The Filipino Resilience?

If you were asked to describe a Filipino, there's an 80% chance you'd say hospitable or resilient. For many people, those two adjectives best describe a Filipino. It is in our culture to be polite and accommodating as well as being strong and hopeful. We are the only country in Asia that ousted two presidents in two people power revolutions. Where else can you see a former president with so many controversies and allegations of corruption elected a seat in the congress? Ondoy and Pepeng destroyed a lot of properties and washed away many lives but Filipinos still remained hopeful and strong. They say that the way we put ourselves together after the greatest perils is the one trait that best describes a Filipino.

Are we truly a resilient nation or are we just a bunch of uncomplaining people? We just accept and tolerate everything that is happening around us. We let our leaders control and impose their ways on us. We always let the "smarter people" overpower the oppressed. A classic example of this is our government officials whom we judge as stupid , arrogant jerks for passing the 2011 budget. But what we don't see is that they are smart enough to make us believe that there are no cuts in the budget of SUCs by stating technical terms no one would dare question. These government officials are very smart that their corrupt and evil ways are not exposed.

I think we have been resilient for so long that we are not developing as a country. The Philippines is left behind by its neighboring countries like Korea, Japan and China. Technology-wise we are obsolete compared to Japan's advanced technology. It is just sad to think that we were once ahead of them. We can easily blame our leaders for this but we should also look at ourselves. What have we contributed to make a change? We can complain all we want, rally to the streets and demand for change but as the old saying goes, "be the change you want to see in the world." Being strong in face of adversity is an admirable characteristic but not all the time. In times like these, being resilient is not enough. It's time to be infuriated!