth of my native land!

Your abounding talents show

Resplendently and grand,

Fair hope of my Motherland!"

Though his present was exciting and his career progressing, Rizal put much stock in the future, pinning his hopes on the receptiveness of the Filipinos yet to come to the ideas and legacy of the Filipinos of his age.

Was Rizal mistaken?

The anniversary of Rizal’s martyrdom is a legal Philippine holiday. Though sandwiched by Christmas and New Year’s Day, Rizal Day is marked yearly by flag-raisings, forums, wreath-laying and assemblies of the Order of the Knights of Rizal (an NGO chartered under R.A. 646). Moreover, Presidential Proclamation 126, issued on November 26, 2001, declared the month of December of every year as "Rizal Month." With this declaration, the Executive Branch has called upon the instrumentalities of the State as well as concerned organizations like the Knights of Rizal to help attain the "full impact" of Rizal’s martyrdom upon the nation.

In this regard, the Knights have been organizing a National Rizal Youth Leadership Institute where careerist adults impart melodious words about character-building to the upcoming public officials, managers and assorted bosses. The 44th Institute held December 17-21, 2006 in Baguio City was addressed by a former Supreme Court Chief Justice.

In any case, the Knights work hard to circulate Rizalism across the Islands and its Code of Ethics defines a "Rizalist" as someone who loves his country and people, promotes international understanding, venerates the memory of the nation’s heroes, strives to do justice, believes in the value of education and upholds freedom at all costs, among others.

If you want to join the Order, you can visit the Knights of Rizal Building on Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, Manila.

Going back to Rizal himself and his fellows, Juan Luna’s letter of December 21, 1890 asked Rizal for help in motivating Antonio Luna to finish his studies. "Please advise him and encourage him. That he lacks money to satisfy some comforts should not be the cause of such a general discouragement as he tells me. He does not lack the most essential, nor will he lack it. As for me and our brothers, Pepe and Joaquin, we have done all that we can. Now, it is his turn to do the rest and not to get discouraged about so little.

"Advise him to study constantly, and not as some of our countrymen do, who study only when examinations are approaching. In short, you know what it is to be a student and all our countrymen-students should be inspired by your example, as they are the hope of our people. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."

Rizal had another Yuletide greeting, this time addressed to Baldomero Roxas. "Please thank all good friends who telegraphed. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."

"Let us see if you can preach to them with your example. Precisely at the present moment, when we are engaged in a struggle, it is necessary to redouble all our efforts, it is necessary to sacrifice everything for the welfare of our native land. Without virtue there is no liberty…Only virtues can redeem the slave. It is the only way to make the tyrants respect us and foreigners to make a common cause with us." [Paris, December 28, 1889]

Who will heed Rizal’s words in 2007?




* * * * * * *





National hero a prisoner of myths


By Ambeth Ocampo

Inquirer

Last updated 05:22am (Mla time) 12/30/2006


LAST July, a sepia photograph made the rounds of e-mail and blogs that had the look of archival material and was titled “National Hero.”

While most people recognized that it was Manny Pacquiao’s head superimposed with the use of Photoshop techniques on what appeared to be Abraham Lincoln’s body, others imagined it to be a long-lost or newly discovered mug shot of the national hero Jose Rizal.

Fortunately, this urban legend was nipped in the bud before it could take on a life of its own. However, some legends never die, like the one that suggested that Rizal fathered Adolf Hitler or, even more fantastic, that our Rizal was the infamous Jack the Ripper, an unidentified murderer who killed and mutilated at least six prostitutes in the Whitechapel district in the East End of London in late 1888.

Bayani and hero are words that have been used so much, and indiscriminately at times, that they have lost the power to inspire a people that sorely needs heroes. There are many people with great hearts, looks, minds and deeds in this world, but the true hero is one who has passed on from the extraordinary to myth.

In September 1896, three months to the day he was executed in Bagumbayan, Rizal scribbled an entry in his journal reacting to “fanciful stories about me.” In his lifetime he was rumored to be, among many things, a German spy and a miracle worker.

He could not have known how myths and legends would continue to spin after his death making one of his journal entries prophetic. He wrote: “I’m going to become a legendary personage. Friends and enemies invent fabulous stories which elevate me and improbable stories to harm me and they find people who are considered educated to believe them.”


Hitler or Charlie Chaplin?

That Rizal fathered Hitler is the easiest to debunk and its documentary source easily traced. The argument is that Rizal had a German connection. He studied at Heidelberg University and, being quite the Pinoy Don Juan, he probably sired a son—why not a daughter?—who later turned out to be Adolf Hitler. Well, Hitler was born in 1889, but Rizal left Germany for good in 1887. Unless Hitler was a delayed baby, that is highly improbable.

Although there is no resemblance between the two, it is argued that unlike the tall, blond and blue-eyed Germans that Hitler wanted to propagate into the “master race,” Hitler himself was small of stature and had dark hair and dark eyes, similar to the many statues of Rizal that dot the archipelago. These monuments to Rizal actually look more like Charlie Chaplin.

Contrary to popular belief, Hitler was Austrian and not a German, so where is the Rizal connection there? Rizal visited Austria in May 1887 and, according to his traveling companion Max Viola, Rizal spent a night with an Austrian woman whose name eludes history.

In his memoirs Viola wrote that they were billeted at the Hotel Metropole in Vienna where Rizal, “encountered the figure of a temptress in the form of a Viennese woman, of the family of the Camellias or Margarite, of extraordinary beauty and irresistible attraction, who seemingly had been expressly invited to offer for a moment the cup of mundane pleasure to the apostle of Philippine freedom who until then had enjoyed among his intimates the fame worthy of his glorious namesake, St. Joseph. With the exception of this case I knew of no other slip of Rizal during more than six months of our living together.”

It’s amazing what yarns can be pulled from an alleged one-night stand with a Viennese prostitute.


Jack the Ripper

The Jack the Ripper legend is more recent but more complicated. Textbook history states that Rizal was in London from May 1888 to January 1889, spending time in the British Museum Library copying Antonio de Morga’s “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (1609)” by hand because there were no photocopying machines at the time. Jack the Ripper was active around this time and, since we do not know what Rizal did at night or on the days he was not in the library, Rizal is now suspect.

The argument is that when Rizal left London, the Ripper murders stopped. They say that Jack the Ripper must have had some medical training, based on the way his victims were mutilated. Rizal, of course, was a doctor. Jack the Ripper liked women, and so did our own Rizal. And—this is so obvious that many overlooked it—Jose Rizal’s initials, JR, perfectly match those of Jack the Ripper!

For someone who wrote a great deal on the most ordinary things, Rizal only made passing reference to Jack the Ripper in an essay on the Guardia Civil he wrote in the April 30, 1890 issue of La Solidaridad. Can this be added to the flimsy but growing list of circumstantial evidence to suspect Rizal?

Rizal’s name appears on the long list of suspects in the Jack the Ripper website. There is even a forum dedicated to Rizal, begun by a certain “Amateursleuth” who posts allegedly from Canada and signs these simply “Karen.” Her first posting lists the following data:

“In 1888, [Rizal] was staying with the Beckett family at 37 Chalcot Crescent in Camden [London]; he was a doctor (ophthalmologist); he was good with weapons (was called ‘the swordsman’); he was a Malay; he was proficient in the martial arts; he would have been 27 at the time of the Ripper killings; he was short, had dark skin, dark hair and dark eyes; he came from a well-to-do family, was well-dressed and looked respectable; he came to London on May 24, 1888 on the ship City of Rome; he left London in January of 1889, and the Ripper killings stopped; he was multi-talented (could speak many languages, was a writer, poet, author, sculptor, artist); he was executed in the Philippines on Dec. 30, 1896 at the age of 35; had a romantic relationship with Gertrude Beckett, the daughter of Charles Beckett; he wrote letters to his friend Blumentritt from London, however there were no letters written to his family or friends from July 1888 to Nov. 14, 1888; after he died, his mother tried to procure his assets which consisted of some pretty nice jewelry, including gold cuff links and other baubles of diamonds and amethysts (gold chain with a red stone seal?); I think this man warrants further investigation, which I intend to do.”


Foreign suspects

A photo of Rizal was then uploaded from an Argentine website, leading a certain Glenn Andersson, writer and historian, to remark:

“An interesting character; good luck with the research and come back with more when you can. With such South American features, I doubt that he fits in well with the possible sightings, but then on the other hand, we can’t be sure that any of those witnesses saw the Ripper anyway. After all, foreign suspects from those parts were under investigation by the police at the time.”

Then somebody remarked that Rizal was in Paris at a time that one of the victims, Annie Chapman, was cut up leading “Karen” to reply: “OK, maybe he didn’t kill Annie Chapman, but he had a friend called Dr. Antonio Regidor who could have killed her. Rizal stayed with him in London prior to moving in with the Becketts. Dr. Regidor was also from Manila. They were quite close.”

It was also noted that one of the Ripper victims was buried in the same cemetery where Regidor and his family now lie in peace. Karen later added: “Since Dr. Rizal was in Paris between Sept. 4 and Sept. 10, 1888, it is therefore impossible for him to have killed Annie Chapman. However, after some digging, I discovered that Rizal had a good friend named Dr. Reinhold Rost who lived approximately one block from the Becketts’ at 1 Elsworthy Terrace, Camden.”

Most incredible

The most incredible—and absolutely untrustworthy—piece of information is that sometime in January 1986, the present owners of the London apartment where Rizal stayed discovered a trunk in their attic that contained a diary in which Rizal confesses to the Whitechapel murders and a glass jar with half a human kidney preserved in alcohol!

All these tales are ridiculous, further proving that both in life and death Rizal continues to fascinate, and tales continue to be spun around him, keeping him current and interesting more than a century after his execution.


(The author is chair of the National Historical Institute and a columnist of the Inquirer. Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu)




Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.





* * * * * * *





Remembering Rizal


By Isagani Cruz

Inquirer


Last updated 03:46am (Mla time) 12/30/2006



Published on page A10 of the December 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


TODAY is the 110th anniversary of the execution of Jose Rizal in Bagumbayan. Without meaning any sarcasm or reproof, I am wondering how many of our young people today appreciate the significance of that event which made our country free.

It is regrettable that what they may choose to remember is not the martyrdom of Rizal but the killing of John Lennon 26 years ago in New York. It was he who boasted that the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus Christ, and perhaps he was right. Some of their fans, including not a few from our own country, may really consider the songsters and their rock music more appealing.

I recently found that the 2006 calendar issued by the Supreme Court apparently does not place much importance either on Dec. 30. It is simply printed in red and called Rizal Day. There is a brief note that it marks the oath-taking of President Manuel L. Quezon in 1941 and President Ferdinand Marcos in 1969, both for their second terms. But there is no reminder of Rizal’s sacrifice in 1896 as if it did not deserve any mention at all.

If the Supreme Court assumed that every Filipino knows about Rizal, it must be out of step with the times. Many citizens may now simply take Rizal as the name of a province or the statue at the Luneta or that old memorial stadium in Manila. Even the plaster busts of him that used to adorn the old libraries in my grandfather’s time have disappeared. The Noli-Fili books are compulsory reading in our schools, but many students prefer Harry Potter.

Before the war, Rizal Day was celebrated with programs and parades mostly organized by the Veteranos de la Revolucion. But the Katipuneros are all gone like the former veneration of the hero. The memory of the great man is dissipating except in the usual street signs, which are mixed with reminders of the martial law period like Imelda Avenue and Marcos Highway. Marcos tried to replace Rizal as the foremost Filipino hero but his ugly cement face in La Union was mangled instead by his irate victims.

Remembrance of Rizal is fast disappearing when it ought to be cherished and honored by all Filipinos. It was he who, more effectively than any one else among his compatriots, unified the disparate inhabitants of our archipelago into one nation. It was he who made them share a common rage against the foreign intruder and a common aspiration for the freedom of their land.

Without him, and I say this without offense to those who followed his leadership and example, our people may still be under the yoke of some alien ruler. Consider that we were oppressed by Spain for more than three centuries and it was only when Rizal protested its villainies that Bonifacio’s armed revolution began to smolder. It was the execution of Gomburza, to whom Rizal dedicated the “Noli Me Tangere,” that ignited the spark of resistance against the Spanish government. But it was Rizal who fanned the flames into a bright conflagration.

Rizal awakened the national conscience from its lethargy not through the force of arms but with the armies of his pen. These were the “Noli” and “El Filibusterismo,” his “Letter to the Women of Malolos,” his youthful poems for the Motherland, his “Mi Ultimo Adios” that he secreted in a lamp in Fort Santiago hours before his death, and other irrefutable accusations against the Spaniards. His words were like mighty legions that won for our country the freedom we now enjoy.

Let not the idiot who once criticized me for speaking in English at a nationalistic program belittle Rizal’s writings because most of them were in the tyrant’s tongue. That jingoist who is now a National Artist must think his expertise in Tagalog has exalted his empty mind. Sentiments are best expressed in words one knows best and Spanish was for Rizal his sharp and avenging sword.

That is why, if I may digress, I heartily support the bill restoring English as the medium of instruction in our public schools. During the pre-war years, that educational policy made us the most proficient English-speaking people in the whole continent of Asia and many other parts of the world. English is still, along with Filipino, our official languages under our Constitution. Filipino is a beautiful language that is easily learned without formal instruction, but it is not useful for international communication.

To go back to Jose Rizal, I hope we can revive the reverent sentiments of gratitude to him for his efforts in releasing us from foreign bondage. Political rhetoric is not enough to keep his heroism alive. Let us remember that he forsook the enticements of his youthful and gifted life and embraced instead the ultimate sacrifice for the welfare of his country. That is the best homage we can pay the greatest hero of our race.



Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.





* * * * * * *







Rizal’s ‘Kalinga’



Inquirer

Last updated 03:13am (Mla time) 12/30/2006


Published on page A10 of the December 30, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


IN INTERNAL exile in Dapitan, Jose Rizal set about teaching the children and making himself useful to the local community. The outline of a Philippine map he created has been restored. We only have a reproduction of the house in which he lived, but we can claim that one of Rizal’s teaching aids has survived down the generations. What Rizal set out to do in Dapitan, he always espoused in his writings: to devote his knowledge to the building of a civic consciousness that, he believed, was the bedrock of a positive political consciousness.

Rizal was always aware that even as he was hailed as a prophet, there would be others who would be more than willing to be false prophets. In his essay, “The Philippines a Century Hence,” he observed: “All the petty insurrections that have occurred in the Philippines were the work of a few fanatics or discontented soldiers, who had to deceive and humbug the people or avail themselves of their powers over their subordinates to gain their ends. So they all failed. No insurrection had a popular character or was based on a need of the whole race or fought for human rights or justice, so it left no ineffaceable impressions, but rather when they saw that they had been duped, the people bound up their wounds and applauded the overthrow of the disturbers of their peace! But what if the movement springs from the people themselves and based its causes upon their woes?”

It is an irony of history that the man so hated by the institutional Church of his time should have expressed what has become a central message of the Church under a native hierarchy: what we do not need, he might as well have said, was not Charter change but character change. Put another way, and with an example also dear to the hearts of present-day Filipino prelates, what Rizal advocated in his day has finally seen fruition in the present. For what Rizal set out to do was the 19th century’s first stirrings of the movement we now know as Gawad Kalinga.

If the past year has been one of political failure, then it has also been one of tremendous success for those who would put community building ahead of politicking. Revolutionary transitional councils, military withdrawals of support, “calibrated preemptive responses,” and impeachment complaints decided on the basis of the numbers and not the merits -- all these have been facets of a destructive, desperate and, yes, degenerate political system, while what has caught the world’s imagination and respect has been Gawad Kalinga.

Indeed, if leaders of both the opposition and the administration have found themselves acting like generals with no foot soldiers, commanders of political forces met with indifference by the great democratic mobilizers -- the middle -- it is because the middle has been in the thick of efforts such as Gawad Kalinga and conspicuously absent from the political field of battle.

But efforts to bring different social strata together, and which strive to find a way for different economic classes to work together and not against each other, are only a fresh start but can never be the end-all and be-all of community involvement. And this is where Rizal’s example can inspire those who have found meaning and satisfaction in community-building. If in the past, the disappointments born of both Edsa people power revolts led to a drifting away from political action, then those involved in efforts such as Gawad Kalinga have to realize their building communities cannot absolve them of their duty to build a better nation.

A better nation will not arise simply because houses have been built. The empowerment and the breaking of the chains of despair and social mistrust must lead to clean, credible elections and bring to power a national leadership that reflects and lives up to a renewed sense of civic virtue. The honors that have been rendered Gawad Kalinga, for example, aren’t laurels on which its volunteers should rest. They are, instead, challenges to expand its achievements in the public sphere.

The past year has seen political divisions deepen in our society, and yet there have been earnest efforts to close that divide, economically and socially. As it was in Rizal’s lifetime, the Filipino still waits for those who can bridge the gap between social and political action.



Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.