Indolence: Filipino People

Jose Rizal published Sobra la Indolencia de los Filipinos on July 15 to September 15, 1890 in five installments through the La Solidaridad, the official newspaper of the Philippine ilustrados(“enlightened ones”) – those who hoped to have a representation of the Filipinos in the Spanish Courts. This essay is also the longest among his essays.
Through Rizal’s deep insights of social anthropology, he was able to analyze the factors causing the Filipinos’ indolence. According to him, that was not due to the climate or the absence of stimuli to work but due to the hardships or barriers out of the political and social systems during those times.
Rizal stressed on the factors that contributed to the laziness and the slow progress of Filipinos based on the following premises: the participation of the Filipinos in Spain’s wars against the English, Dutch, and Portuguese; and, the teachings of the friars that those who are poor will go to heaven more easily. With this, Filipinos tend to suffer from being poor to reach heaven more easily when they pass away. Rizal also suggested that a brand new educational system be established in Hongkong to train the youth accordingly.
Chapter Summaries
[edit] Chapter 1: Admitting the Indolence of the Filipinos
The author admits that indolence indeed takes place in the Filipinos’ lives. However, this cannot be due to the backwardness and troubles of the nation; rather, this is brought by those troubles underwent by the country. Previous researches on this topic involve only affirming or denying, hence never focusing on its causes. One must focus on studying indolence, stressed Rizal, before it can be cured. He then specifies those causes of indolence together with the circumstances leading to them. According to him, the hot climate in the country can indeed be reasonable in causing indolence. Europeans have a different case, since because of the cold climate, they need to work harder. He equates an hour of work in the Philippine’s sun with a day of work in temperate regions.
[edit] Chapter 2: Indolence of Chronic Illness
Rizal states that a disease will get worse with inappropriate treatment. This also goes true with indolence. Yet, people should not turn hopeless when dealing with this issue. He argues that even before the Spaniards came to the Philippines, the early Filipino settlers were already trading with other provinces and nearby countries. They were also dealing with mining and agriculture, and even some native Filipinos were able to speak in Spanish. These arguments indeed proved that the Filipinos are not indolent. He ends this chapter by posing a question: What may have been the cause of Filipinos forgetting their past?
[edit] Chapter 3: Wars, Insurrections, Expeditions and Invasion
Rizal then itemizes the reasons which may have brought the Filipinos’ economic and cultural turpitude. The frequently occurring invasions, wars and insurrections caused havoc to communities. There was wide destruction and chaos. A lot of Filipinos were also sent to various countries to support Spain in its wars and expeditions. Thus, the number of Filipinos decreased. Several men were also forced to construct vessels on shipyards. On the other hand, natives who felt too much abuse went to the mountains to retreat. With this, farms were abandoned. Hence, this termed indolence of Filipinos was brought by such deep factors.
[edit] Chapter 4: Death of Trade in the Philippines
According to Rizal, Filipinos are not the reasons for their own misfortunes, since they are not held responsible for their lives. The Spanish conquerors did not push for trade and labor, stopping these when they became suspicious of their trade partners. With this, trade started to decline, together with the restrictions, pirate attacks, and unavailable aid for farmers and their crops. Such events as well as the abuses of encomenderos led farmers to leave the fields. Government officials monopolized businesses, as much as bribery, red tape, and gambling pervaded society. This situation was aggravated by the church’s teachings saying that the rich will not go to God’s kingdom, hence bringing such wrong perspective on work. Likewise, there was rampant discrimination of the natives when it comes to education. These, among others, were some of the reasons why Filipino values have deteriorated.
[edit] Chapter 5: Limited Training and Education
As stated by Rizal, these causes of the Filipinos’ indolence can be contained into two factors. The first of these include the limited forms of educating and training Filipino natives. Separated from Spaniards and other high-class men of society, they do not have similar experiences with the latter. They are brainwashed to become inferior. The next factor is the absence of a unity among the Filipinos as fellow countrymen. Due to their inferior thoughts, they tend to regard foreign culture as their model and then emulate it. Among all these, he thus proposes liberty and education – finally, to solve such dilemma.