The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This is something I wrote four years ago. Yet it seems like I have just written it today about what is happening in my beloved Philippines:
SPIRIT MOMENT: A tree does not bear fruits and say to itself that it does so to serve nature and humanity. Gold does not glitter and say to itself that it does so to become a thing of value to men. It is men’s faith and affect that give them that effect. I have always been touched by the faith of Filipinos, specially in times of hardships and adversity but also in times of joys and celebrations. And yet it baffles me that in an area of robust economic development, we lag behind all of our neighboring countries. Is it because our faith has remained infantile and borders on superstition? Or, has our faith made us passive and less competitive to thrive in an economic world driven by competition? Or, are we wrong to hanker for material comforts and worldly possessions when we already have generosity of spirit and irrepressible joy in our souls? I know many Filipinos who dream of eventually retiring in the Philippines in spite of the ‘horror stories’ of corruption. crimes and inefficiencies in the country because it is truly ‘more fun in the Philippines’. Maybe we know or have something that makes the Philippines the paradise that it is.