was rizal successful in curing the cancer of his nation?
By ladyphoenix
@ladyphoenix (145)
Philippines
June 18, 2011 8:33am CST
i have been acquianted with rizal's life since grade school. he was introduced to us as the nation's national hero. but there was no explanation whatsoever to why he was chosen. high school days came and more rizal activties piled up. there was the reading of his novels - noli me tangere and el filibusterismo. and trust me it was a borinng endeavor. we never came to the point of knowing the cause of his works. it was all blind adhenrence.
college days came, when the first attempt to disrupt my idealism was made. i remember the first day on my rizal class, where the first topic of the class was questioning his appointment as the national hero of the country. i was devastated because i cannot think of arguments that will really defend him. everything on my mind is refutable and i can loose the debate. but as the class progressed, i slowly understand where the argument is heading.
despite rizal's imperfection he was able to see and make something other people did not. that is trying to make cure for the impeding sickness of the nation. he took the first and greatest risk and paid his life for it.
but this question remains: was he able to cure the cancer of the nation? or was it only a prevention?
happy 150th birth anniversary to Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal y Mercado y Realonda!
1 person likes this
4 responses
@visavis (5934)
• Philippines
18 Jun 11
Big No my answer, might be during his time the people wake up from their deep sleep into a war against Spain. But now our country is still bondage of corruption from the government and we are in the hands of other countries hand.. no true free dom...
1 person likes this
@LetranKnight25 (33121)
• Philippines
18 Jun 11
Yeah, corruption and manipulation against the public is still there. not to mention medias intent to manipulate the political view of the people.
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@rog0322 (2829)
• Cagayan De Oro, Philippines
20 Jun 11
Hi Lady,
My favorite subject in History 15 is Rizal. We dissected all the ills of society way back then, read the Noli Me Tangere and The Fili, understood what is happening and hoped for the better.
Now, almost ten years after I graduated from that class, I read the two novels and was startled to see the same events happening right in our present society. Fr. Damaso is still very much alive, so is Padre Silva, Kapitan Tiago, Doña Espadaña, Basilio and Crispin.
I see them all around me but no more Maria Clara, Elias or Ibarra; or maybe they're just waiting around the corner for the bullets to tear into their backs for their troubles to correct the cancer of society.
"Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it," to paraphrase George Santayana. Well, that is our lot for being too future-minded and for never learning from the lessons of the past.
@ladyphoenix (145)
• Philippines
7 Nov 11
very well said.from how you explained i think it is safe to assume that you agree with me that rizal did not succeed in curing the ailments of his society back then.though he was able to administer preventive measures.and since it is a cancer so to speak (from the perspective of medicine) it has the ability to recur eventhough it was prevented further.and since there was a shortcomings in the succeeding generarions after rizal,the preventive measures were not further enahnced.and since, society too kept on evolving, other participative organisms sprouted and more deadly.
i laud you for your keen observation regarding the matters of fray damaso and company are back in our society.as if their ghosts are here to stay and torment us further.
and i remember rizal said the youth is the hope of the motherland. from the perspective of philosophy i think we are problematic in hoping in those message of rizal.how can a battered woman nurture her child? its a very big fact that the first responsibility of a mother is to transfer her consciousness to her child.evidently seen during conception. (men do not conceive,right?unless there is already a change in the order of things). what consciousness then, can she transfer if she is loosing her own? our society is still highly patriarchal. unless we change this set up.women will keep on producing dis-oriented children.
i do not declare that you must agree with me.but that is the.way i see things - heavily academic.anyways,thank you for the eye opener though.good luck!and can i ask you of something?i hope i am not appearing too demanding.please help the philippines.i know you have the simplest way to help.thank you.
@jeanneyvonne (5501)
• Philippines
19 Jun 11
For me it was quite the coincidence that Rizal referred to the social sickness as 'cancer', an incurable and unpreventable disease to this day. As a medical doctor, he knows the effects of the cancer and possibly, the probability of its nonoccurrence or remission.
To directly answer your question, he wasn't successful in curing the cancer. he was only just a man trying to wake the public to the atrocities of that time. unfortunately, the nation/patient refused to acknowledge the situation even when the revolution started. If society at that time paid heed to what Rizal was saying, our nation would have been a better place and we a better people.
Like eileenleyva said, doctors (like Rizal) can only hope that the medicine he introduced (his novels0 can at least wake people up. He hoped for the best that people will take the peaceful means of kicking the Spaniards out instead of fighting becuase according to him at that time, we weren't ready. True enough, the revoltuion was only a momentarily success.
Even now, we still have the cancer and we are desperately still looking for a cure. Our good doctor Rizal has passed away and we can only hope that the people within our society will continue what the good doctor has done.
@ladyphoenix (145)
• Philippines
19 Jun 11
is it really a coincidence? or was he able to forsee it? he was a doctor himself. he prefer to be an opthalmologist (correct me if i am wrong with the word), rather than an artist. he could have been someone else.
at an early age, he has already the making of a hero. of someone who will risk his life for someone. there are so many anecdotes regarding this. we can say fate called him to be that perso. and he listened to the call.
may we listen to each our calling. we are called to make something for our country.
@jhaidro (877)
• Philippines
18 Jun 11
I have the biggest respect for Jose Rizal. Yes he is a hero because of what he did in the past but we are what exists as of the moment and things are not looking so good. I think that we should also try to be a hero without recognition. Let us just do what is right to at least somehow make others forget about what is wrong with this country.
We should just put it in our minds that whatever we do and whatever happens we are citizens of this nation and so why fight and harm one another when we can just live simply as a companion for everyone?
We have big dreams and so why not start now and make it happen? Let us live our lives with respect to everything then all shall be well.
@ladyphoenix (145)
• Philippines
19 Jun 11
are you trying to say that we all at least make cures to the cancer of the nation? if we cannot, then at least we make necessary preventions. well, we cannot make a cure if we do not know the cause, right? at least we must see the history of the sickness and design a cure. and for a cure to be successful, the patient and the doctor must help one another hypothetcally speaking.
