Indolence of the Filipino

Indolence or laziness

The essay itself originally appeared in the Filipino forthrightly review, La Solidaridad of Madrid, in five installments, running from July 15 to September 15, 1890. It was a continuation of Rizal’s campaign of education in which he sought by blunt truths to awaken his countrymen to their own faults at the same time that he was arousing the Spaniards to the defects in Spain’s colonial system that caused and continued such shortcomings.

Today there seems a place in Manila for just suets, missionary work as The Indolence of the Filipino aimed at. It may help on the present improving understanding between Continental Americans and their countrymen of these “Far Off Eden Isles”, for the writer submits as his mature opinion, based on ten years’ acquaintance among Filipinos through studies which enlisted their interest, that the political problem would have been greatly simplified had it been understood in Dewey’s day that among intelligent Americans the much-talked-of lack of “capacity referred to the mass of the people’s want of political experience and not to any alleged racial inferiority. To wounded pride has the discontent been due rather than to withholding of political privileges.

Poor economic policies and political instability meant growth stagnated and real incomes actually fell. Sad to say that truth hurts, we are still experiencing extreme and humiliating poverty. In Rizal’s assessment, he portrayed that the Filipinos are not really indolent thus he noted that the Spaniards in the Philippines, while accusing the natives of being lazy, were themselves the laziest, waking up late in the day while their servants were up early, having natives carry them in hammocks across rivers instead of walking, in short, having an indolent, leisurely life, while the natives, whom they despised, did all the work. His diagnosis pointed to the inescapable solution: to be free from poverty, the Filipinos must be free from foreign rule.

Based on the report of ERCOF (Economic Resource Center of Overseas Filipinos), the annual remittances of the OFW have been doubled from 2001 to present. Our new heroes reflect their importance to our economic growth. Because of being industrious and trustworthy despite of separation from their families, they are able to help a lot to our economic condition.

Maybe Rizal was correct. The Filipino can be self-sufficient, prosperous, and happy, as they were before the coming of the colonial masters. In refusing to lay the blame for our poverty on the failures of foreign dictated policies, where they belong, members of the Filipino ruling class are placing the blame on the “Indolence of the Filipinos.”