nicolelazeran-blog

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Equality and Equity

Most parents tell their children that they treat everyone equally. However, some misunderstood what this means. Some define equality as “what someone gets, the other also gets”. Like, everyone eats the same food, lives in the same house, goes to the same school, etc. But, everyone is under different circumstances. So, it is expected that much attention and help is given to those who need them more. Some children often hear their parents say “kasi mas bata sya” or “kasi mas kailangan nya”. And some children tend to be offended by these. They tend to ask “how about me?” or say “I also need it”. I believe, parents help their fragile child more than the tough ones for some reasons. For example, parents help their academically disadvantaged kid by getting him a tutor or by doing it themselves. Of course, they don’t have to do it with their smart kids. The least that they can do is to give them the materials that they need to learn more. They don’t give the same amount of help to each child since they know the capabilities of each one. They know who to lift up a little and who to lift up more. It is until such time parents let their children be thinking that they can already stand on their own and that they’re just on standby in case their help is needed. Others may disagree to this but, I believe, parents do this so none of their children will be left far behind than the others. We may have different views of fairness from our parents in terms of equality and equity for me they’re still our parents who treat us all fair and square.

[nicolelazeran-blog]

Philippine History - Reflection

Among the lessons that I had learned in this class, Effects of the Spanish Colonization topic which focuses on the discovery of the Philippine archipelago is what I really like the most. I already encountered this when I was in high school. And honestly, I really did not pay much attention. But, when this was discussed in this class, I found it interesting. And I better understood why Philippines was colonized by Spain for three hundred thirty three years. It was all about the 3G’s (God, Gold, and Glory).

1500’s was labeled as the age of exploration and colonization. It was the time when the European countries explored remote areas and claimed them as their own. They captured territories and controlled them as long as they want to. It was around this time that mercantilism was at its peak. Wherein, the basis of one country’s power was the number of territories controlled by that country. It was also this time when Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese, proposed his theory to the then King of Spain, King Charles and to travel to the east using the west ward route. One of the reasons of using this route was to prove Magellan’s theory that the world was indeed round which contradicted their then belief that it was a flat surface. Magellan was tasked to go to the Moluccas, also known as the “Spies Island” which was the Indonesia. Magellan originally had five ships for his entire travel from the Spain to Philippines. However, because of the unforeseen circumstances, it was only the Victoria ship which had the complete travel. Back to the voyage, it was due to the bad weather that Magellan and his men landed on the territory of the Philippines. Based on the account of Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s historian, the official date of their arrival was on March 17, 1521. It was in Homonhon Island. Due to the religion beliefs, ancient Filipinos whole-heartedly welcomed the foreigners. Magellan had a blood compact with Rajah Kolambu. This act symbolized friendship. And there were number of religion conversion that happened after this. I am ending the lecture in here. Let the history speaks for itself.

Honestly, I really don’t know if I would be happy or not for making Philippines their colony. If I am considering myself as merely a Filipino citizen, I would not hesitate to say that I am not pleased of what happened to my ancestors. For me, having one central government as what the Spaniards implemented was not helpful. Because of this, many independent barangays disappeared. Our Datu’s/Rajah’s became the lowest political leader of that time; the Cabeza de Barangay. Their power lessen because of this political structure. I really did not like it when they implemented this kind of political structure. This was the same reason why there were greedy for political power. Our ancestors lived their lives with only the Datu/Rajah ruling their entire territory. It was much better for the territorial leader to monitor his constituents since it was small. And that Datu/Rajah can really see what was happening to his men. If there were things to be accomplished in his territory, he would immediately attend to them. He could act on them as soon as possible since he was the sole leader of the entire land. He didn’t have to get someone’s approval to start a project. But in this day’s political structure, that would not be easy. One must seek someone’s approval to start a development project in a certain area. There was also a very high percentage that this kind of proposals would be delayed most of the time since there were number of signatories needed to be asked. There was a possibility that anyone who didn’t like someone else’s proposition and who was in a higher position than someone who was proposing something may block those proposals. Or, he could also pull some strings so, this would not take place. That was the dirty reality of politics. This was the same reason why citizens had issues with the government officials. If only we were not colonized by the Spaniards, we would have been better than what we are now. If it was not because of them, farmers would not suffer from the force grabbing of land. They would not be forced to rent someone’s land and toil them. These lands could have been their own. Farmers would not be deprived of their own rights. We would have focused on enriching our natural wealth. We would have lived our lives wealthily. We could have been one of the First World countries if we put much effort on the agriculture since; our country was called for it. The most important thing was that, we would have not lost our identity. We would have established a much unique Filipino characteristics. We also would have not looked down on our own products. Instead, this would be our priority. We would have a strong patriotism. Because, what was happening right now was we patronize foreign products more than our very own. We would have not this kind of mentality if we were not colonized by them. Our ancestors suffered slavery and other maltreatments and corruptions in their hands. Before their coming, I believed we already had a structured system of living. We had our Datu/Rajah, our own gods and goddesses whose main god was Bathala, our system of writing which was the Alibata, and our very own language which our ancestors comfortably spoke with. I was really wondering why of all people, it was our race that experienced such a terrible fate. Was this what you called destiny? Well, everything happened for a reason.

As for me, being who I am now, one thing is for sure, I am thankful that they brought Catholicism in our land. It is not a bad idea to have many gods and goddesses. However, it is much better if we have a centralized faith and a centralized God. This is where I am thankful of the Spaniards. Just like our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, I am not against the religion itself, but, I am with the actor of this religion during those times. I really feel bad that those people are using religion to control our ancestors. It was a really bad idea during those times to combine the State and the Church. I can say that it is really not helpful for our ancestors. It is just right that nowadays, State and Church are separated from each other in terms of the political power. But in reality, we really can’t totally separate these two. State laws would always be influenced by the teachings of the Church. Everything will always boil down to our individual beliefs. And that religion would always affect our decisions. No matter how we deny it, it will always be true to our society. Is this a good indication or not? Well, nobody can really tell. All I know is that, all of these happened for some reasons. But maybe, just maybe, time will tell what those reasons are for.