Progress, Learning and the youth.pdf

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extracted text: PROGRESS, LEARN! Dr. Pascual Capiz Tt is clear to any one who 4 wishes to divine the fu ture of the Philippines that the present conditions do not provide much room for op timism. This pessimism is not the result of a realization that this country is poor, for it is rich in natural resources; nor that this nation has reached a certain dead level of national and material development, for it is young; nor that its geographical location is a cause for concern, for one can count only Great Britain, Japan, Indonesia, and the continent of Australia as more fortunately free from any border invasion; nor even that its population is small, for there are nations of les ser people which count bet ter in the counsel of nations. Not these, but the human re sources or rather the lack of them is the reason for gen uine pessimism. Because of our colonial past we have a distorted sense of value. We do not yet have a sense of the na tional interest. We believe that patronizing the language and customs of the Spaniards and the Americans is the high road to national and so cial improvement. We forget the saying, Charity begins at home. Our indifference and even cynical attitude to wards the poverty of the masses does not reveal in us something that makes for a better social order. A nation that is ambitious in the way of self-improvement must first be a united people. But no nation is ever united five per cent of whose population is very rich and ninety-five 46 Panorama NG and the YOUTH per cent is very poor. Such a cleavage based on econo mic interest is a barrier to the attainment of a social or der and a permanent seed of revolution. We are proud of our so-call ed freedom of the press, our social and political freedom. Most of these freedom are more apparent than real. 'Tt is true we freely publish many things, but we also freely do not publish many things that should come to the knowledge of the public in the interest of good gov ernment and society. Furth ermore, how can there be press freedom when about eighty per cent of the peo ple cannot read the metropo litan papers because they are published in English? It is the discussion of the people in the organs of publication that makes the freedom of the press real rather than the opinion of some patronizing political salesman from ab road. Can there be, indeed, real social freedom when the highest public and education al institutions of the land are not our own? Can there be freedom when much of our military bases, our banking and economic institutions, and the organs of publica tion and dissemination of in formation are largely in the hands of foreigners? We like to think we are free. But if we want to change the struc ture of our economic and litical institutions to suitHaie circumstances of our history and the real' interest of pur people, can we reallyicd-sift without . cPyeorfecprLefcfln interventions fromf; the intf-r truments of foreign d$>min?B tion? Finally, it is hard tokfop^ lieve, as we would like oto believe, that we are a people, politically free if you: will, when the governing class, supposedly the best' and highest of the land, with few exceptions, are graft-rid den and corrupt. These facts are passed in review not to castigate anew old beaten horses, but to un derscore the point that we have to go a long way, in fact we have to do almost the very opposite of what we do now, if we want to attain national progress. Our atti OCTOBER 1961 47 tudes and the present out look of the people are in the way to national development Therefore, there must be a social revolution; there must be a transvaluation of values to prepare the youth who will take the helm of the state in the next generations. Since moral and intellectual progress must precede all oth er kinds of progress, the young people now who will be rulers of tomorrow must be conditioned to be lovers of wisdom and moral virtues before they are lovers of wealth. It is ever thus in the his tory of civilization, the his tory of Egypt, Greece, India, China, and Japan, that a por tion of their population is the custodian of learning. And it is from this class that the ruling group was drawn The case in point is the priestly class of ancient Egypt or the aristocrats of the Greek city-states from which Plato had painted the guard ian class of his Republic, or the Brahman and Kshastriya classes of India, or the Man darin of China, or the Sa murai of Japan. The success of the Chinese civilization and the amazing continuity of the kind of government and social order that had been established by the Chi nese people for more than twenty-five hundred years are to be attributed in a large measure to the system of what is universally known as the Civil Service Examina tion system. By this system the officials of the Chinese government have always been the men of learning. But the Chinese system of govern ment is only the practical ex emplification of Plato’s theo ry in the Republic that the guardian or ruling class must be possessed of the highest knowledge, in addition to the possession of justice, temper ance, and courage. To be doubly sure that the guc ian class would work for the the happiness of the whole society rather than its own happiness, Plato advocated that the ruling class, though not the artisan or the lowest class, should have their wives and property in common. If there is a lesson to be learn ed from this great book of Plato’s it is this: the confi dent assertion that know ledge is the highest require ment in the conduct of gov ernment. Just as in the indi vidual reason must prevail over passion, so in politics the wise men must rule over the others. The history of civilization, therefore, points to this inescapable conclusion that there is no progress, which men call civilization, 48 Panorama without wise and good gov ernment, and there is no wise and good government with out wise and good men. With out learning there is no pro gress. One of the most illustrious passages in the whole of Chinese literature and politi cal philosophy, which shows the relation between learn ing and government, is this one from “The Great Learn ing” of the Confucian School: The ancients who wish ed to illustrate illust rious virtue throughout the kingdom, first order ed well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first re gulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first culti vated their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of know ledge lay in the investi gation of things. Things being investigat ed, knowledge became complete. Their know ledge being complete, their thoughts were sin cere. Their thoughts be ing sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were culti vated. Their persons be ing cultivated, their fami lies were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happySo, it is on the investiga tion of things and on the knowledge that results from the investigation that the foundation of government and a tranquil society must be laid. Confucius and Pla to are agreed on the belief that knowledge is the foun dation of a good society. If it is the experience of mankind that learning is es sential to progress, material, political, and cultural, it is hard to see how we can make ourselves, this nation, the exception to the rule. At pre sent, it seems that wealth is the highest value of our so ciety, judging from the fact that the best, the most ho norable, the ruling group of our people are in pursuit of it. We cannot continue to ig nore the experience of man kind, or else we shall suffer, October 1961 49 as it is ever the fate of stu pid men, enslavement under wiser nations, wiser because they put .their trust in their good and wise men. Indeed, the cultivation of learning in our nation may very well de cide our destiny. It can be confidently stated that as long as learning is not the primary qualification of our officials in the government, the Fili pino nation is doomed to failure. We must first be one peo ple with a definite goal, not for Americans nor for Span iards but for ourselves, show ing some appreciation and d'eyotfou to the higher goals of rJifce.vTfce Inqham-epic. MahafaawifL, lief-four, goals oflife;- which rStf-epd^ty- (dhar-> ma), ►wealth; ment (kawa)^^pdgIteration. (moksa).- rIf,.^ems. that,.as a nation' our JyisioriTias jreaphed only as^iar '^s JWaftft and enjoymefit'^h^^g ^bals of life. Our public! officials, than whom we. cannot find a more representative group among our ’ people, consider their public trust as only an op portunity for making money. In their capacity as public servants the times are many when they have to choose between money and duty. Usually the choice is money; thus every time this happens the public official has be trayed his country and humi liated the Filipinos as a race. One recalls the case of tenyear-old little Fortunato in Prosper Merimee’s story, Ma teo Falcone. For a dangling silver watch he betrayed his solemn promise to hide an outlaw, from whom, previous ly, he had received five francs. Mateo Falcone, the father, shot his son to satis fy the demands of justice. Our public official deserves no less, his crime is greater. But our people condone the erring officer because their ideal is the same as his. I hold no brief against the politicians as a group.. I agree with Cicero when he said that the state is divine, as it embraces -within it almost everything of human good. Therefore the men who con duct the affairs of the state have.an honorable, if not a divine, calling. But our politi cal officials fail far short of their highest opportunities, either because they are not aware of the dignity of their office or they are weak and succumb easily to the temp tation of wealth. They may profess devotion to duty, but there are only a handful of them who are sincerely dedi cated to their work, certain ly not enough to tip the bal ance between what is a good government and what is a 50 162PAM0MM9 corrupt government. I agree with Leif Nylen, a Norwe gian rehabilitation expert who spent two years in the Philippines as International Labor Organization observer. He is reported (The Manila Chronicle, December 28, 1960) as stating his private opinion as follows: I have faith in the young, the old are cor rupt. The Filipinos lack guts, lack the fighting spirit to pull themselves out of the rut of poverty where they spend their lives. The average Filipino is poor and will remain poor as long as the re gime is so corrupt that every aid from other countries disappears and does not reach the com mon people. Certainly there is no future for our country under a nor malized system of corruption. Even if we can fully indus trialize, the problem of po verty and the good society will not be solved. We must first order our hearts before we can order our material well-being. If we cannot or der our hearts, to have more wealth is only to increase hu man misery for the nation. What then is the hope of the future? We stand on the threshold of our history when, not by any other means but by in telligence and willingness to sacrifice, we must change and direct the development of our country. We shall not be content with riding on the initial push of the past for that has been mixed with much evil. Let us remember that we have been puppets in the hands of the Spaniards, and the Americans, and even the Japanese in thir short stay; and we have been made to look at ourselves after their own image. In this sense we have learned to dis trust ourselves. They have succeeded and are even now succeeding, as witnessed by our continued patronage of their language and their cus toms and their ways of life, which are contrary to ours. We must change all these if we intend to take a creative hand in the making of our history. Surely the meaning of progress in history is not that things will get better as time goes on. Rather, the human good may be realized according to a predetermined end. This is the only mean ing of progress I know. For nature and human nature begrudge the good to him who will not work for it. Since, therefore, we cannot rely on the present genera51 NEW DISTILLATION PROCESS FEASIBLE The recently announced thin film water dis tillation process, developed by the General Elec tric Company of the United States, has now been proved feasible for use by cities and industrial concerns. With General Electric’s distillation process, salt or brackish water is literally ‘wiped” in a very thin film by wiper blades over the inside surface of a heat transfer tube. Heat from steam passing over the outside fluted surface of this tube causes the inside film of feed water to eva porate. The' vapor produced is then condensed to pure, fresh water. Previous experiments by General Electric with a full-scale engineering model of the thin film unit also demonstrated the value of the con cept for marine applications where restrictions of size and weight are critical. * ♦ ♦ tion of public servants we shall look to the youth of new vision, cherishing better and higher values. Our fu ture government must be in the hands of the young whose highest standards of public performance are the virtues of justice and learning. The goals of human society are easily set. It is the realiz ing of them that is difficult. Among these goals may be social justice, peace, and hap piness of the people. But peace, as the Schoolman said, is the fruit of justice, and peace is a precondition of happiness. No justice can be realized if the government is not just, and the govern ment cannot be just if every official is not just; and ulti mately the justice of every single official may be traced back to the just or corrupt life in which he privately lives. The future officials of our government must be men of the highest probity in their private lives. They shall be men who are more concern ed how they would appear to their conscience than to the public. These are the men who will value honor more than money and wisdom and love of justice above all things. This is seed-time for the Filipino nation; and the har vest of human good can be ours in the modest compass of our country if we are first 52 Panorama possessed of the higest spirit ual values common to all mankind. Being a young na tion we cannot expect fullest maturity and ripest judgment in our conduct as a people. It is enough that we have the dynamism of youth and a new outlook. By the new outlook I mean that we must as a people, individually and * collectively, be possessed first of the highest intellectual and moral values before we can be possessor of our lands. To do otherwise is to repeat our history. Let us see if the youth can be better than the old in the possession of the new outlook and the new vi sion of a greater and happier Philippines. ♦ * NEW COMPOUND FOUND TO INHIBIT ONE TYPE OF TUMOR IN ANIMALS A new compound which in animal experi ments inhibits one type of tumor by 90 to 100 per cent has been fashioned from a potential cancer drug now undergoing clinical tests in the United States. The chemical, a piperazine derivative la belled A-20968, is effective against Carcinoma 755, a transplantable mouse tumor, and also shows activity against two common types of can cer, Sarcoma 180 and Leukemia 1210, according to Dr. John A. Carbon, a research chemist at Ab bott Laboratories, North Chicago, Illinois. The new compound has not yet been tried on human beings. The model for the compound was called A-8103, and it represents an entirely new type of. chemical structure to show activity against tumors, Dr. Carbon said, adding: “Although it is probably a member of the class of anti-tumor agents known as ‘alkylating agents,’ it possesses a chemical structure of an entirely different type from the known com pounds of this class. It thus offers an opportunity or ‘lead’ for the organic chemist to synthesize many closely related compounds as possible tu mor growth inhibitors.” October 1961 53
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