Productive and responsible citizenship

Media

Part of Panorama

Title: Productive and responsible citizenship
Language: English
Source: Panorama XIX (5) May 1967
Year: 1967
Rights
Fulltext: ■ (Speech delivered by V. G. Sinco at the Com mencement Exercises of the East Visayan School of Arts and Trades, April 27, 1967.) PRODUCTIVE AND RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP Our people today appear united in their concern for economic sufficiency and for moral revival. This condi tion naturally implies that we do not produce enough food to feed ourselves, and that our sense of honesty, our will for self-help, our feeling for decency and honor are dulled and, for the moment, incapable of actively reacting to the voice of our collective conscience. It is a fact that newspaper and radio reports tell ,us every day about the constant ' discovery of law breakers, young and old, getrich-quick adventurers, un scrupulous businessmen, un principled politicians, and bribe-taking government of ficials in different parts of our country. These condi tions disturb our law-abiding citizens as indicating a serious defect, illness, a cancer in the social body of our nation. If not corrected on time, most of our people will remain discontented, poor, unhappy, and may even grow bitter and rebellious. Right now there are many among them who feel that it is far better for a man to be clever and crooked than to be intelligent and honest. They complain, some silently and others open ly, against this condition of things, and they are, of course, right in so doing. Persons who view the whole situation calmly and carefully are agreed that the Philippines is going through a crisis. In the case of an individual who is sick, a crisis is the serious and most dangerous stage of his sick ness. If he is not properly treated, if he does not have a good physician, the crisis continues and ends in death. On the other hand, if he re ceives the right medicine from the hands of an able doctor, the crisis ends in re covery and strength. When a country is in crisis, it goes May 1967 3 through similar dangers and uncertainties as an indivi dual. Many Filipinos do not seem to be fully aware of it, but the truth is that our country is at the point of a moral, economic, and social crisis. The question that confronts us then is: What positive remedy can those who love this country offer and employ to tide us over this moral, economic, and so cial crisis? In my opinion the answer is simple to state but not so easy to carry out; and it is this: Develop the Filipino individual into an enlightened, responsible, cou rageous, and productive citi zen. He is the solution. Without that kind of citizen, money, materials, plans, laws, and, other measures will not be of much use and avail. It i$ here where the role of the school looms large, particularly the school that educates the mind and will and trains the hand, the eyes, and the other sense organs of the individual. That is the kind of school which may be expected to develop the en lightened, responsible, and productive citizen. The edu cation of the mind enables the individual to develop his mental power, his reason, his emotions, and his imaginaton. The development of this side of a man’s per sonality is obviously an indis pensable requirement of life in a civilized society. It is specially so in a democracy in which the citizen has to per form important political du ties in addition to his social and civic duties. The bless ings of freedom in a demo cracy are not for the man who does not know exactly what freedom can do to him or does not care how and when to use it. The education of the mind enables us to decide what is needed in our barrio, town, or city and to recognize what conditions our family, our neighborhood, and our so ciety should have to be consi dered civilized. It enables us to realize the dangers of ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism. It lays before us the ugliness of hypocricy, rudeness, pretension, and su perficiality in half-baked per sonalities drunk with power or wealth suddenly and wrongly acquired. It enables us to realize that money is not everything and that there are other things hat can make us even happier than the 4 PANORAMA mere possession of wealth. Such things as culture, sym pathy, courtesy, thoughtful ness, generosity, gratefulness, love are priceless possessions of a person; and they make life worth living. The training of the hands and muscles and other phy sical organs of the individual is a necessary counterpart of the cultivation of his mind, reason, emotion, and imagi nation. Without this train ing, the individual lacks the tools and skills for a. balanced and productive life. This training is the contribution that a good vocational and technical course could make for the advancement of the condition of the individual and the nation. Even the in tellectually competent man or woman may be handicap ped . in F|is race for success as a citizen or as a worker when he does not have a cer tain degree of technical knowledge and vocational training. In fact, the intel lectual of the highest type has to develop some manual skill to give him a sense of completeness in the joy of living. Success in technical work is not attainable by one who has not learned to use his mind. Stupidity and voca tional education do not go together. In all fields of pro ductive endeavor, whether in farming, mining, fishing, building construction, or any other line of work, one must be capable of using his intel ligence, his thinking ability, and his imagination in order to produce desirable results. To this should be added cer tain moral traits. The best trained technician must have well-developed habits of in dustry and honesty. The most able engineer and most talented technologist cannot be productive if they are dis honest, careless, undepend able, and lazy. A friend of mine who was once President of an Ameri can University and at present the Director of International .Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos once told me this: “There is nothing miraculous in the socalled miracle rice.” We should remove from our vo cabulary the words “miracle rice.” Highly productive rice is not the outcome of any miracle at all. This ill-chosen phrase might mislead some of us into believing that a certain kind of rice will pro duce 100 to 200 cavanes per May 1967 5 hectare if the farmer goes to church everyday and prays for a miracle. The only way to produce a large rice crop, says this great technical man, is for a person to work hard so that the plants will always be free from weeds and will always have a certain amount of water. But that is not all. He should also learn how to use the necessary fertilizer and the necessary chemicals for spraying the plants against dangerous bugs and insects; and then to protect them against rats and birds. In other words, the success ful farmer should have at least two important qualifi cations: one is moral, which is diligence and persistence, and the second is technical or vocational, which is know ledge and skill in the use and' control of natural ele ments. In the absence of these qualifications, the socalled miracle rice will never appear no matter how many pious supplications a farmer addresses to high heavens. As the old copybook maxim runs: God helps those who help themselves. When we analyze deeply the conditions necessary to enable us to live a happy life, to live in safety and in peace with our neighbors, to con tribute to the economic and cultural well-being of our country, we are bound to dis cover two general and basic factors: moral strength and mental vigor. These factors may be translated into a tri nity of values, namely: in tegrity, industry, and intelli gence. No priority may be assigned to any of them. The three should be simul taneously present. No to morrow or next week or next year should be claimed for the observance or practice of any of them. They have to take place at present, at the same time, and in our midst. They have to be produced and used here and now. A moral upsurge and an intellectual ferment must not only concern us but must move our spirit, our will, our determination to action and execution — immediate, constant, burning not to ex tinction but to an ever grow ing fervor. Then we will be come productive, as indivi duals and as a nation; we shall have economic suffi ciency. We shall completely stop going around as weak lings and parasites, asking for food, money, protection, drifting as beggars, incapable 6 Panorama of self-respect and s e 1 freliance. We will not con tinue destroying our forests and other natural resources to enrich ourselves overnight but will restrain our preda tory practices so as not to rob unborn generations of the national patrimony and to leave them miserable. We will not run for office or hold public position merely to fill our pockets and swell our bank deposits from the money people are forced to pay as taxes. We will not violate the laws, or steal, cheat, murder, smuggle in order to lead a. life of ease and luxury, to build expen sive homes, to put up gor geous fiestas, to ride in flashy cars, to travel around the world. We will be able to avoid these evils and many more after we shall have ga thered moral strength through the development of habits of industry and honesty, and shall have acquired the capi tal virtue of integrity, and shall have cultivated a sense of responsibility, personal and social, to the highest level possible. Economic sufficiency is certain to follow the obser vance of these habits, prac tices, virtues, and values. S e 1 f-discipline, self-control, self-reliance make their ob servance possible. Then na tionalism will have substance, vigor, meaning, and worth. As students, you should realize that mental develop ment is not a process that ends on graduation day. No, it is not and cannot be com pletely accomplished the moment the student receives his diploma. A man’s mind is not very different from a farm land. After a crop is harvested, the land has to be plowed again, planted, culti vated, weeded, watered, and carefully watched. Otherwise, it will cease to be productive. Wild plants may grow on it from the natural effect of rain, air, and sun but not the plants we most need, the plants that can fully satisfy our hunger for food or our thirst for beauty or our sense for personal achievement. In almost the same way, our mind needs to be conti nually cultivated in order to be productive of good ideas, ideas -that could make us healthy, strong, helpful, un selfish, creative, and decent men and women in our com munity. If we have learned the right kind of intellectual education in school, we can May 1967 7 take care of our personal and social development. In this matter of self-development, we are our own teachers teaching ourselves from books, newspapers, radio, contacts with friends, fellow workers, and other elements in our environment. Graduation in school or college should never put an end to it. If we stop learning by ourselves, culti vating our minds, training our hands, we will deteriorate mentally, morally, vocational ly and we might as well be physically dead. But lest 1 be misunderstood, let me make one thing clear, and it is this: In real education, the mere accumulation of facts and ideas is not the principal purpose. What is important is the understand ing 'and organization of the knowledge derived from them. The man with an or ganized knowledge is more valuable then one who is sim ply bursting with facts and figures. As practical men and wo men, you should realize the value of industrial, agricul tural, and other kinds of vo cational training. As neigh bors and citizens, you should realize the value of industry, honesty, friendliness, courtesy, and cooperation. As human beings, you should realize and observe the transcendent ideals of justice, tolerance, and love. All these together spell development of charac ter and improvement of the head, the hand, and the heart. Moral invigoration is the salvation of the Filipino peo ple. All of us, from the Pres ident of our country down to the humblest man in the street, should dedicate the totality of our efforts, our energies, our talents, and the utmost force of our will to bring about this moral revi val. It should be the object of our individual and na tional commitment. Without this, economic sufficiency is not possible, corruption and disorder will not stop, na tional advancement will not take place, even if Congress and the President will set aside billions of pesos, recruit thousands of men for public service, and deliver hundreds of speeches in all corners of this land of tremendous but unrealized potentialities. The need is for enlightened, un selfish, and sincere leaders and for industrious, intelli gent, honest, and responsible citizens. — V. G. Sinco. Panorama
pages: 3-8