If our national hero, Jose Rizal, was born in this fast-paced, high-tech generation, how would he live? Perhaps he would have a Facebook account. Might have uploaded some videos in Youtube. Or since he was one an athletic fellow, he might have made it to the Olympics. In his days he was into fencing and taekwando, perhaps today he would also try boxing and golf, but too short for basketball. If he is a college student, would he be taking up nursing instead of becoming a doctor? Considering his drive for excellence, he could be very popular and perhaps made it to showbusiness – maybe write a screenplay or produce a movie. He could be a product endorser of sorts. Who would our hero be in this totally different Philippine setting? A politician? A social activist? News reporter? A diplomat?
We can never tell.
But if Rizal was the passionate and idealistic man that the historians claimed him to be and he was given an opportunity to live again and have a glimpse of his beloved country in the 21st century, what would he be thinking? Would he write another Noli Me Tangere? What would be its content? Could he still prove that the pen is still mightier than the sword..er…gunshot? Could he still spark a revolution?
These questions often visit my thoughts especially after a semester of studying the life and works of our national hero. The deeper knowledge of the chronicles of his life ignited the sense of nationalism and patriotism in me. To be honest, when I started reading the accounts of his life, I was skeptic about what the historians wrote about him. I even presumed that they were just exaggerating when they discussed his accomplishments during his lifetime. Personally, I found it impossible for a single man to master different kinds of fields, spoke various foreign languages, wrote different genres of literature and more. I later realized that Rizal simply used the gifts and talents endowed to him by the Almighty. And he polished them to excellence not just for his glory but to offer them back to his beloved country.
It is remarkable to know that even when Rizal was a young boy his dream was that one day his countrymen would be freed from the Spanish friars cruel tyranny. He made it his goal to do something about it and after many years of preparation wrote a book that awakened the tolerance of the Indios to the unfair treatment they received from the friars’ rule. Rizal willingly risked his own life than to disclaim his Noli Me Tangere. He died young, but his life was well-lived.
His death was a like a kernel of seed that fell in the ground to die, what sprouted out as new life was the start of the Philippine revolution.
Today, we commemorate more than a hundred years of Philippines Independence, but are we truly free? We don’t have to be a genius to face reality that our ” Bayang Magiliw” is still in chains. Or have we become too permissive a society? Apathetic to what is going around us?
The whole country is still in bondage – graft and corruption, prostitution, drug addiction, child labor, poverty and so on. Who then made us slaves? The Spaniards? The Americans? Our own government officials? There will be no tyrants if there will be no slaves. We allowed these things to happen and we blame somebody else. We have actually permitted ourselves to be in chains. ( Ouch!)
Are we the same Filipinos in Rizal’s days who had been accustomed to the torments of those in power? True, we once WOWed the world during the EDSA revolution. Another People’s Power overthrew a guilty leader. But the sad fact is we were just changing leaders without really altering the system of governance. TRANSFORMATION is what this nation needs. But how?
Rizal’s death was not the only death that this land witnessed. Numerous heroes died with a cause for a better Philippines. This Facebook generation should be glad that we weren’t born at their time. Those who have gone before us played their role. Now the baton has been passed to this generation. Each of us is called to take this challenge to run the race for our country’s transformation.
Rizal believed in the youth. He believed that we are the people who could bring hope for our motherland. If Rizal was able to provoke a revolution in his days, we can do better than him especially when we unite. I am no visionary but this is what I see in my mind’s eye: I see a faceless and nameless generation whose minds are being trained that the whole is better than the sum of its parts. I am talking about the whole youth of this nation uniting for a greater cause — to set this country free. The start of a radical revolution beginning from the youth.
We have the technology, creativity, energy, innovation and strength. But we need to unite. Yes, faceless and nameless because no one is a superstar. Instead we will be like an army of locust swarming over the fields, flying with a purpose, aggressive, taking the offensive and unstoppable. Faceless, nameless and selfless — a generation composed of you and me.
Rizal might be mighty in his time but his body is already resting in the grave. But his call for the youth to play our role for a nation has been immortalized.
If you belong in the Facebook generation, it is no accident that you were born for such a time as this. You are part of this revolution. You have a mission. You have a country to liberate. You are a change agent undercover. The country’s hope. And, yes, Rizal’s hero.
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by Bro. Ben Quiñones[1]
The paramount motivation of economic actors in the prevailing economy is personal accumulation of wealth. This motivation is rooted in man’s greed and self-centeredness, which is the same as saying that man is sinful. There is really nothing wrong with this realization as it agrees with biblical truth, but when it is translated into a system of belief postulating that man engages in economic activities for the purpose of personal wealth accumulation, then that belief system virtually justifies greediness and self-centeredness of man as an economic being. 
