Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

rizal's life

Powerful Essays
1061 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
rizal's life
In comparing the life of our two great Filipinos, one can clearly see the differences in their background. Rizal was talented, but moreover, blessed to be born into a good family who can afford to send him to prestigious schools. Bonifacio, on the other hand, was born into a poor family. One can clearly point out that the reason for the different courses of action taken by the two are very well linked with their backgrounds. Rizal is the Idealist, wherein he used his intellect in making known his feelings. Through his writings, he was able to define what he saw wrong. Switching sides, Bonifacio, although intelligent himself, resorted to physical warfare as the means of making his beliefs known to the public. No matter how much we want to identify which of the two men was better, there’s no point in doing so. They may be similar in their goals, but their ways were different.

In our opinion, the national hero should be the one with the greatest influence. For this reason, we believe that Rizal is the worthy one, since he himself influenced Bonifacio to act up. A hero should exude an aura which is definitely hard to avoid and be influenced by. This is what Jose Rizal was all about. (Vengeful Spirit, 11:16 AM)

Another reason why not much is known about Andres compared to Rizal that is not addressed in the article is that Rizal was a sort of genius who stood out early in life and caught the attention of everyone. He was also a prolific writer. And his contemporaries all considered him the leader of the revolution. So his life is well documented.

On the other hand, Andres was the young man who answered Rizal's call for a revolution. He came out of nowhere, from obscurity into instant fame. And he disappeared just as fast. While his military campaign was a failure and there is little known of his life, and there have been questions as to the accuracy of some historians' portrayal of him, he is well loved.

In fact, I think to most Filipinos, Andres is at least as big as Rizal. Their contribution to the Filipino was just different. Rizal was the vision and Andres symbolizes the will. And one cannot be a hero without the other, and without the
The UP oblation does appear to symbolize Andres Bonifacio. It was inspired by 2 stanzas in Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell) which calls for militant and selfless sacrifice and service to the country. The verses particularly mention fighting in battlefields... And Andres was the young man who answered Rizal's call.

It is possible that there was some intentional obfuscation as to who the statue really was and its inspiration as it was built during the American colonial period. The colonizers, of course, wanted to bury the militant Andres and would have censored same, if they had known. And the wiki's description of Rizal's poem is inaccurate. It omits the militancy that Rizal called for. It only mentions selfless sacrifice and devotion to the motherland portion. And this may be the line that was officially given to the American authorities then.

I did not do any research though on this. So I could be completely wrong. It's just something to think about or for someone else to research and write about other revolutionaries as well. (JULIO NAKPIL, 1925)

If Rizal were alive today, no doubt he would have been gravely concerned with the state of our environment brought about by reckless and unsustainable development strategies and imperatives.

In seeking to develop a comprehensive response to the challenge of environment, Rizal's thoroughness would have directed him to the address the technological, financial, and regulatory dimensions of specific problems. Yet I feel he would not have stopped at that.

Rizal would have pushed for consensus-building at a more profound level: through dialogue and exchange, sharing and examining our respective views on nature, on the relation between humanity and nature, on our values.

Through such dialogue, we can develop a shared vision of a society that will truly meet human needs and enable us to realize our most cherished aspirations. As we develop such consensus it will become possible through the creative application of science and technology, and drawing on the traditional wisdom nurtured in our respective lands to realize the goal of sustainable development.

It is here that the idea of creative symbiosis emerges as a key concept. Science and technology development and for that matter all human activity must be conducted in such a way that neither the way we relate to each other as human beings nor our interactions with nature should be married by conflict and destructive competition.

Rather, we must honor and support one another in relations of creative coexistence and mutual flourishing, which was what Rizal actively promoted as a nationalist and a universalist. This, I feel, represents the world view and bedrock values on which the successful human society of the 21st century may be constructed.

Symbiosis is of course scientific, more specifically an ecological concept, and it was through these principles that the word entered our modern lexicon. Yet in Asian culture the culture of the Philippines and of Southeast Asia as well as China, Japan and East Asia this idea has deep historical roots that many ultimately be traced it to what has been termed the region's forest culture.

By this we mean an ecologically harmonious culture where human beings coexist with nature within the context manifold life of the forest. In such a culture, humans, plants, and animals indeed, all forms of life are sustained through their mutual interactions.

It is based on the understanding that harming or killing one life harms all life; that pain of one is experienced and felt by all. This kind of empathy is deeply related to idea of compassion, which Simone Weil held to be humankind's most universal value.

In sum, I have long held profound admiration for Dr. Jose Rizal's struggles against injustice and persecution through which he was able to lead the Philippines to freedom and independence. Dr. Rizal expressed the same spiritual outlook with these words: He who wants to help himself should help others, because if he neglects others, he too will be neglected by them. (Alan C. Taule, October - December 2004)

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Veneration with Understanding” by Armand J. Malay is an eye opener. It revealed me the truth about revering Jose Rizal. It also helped me realize the faux information on Prof. Constantino’s “Veneration without Understanding”. It almost duped me. I was about to believe on what he had written on his thesis. After I read his work, I started to question Rizal’s title as the national hero. The argument that Prof. Constantino had presented was quite convincing and so I agreed with him. But later on I realized that Rizal really deserves to be venerated since he had done great things which are very crucial in the Philippine history. Jose Rizal’s achievements and noble qualities are the reason why people admire him and consider him as a model. I venerate Rizal not because he is the said national hero but because he is an undisputable national hero. Rizal’s precious works on literacy and Rizal himself are still alive in most hearts of the Filipino people until today. He showed the genuine heroism. He is incomparable to any other Filipino heroes and that makes him on top.…

    • 605 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rizal Analysis

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jose Rizal was the greatest contributor in our history. At his early age he always excels in school. He…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jose Rizal Life and Works

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Jose Rizal is the national hero of the Philippines, one of the Southeast Asian countries. His full name was Jose Protacio Mercado Rizal y Alonzo Realonda. He was born on June 19, 1861 as the 7th child of the eleven children in the family of Francisco Mercado Rizal and Teodora Alonzo Realonda. He was internationally known for his two novels that made the Filipinos aware of Spanish injustices and eventually fought for and achieved independence after a bloody revolution which was triggered by his death on December 30, 1896. The first novel, "Noli Me Tangere" was analytically considered as the "work of the heart" that made the Filipino readers at that time, felt the social injustices or social cancer; and the second novel, "El Filibusterismo", the continuation of the first, was considered as the "work of the head" as it was a political novel.Jose Rizal was not really against Spain or the Catholic Church during that time. He was fighting using his writing prowess against bad friars and abusive government officials. He even enrolled on November 3, 1883 and finished his Doctorate Courses of Medicine on June 21, 1884 and Philosophy and Letters at the Central University of Madrid, Spain on June 19, 1885, After graduation, he proceeded to specialize in Ophthalmology in Europe. While staying in Europe, he wrote and fiinally published on March 29, 1887 his first novel wherein copies were sent and circulated in the Philippines. He arrived home in the Philippines on August 6, 1887. After helping the people in the agrarian trouble of his hometown and curing the blindness of his mother's eyes, he was forced to go abroad again on February 3, 1888 in order not to jeopardize the safety and happiness of his family and friends with his presence due to the anger of people who were doing injustices who were hurt of truth Rizal revealed through his novel.He passed through Hongkong, Japan, and America in going again to Europe where he stayed from May 1888 to October 1891 and continued the…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rizal’s reputation as a hero is well earned. He hated how the Spanish treated the natives of the Philippines, whom the Spanish called Indios. The novels and essays he wrote were aimed mostly at Spaniards back in Spain. His objective was to get them to stop the practices of Spanish friars and governors in colonial Philippines. I believe he was convinced that if the Spaniards in Europe knew of the cruelty and injustice going on in their colony for years, that they would finally interfere and stop the merciless brutality that had gone on for centuries. In Spain, Spaniards treated Rizal with respect and admiration, but for some reason the Spaniards in the Philippines were entirely different. They did not hesitate to use torture, terror and execution to keep their Indios under their complete control, and that included controlling Rizal as well.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Controversies of Rizal

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Dr. Jose Rizal, the well-loved Philippine national hero, and the brave known genius was famous and will remain famous worldwide. I don’t know if you’ve heard bout him, but of course if you’re a Filipino, you surely know him well because he’s a big part of the Philippine history. Jose Rizal is a star and like I’ve said genius and every star and genius is famous. And every famous is controversial.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rizal

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The movie “Jose Rizal” is all about our National Hero Dr. Jose Rizal – Hislife and works, his struggles in order to free his countrymen from abuse, until his death under the hands of the Spaniards who occupied our country for a very longtime. Most of the scenes of the film took place during Rizal’s imprisonment at Dapitan wherein he meets Taviel, a Spanish officer, who will eventually defend him on his trial in court. During their meeting, Taviel asks Rizal everything about him and his works through various questions. Every answer that Rizal brought out from his mouth made Taviel realize that Rizal was indeed an innocent man. On the course of their conversation, Rizal talks about the making of his Two Novels “Noli Me Tangere” and its sequel “El Filibusterismo” which are both anti-Spanish Novels that depicts how the Spaniards rule the Philippines and how the rights of the Filipinos were abolished. Rizal portrayed himself on the said Novels – as Crisostomo Ibarra on “Noli Me Tangere” and as Simeon on “El Filibusterismo.”Going through with the movie, while Rizal is telling his story to Taviel, the scene on the movie switches from his life story then to his portrayal on his Novels. Sometimes the scene gets very difficult to follow because of the sudden switches during the scenes on the movie most especially during the time that his first novel was on the process of writing. Rizal, a brave and a man of his word, was never afraid whatever theconsequences he may suffer because of his writings that are against the friars and also to Spaniards. His goal was to free the Philippines from the unjust government of Spanish colony. In summary, the movie talks mostly of Rizal’s life until his death and the creation of his great novels. The actors and actresses who acted on the movie did a great job presenting how it was during Rizal’s time even though the said events in Rizal’s life were just written in books.…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bonifacio was the idealist because he believed the Katipuneros would win despite their limited resources because they were fired by the spirit of liberty. Rizal, who was more practical, argued that an appeal to reason and justice was sharper than the Filipinos' rusted bolos against the Spanish artillery that he challenged with the Noli and the Fili.…

    • 3503 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bayaning 3rd World

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The most common thing or if I may say the only thing that people answer when you ask them about Jose Rizal is that he is our national hero— idol and he is found in our 1-peso coin— icon. Sad to say that, in our modern times today, people have very limited knowledge about our national hero. The facts above are the only two things most of us know about Jose Rizal but for historians and experts; they have so much adjectives to connect with our national hero.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jose Rizal is our national hero but seriously i don’t know a lot about him. But when I watched the film about Dr. Jose Rizal I was shocked and amazed because of his sacrifice for our country. I though the he was a brilliant individual. He served as an inspiration to all Filipino. During his lifetime, he spent many years outside the Philippines, enriching himself through education, especially in Madrid, Spain. The distance did not diminish nor reduce his love for his country. Far from his motherland, he looked across the seas to find its strength, as well as its weaknesses, in order to uplift it from the abuses of foreign rule.…

    • 336 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rizal is not only a man with first-class decisions and answers; he is also superior in giving solutions to the social cancer brought about by Spanish imposition. I greatly admire his way of finding education as a first step towards independence; it was a simple answer of providing leverage and advantage for his fellowmen who are entitled to fit such solution. Education was to enlighten them on the best course of action to be taken when the time comes when they have finally grasp what it means to be totally free of a bondage that has maimed them for centuries. credential…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One hundred fifty-two years ago, the Mercado family from the town of Calamba welcomed a baby boy as their seventh child. At present time, the name Jose Rizal was not only a name of an ordinary citizen but a name of a somewhat ordinary man who has done extraordinary things for his family, and of mostly for his country.…

    • 558 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Until the present day, people still believe that Rizal did so much for his beloved country, although we cannot deny the things he did to lessen the burden the Philippines had to carry way back then. They act as if Jose Rizal in the one and only one hero that there can be when in fact, there are so many men and women that qualify for the characteristics of a hero today.…

    • 506 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Basically, this article is just about how Renato Constantino wants the readers to analyze the real story behind Rizal being our national hero, the aspects that contributed to such recognition, his condemnation of the revolution, and other factors that we failed to talk about over the years because they were not in our history books. Rizal, being our national hero, used writing to fight to gain our freedom from the Spaniards unlike Andres Bonifacio, he lead the KKK. Mr. Renato Constantino wants the Filipinos to analyze why Jose Rizal should be emulated? Was he really a hero at that who wanted the country to gain its own hold in the government but yet still a province of the Spain? Why is he called our hero? Is it because he died for our country? Or is it because he had enough courage to fight a losing battle, despite the fact that all he wanted to do was to surrender?…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Andres Bonifacio

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Bonifacio should have been the national hero because he wanted for an ultimate freedom for the Philippines and be separated from the authorities of Spain and that is through a revolution. Well it is true that Bonifacio has somewhat got this idea of freedom from Rizal but it is Bonifacio who put it into action, what is an idea without an action? . . . action speaks louder than words of ideas. Rizal was coward that he didn't support the revolution plan of…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Since I first knew of Rizal in a book of Asian history, I have had a question. Why is Rizal the National Hero, not Aginard, nor Bonifacio? Rizal did little except writing two novels. Why? Watching the movie, I thought I had an answer. Historically, his books and his death triggered the revolution activities. But true reason is, I suppose, that Rizal had a universal view on humanity and…

    • 855 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays