YOU CANNOT EAT NATIONALISM

YOU CANNOT EAT NATIONALISMLeandro V. CoronelSCHEMINGto form a plot

Economic growth faltering as it is currently continues to be unequitable. Too much of the nations wealth is in the hands of too few people. The rich get all the gravy and the poor the crumbs. Keith Richburg of the Washington Post was right; we are the Asian equivalent of apartheid South Africa. The filthy rich among us are the pre-Mandela Afrikaners and the multitude of grindingly poor Filipinos, the blacks.Our politics is immature and our politicians are either shrewd manipulators or clueless buffoons. Our politicians are slick snake-oil salesmen whove continually sold us fake elixirs, promising to cure all our maladies.We Filipinos are too child-like and immature. Many of us bristled with anger when James Follows the American journalist and presidential speechwriter, called our a flawed culture because of, among other faults, our lack of a sense of public responsibility. But he was right. Look around you and witness, for example, our careless disregard for our surroundings. Ive been too many countries but ours is the only one I know where people throw away their litter freely wherever they please. And lets not even get into what men do when they nonchalantly walk up to a wall or the side of a vehicle and unzip themselves.The Philippines slide to ruin wasnt greased only by our lecherous leaders, the ones who ve sold us out greed, cowardice or treason. Were not at the edge of the precipice only because of our politicians have been corrupt. Were not in abyss only because the rich have pigged out on the nations wealth. Were not in a morass because of the scheming foreigners whove come and gone carrying away the nations treasures.Were nation close to despair and destruction because were allowed all the greed and lechery and manipulation to happen. Were been apathetic and uncaring about the welfare and future of our country. The sightless but insightful Helen Keller said Science may have found a cure for the most evils but it has found no remedy for the worst of them apathy of human beings.If we dont do something soon, we will be plugging our country in civil conflicts large and small. Anarchy and chaos will reign and economic ruin will prevail. As is, economic and moral deprivation have driven many of our fellow citizens to crime, various from of prostitution and, worse , overseas where they often have the status of chattel.As it is, only the timid still obey the law. The government has lost its moral authority to lead the people and the might to fight the enemies of public order. The citizenry feels the government has been of no use or aid to them. No wonder then that we Filipinos have no sense of loyalty to the nation. Why else would many of us be abandoning it in droves and adopt, without any pangs of guilt, another country as our own? How else explain the tepid attitude among most of us toward the centennial celebration of our independence?There is no sense of gratitude among us for being a Filipino. What good is nationalism if the symbol of the nation, the government, fails or even refuses to look after its citizens? A hungry populace cannot eat nationalism. You cannot extract gratitude from a neglected ward.But would we really allow our country to smolder in poverty and crime and eventually expire as a viable nation, as a tiger economy as weve been boasting over the past few years? Would we really accept the fate of a failed society? A spent culture? A defeated.Change, therefore, is what the times require. There is a certain relief in change, wrote Washington Irving. As I found in traveling in a stagecoach, Irving continued, it is often a comfort so shift ones position and bruised in a new place.As we go about changing the way we do things, we will suffer bruise in many places. We will be black and blue in many spots. We may end up scarred. But the bruises and the scars will be worth the effort if to we do change for the better. The only way to succeed is to begin. The beginning of the year is a good time to start.INNA MARIE SANTALESLARA JANE LAQUIANPRESENTED BY: