ON NURTURING THE PEOPLE

What are the things that a country has to nurture in order to have highly literate citizens?

We need to ask that question in order for us to know if we are progressing or not. I developed this question after talking to a handmaiden who serves in a posh house somewhere in MetroManila. I was egging her to improve her mind by saying that she could take advantage of the internet and search for ways to learn a business skill.

She demurred. She just stared at me as if asking, am I really capable of running a business? You see she was a drop-out of college and I pitied her that she would serve her whole lifetime as a server. Then her aunt even has plans for her to go to Saudi Arabia again to be a domestic helper.

But I saw that she is quite intelligent for a provincial girl as she knows how to manage her home tasks very well. Of course she has a highly intelligent landlady and so can handle her very well, teaching her how to follow her routine together with all the numbered tasks she has to do for a month.

Another time, I asked a young man for street directions. He had a hard time telling me how to reach my destination although I knew that he was a resident of the area.

So my dear Kababayan, I think that among so many other things, the two that our country must nurture and our citizens must value are: Number one, the ability to plan their lives and not be contented with their lot, as well as number two, the ability to give directions.

The first is highly coveted for everyone because not only is it a sign of ability to know what is being progressive, but because it is the only way for our country to survive and improve in terms of development. If our country is full of people who are just satisfied with their lot, then that would be the end of things. 

We must figure out what it is that we want in life, really, and how do we reach that?

I told the young girl that with a good business, you could send more funds to your relatives abroad, and that was how her face lit up. You see, her improvement has to latch on to something that has to do with her family, her younger brothers and sisters whom she would like to finish college. She is denying herself the chance to go back to college, as I had told her that tuition fees are now free, just so she could help her family.

I think martyrdom is good but if it would mean retrogression, then it is half good.

The second ability that I mentioned is knowing how to give and follow directions.

I think that this requires a bit of intelligence already. The first requires value formation. The second is cognitive in nature, from the word, cognition meaning mental processes– and I think that is lacking in our country. Just see the road and street signs – they are blah!

They are here and there - two posts with two street signs, a post tilting to the ground, missing posts, street sign pointing to the wrong direction, post with a political flyer of a candidate, post beside a planter and worst, post with a wrong street name.

So do you see how the government trivializes the street signs? These are vandalized no end by kids who know no better daily and nightly at that.

So how do we expect to negotiate streets and roads if we do not have proper street signs? How do we expect to go forward in our life, when in our surroundings we are blinded by poor streetsigns? 

Maybe we can follow the method of London – the streetsigns are tacked on the buildings and homes at the corners of streets. In this manner, the vandals would not be able to reach them. And should there be an demolition of the building, then the next owner, or the public works people would put them up again on the next edifice.

You see, the Londoners are very conscious of maps because the city is full of small streets and big circles. Since they are quite conscious of money also, they ride bicycles to their offices and back to their homes. By negotiating the streets, they must have maps and every bicycle driver that I had known had that A to Zed map, where even the smallest streets could be found. Even car drivers have that A to Zed. One time, I was going to London from Kentish Town in my bicycle and I was asking for directions from my housemates. Marcus and Peter advised me to buy an A to Zed. What is that, I asked. Well it was the Bible of every driver in the city. 

And so, for our Kababayan to really excel in their lifetimes, we must give them the proper tools to live —good values and good thoughts to think about like how to be familiar with your surroundings.

Happy New Year, Folks!