Malay
By VIM NADERA
Yes, one of the world’s greatest lovers is a Filipino.
And his name is Jose Rizal.
For the longest time, his name had been linked to a petite Segunda Katigbak, to a towering Leonor Valenzuela, to a protective Leonor Rivera, to a poetic Consuelo Ortiga, to an intelligent O-Sei San, to a buxom Gertrude Beckette, to a demanding Nelly Boustead, to a lachrymose Suzanne Jacoby, and a happy Josephine Bracken.
But, to the more avid Rizalians, or Rizalists, they would prefer remembering him – on his 150th birthday on 19 June 2011 -- for his love, other than romantic.
As a professor who used to handle Philippines Instutions 100, or Rizal Course, we find him as classic and universal as his love for his country.
In fact, his “predictions” could have prevented bad, or sad, news from happening -- had the concerned parties listened to him or read between his famous lines.
Here are the Top Ten Tips from Rizal to all of us who should share nothing but love:
1. “Always keep before your eyes the honor and good name of all. Don’t do anything which you cannot tell and repeat before everyone with head up and a satisfied heart.”
2. “Men should be noble and worthy and behave like men and not like thieves or adventurers who hide themselves. You should despise a man who is afraid to come out in the open.”
3. “The individual should give way to the welfare of society.”
4. “He who does his duty in the expectation of rewards, is usually disappointed, because almost no one believes himself sufficiently rewarded.”
5. “I am assiduously studying the happenings in our country. I believe that nothing can redeem us except our brains.”
6. “Within a few centuries, when humanity has become redeemed and enlightened, when there are no races, when all peoples are free, when there are neither tyrants nor slaves, colonies nor mother countries, when justice rules and man is a citizen of the world, the pursuit of science alone will remain, the word patriotism will be equivalent to fanaticism, and he who prides himself on patriotic ideas will doubtless be isolated as a dangerous disease, as a menace to the social order.”
7. “At the sight of those injuries and cruelties, while still a child, my imagination was awakened and I swore to devote myself to avenge one day so many victims, and with this idea in mind I have been studying and this can be read in all my works and writings. God will someday give me an opportunity to carry out my promise.”
8. “A grand Genius had been born who preached truth and love; who suffered because of his mission, but on account of his sufferings, the world has become better, if not saved. Only it gives me nausea to see how some persons abuse His name to commit numerous crimes. If He is in heaven, He will certainly protest. Consequently, Merry Christmas!”
9. “A nation wins respect not by covering up abuses, but by punishing them and condemning them.”
10. “It has been said that love is the most powerful force behind the most sublime actions; well then, among all loves, that of country is the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested.”
2. “Men should be noble and worthy and behave like men and not like thieves or adventurers who hide themselves. You should despise a man who is afraid to come out in the open.”
3. “The individual should give way to the welfare of society.”
4. “He who does his duty in the expectation of rewards, is usually disappointed, because almost no one believes himself sufficiently rewarded.”
5. “I am assiduously studying the happenings in our country. I believe that nothing can redeem us except our brains.”
6. “Within a few centuries, when humanity has become redeemed and enlightened, when there are no races, when all peoples are free, when there are neither tyrants nor slaves, colonies nor mother countries, when justice rules and man is a citizen of the world, the pursuit of science alone will remain, the word patriotism will be equivalent to fanaticism, and he who prides himself on patriotic ideas will doubtless be isolated as a dangerous disease, as a menace to the social order.”
7. “At the sight of those injuries and cruelties, while still a child, my imagination was awakened and I swore to devote myself to avenge one day so many victims, and with this idea in mind I have been studying and this can be read in all my works and writings. God will someday give me an opportunity to carry out my promise.”
8. “A grand Genius had been born who preached truth and love; who suffered because of his mission, but on account of his sufferings, the world has become better, if not saved. Only it gives me nausea to see how some persons abuse His name to commit numerous crimes. If He is in heaven, He will certainly protest. Consequently, Merry Christmas!”
9. “A nation wins respect not by covering up abuses, but by punishing them and condemning them.”
10. “It has been said that love is the most powerful force behind the most sublime actions; well then, among all loves, that of country is the greatest, the most heroic and the most disinterested.”
The day before last year’s Rizal Day, a decree issued by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo on 20 December 1898, our family had the chance to visit Fort Santiago. At the Rizal Shrine, we were able to watch a play -- Rizal: Haligi ng Bayan -- directed by Dr. Anton Juan who used our National Hero’s quotable quotes as his actors’ script.
A week after, Walter Hahn did the same, by citing his words of wisdom, in his lecture called 3 X 150 at the Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA) Theater Center. It was on the Feast of the Three Kings and he used the wise sayings of these Three Wise Men -- Tagore, Rizal, Steiner. But what stuck in our minds was the letter from another Wise Man -- Ferdinand Blumentritt: “You have a brave heart and a more noble woman looks at you lovingly: Your Native Land. The Philippines is like one of the enchanted princesses of German folklore who is the prisoner of an ugly dragon waiting for a valiant knight to liberate her.”
It was a letter for Rizal written on 15 February 1891.
Yet, it sounds as if it was the latest privilege speech of, say, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago or Pastor Ullmer’s clan’s updated blog entry from Wilhelmsfeld, a.k.a. “Noli Village,” where he finished Noli Me Tangere at the age of 25 and where you can find the sandstone fountain from which Rizal had drunk in 1886, which can now be seen in Luneta Park as a German donation to the Philippines.
We can go on and on, as our favorite love song goes, about Rizaliana.
During People’s Gala, where we, together with Mike Coroza and The Batutes were acknowledged as Pasinaya 2011 performers, we missed Tommy Abuel, Albert Martinez, Cesar Montano, Joel Torre and other Crisostomo Ibarras – aside from John Arcilla, Bart Guingona, Cheeno Macaraeg, Pen Medina, and Paolo Rodriguez whom we saw at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’s Main Theater – who can recite Rizal’s poetry far better. Also at the CCP, Tanghalang Pilipino has opened its Silver Anniversary Theater Season via an audition in National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera and Ryan Cayabyab’s Noli Me Tangere: The Musical with National Artist Salvador Bernal as costume and stage designer, and Audie Gemora as director. For details, please call Tanghalang Pilipino at 832-3661 or 832-1125 loc. 1620 or 1621 and look for Yanna Acosta and Bheng Salilican.
Well, if you won’t lift a finger to make things happen, expect Rizal to haunt you with his take on unfinished businesses: ““It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice.”
Source: Manila Bulletin
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