Your forgotten mother awaits
May 9, 2004 | 12:00am
It is Mother’s Day. During this annual event, people will be remembering the loving and caring that mothers give to ease the pain of growing up and minimize the hardships of living in this world. Mothers, aside from being child bearers (they say giving birth is the ultimate, monumental sacrifice), are providers, caretakers, teachers, doctors, nurses, psychologists, disciplinarians, guides, mentors, nutritionists, cooks, bakers, laundry women, interior decorators, artists, drivers, confidants, domestic helpers, etc. Name it, they become it when their child’s need arises.
Mother’s Day is really an appreciation day, a memorial day, a "thank you" day for mothers, surrogate mothers, grandmothers, and even nurturing gay mamas. It is a well-deserved celebration to applaud that very special someone who lights our way through life, especially while we are young.
We Filipinos have a mother whom we often forget to celebrate Mother’s Day with. She’s a great provider and a lavish giver. Under her care and sustenance, we grow up, and continue to be nourished and protected in her loving bosom. Great men have realized her significance and value; heroes have given up their lives because of passionate love for her.
This neglected mother is Our Motherland, Inang Pilipinas. She is represented in our textbooks as that beautiful brown woman with long, thick black hair wearing a Filipina dress of red and blue with a white triangle on the bodice from which shines an 8-rayed golden sun surrounded by three yellow stars representing the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
It seems that we don’t care very much for this woman anymore. During the Spanish times, she was the guiding light for Dr. Jose Rizal and the other patriots fighting for independence; she was lovingly painted by Juan Luna and other outstanding artists of the era. Today, she has disappeared from our daily consciousness; most of the young people (now ever busy with rap music and cell phones!) don’t even know of her existence.
The poor woman must be crying today, now that her once immaculate red, white and blue dress has been soiled by the selfishness of Filipinos, the graft, corruption and callousness in government, and the lack of concern for her once-pristine environment.
What You Can Do For Inang Pilipinas? Our awareness of Mother Philippines has to be revived.We must dry the tears from Inang Pilipinas’ eyes and endeavor to make her tattered Filipina dress beautiful and spotless again. If we don’t do something now, she might completely be annihilated, never to shower us with the beauty and bounty of her plains, mountains, rivers and seas. Can you imagine not having to enjoy the fresh catch from the sea, the succulence of ripe mangoes, the refreshing juice from coconuts, even the cool shade of an outstretched acacia tree? Can you live under a government that is despicable and corrupt, and stone cold-hearted toward its citizens?
We must teach our children that Inang Pilipinas is as real as real can be. She has to be loved and revered, and appreciated for all the goodness that she brings to each and every one of us. (In fact, I believe we must have an "Inang Pilipinas Day" dedicated to Mother Philippines!) Without her abundance and loving care, we would all die. This concept must be implanted in every Filipino mind.
What should you do for Inang Pilipinas?
You have to protect her environment. Be a strict guardian of nature. Stop pollution of all kinds. Don’t litter. Know how to segregate and color code your garbage. Throw trash in designated containers and places only. Practice compost disposal and recycle.
Conserve Inang Pilipinas’ natural resources. Re-forest and plant trees. Green the environment by planting vegetables and fruit-bearing trees which people can get food from. Report illegal logging and any abuse of nature. Don’t dirty the Philippines’ beautiful beaches.
Protect endangered species. Stop fish bombing and destruction of underwater coral reefs which house fish and aquatic creatures.
Start a new life. Live your very best life. Develop a righteous sense of responsibility. Always clean up after yourself. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.
You must help set up a strong, dynamic and prosperous government. Nourish the freedom and the dreams that our heroes died for.
Take out graft and corruption from the national psyche. Start with yourself, never fall into the graft trap, and keep discouraging it until it is erased completely from every Filipino’s mind. We have to start somewhere – it has to be today!
Do the obligations expected of a good citizen. Follow the law; obey traffic rules and regulations. Pay the right taxes. Think of the country first; remember that you are nothing without the country!
Develop a strong sense of nationalism and national pride. Achieve good things which the country can be proud of.
Teach your children by setting and being a perfect example.
V
When you cast your vote tomorrow, have Inang Pilipinas in mind. Will she be pleased with the people you will vote for? Let the candidates you elect to office continue the sacred fight started by Lapu Lapu, upheld by Jose Rizal and resumed by Ninoy Aquino. With these elections, make sure that our heroes did not die in vain.
And most of all, do it all for the love and appreciation of Inang Pilipinas, the mother most of us have forgotten to cherish and treasure.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in the world! I’d love to hear from you! For your comments, e-mail DeroSeminar@yahoo.com.
Mother’s Day is really an appreciation day, a memorial day, a "thank you" day for mothers, surrogate mothers, grandmothers, and even nurturing gay mamas. It is a well-deserved celebration to applaud that very special someone who lights our way through life, especially while we are young.
This neglected mother is Our Motherland, Inang Pilipinas. She is represented in our textbooks as that beautiful brown woman with long, thick black hair wearing a Filipina dress of red and blue with a white triangle on the bodice from which shines an 8-rayed golden sun surrounded by three yellow stars representing the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
It seems that we don’t care very much for this woman anymore. During the Spanish times, she was the guiding light for Dr. Jose Rizal and the other patriots fighting for independence; she was lovingly painted by Juan Luna and other outstanding artists of the era. Today, she has disappeared from our daily consciousness; most of the young people (now ever busy with rap music and cell phones!) don’t even know of her existence.
The poor woman must be crying today, now that her once immaculate red, white and blue dress has been soiled by the selfishness of Filipinos, the graft, corruption and callousness in government, and the lack of concern for her once-pristine environment.
What You Can Do For Inang Pilipinas? Our awareness of Mother Philippines has to be revived.We must dry the tears from Inang Pilipinas’ eyes and endeavor to make her tattered Filipina dress beautiful and spotless again. If we don’t do something now, she might completely be annihilated, never to shower us with the beauty and bounty of her plains, mountains, rivers and seas. Can you imagine not having to enjoy the fresh catch from the sea, the succulence of ripe mangoes, the refreshing juice from coconuts, even the cool shade of an outstretched acacia tree? Can you live under a government that is despicable and corrupt, and stone cold-hearted toward its citizens?
We must teach our children that Inang Pilipinas is as real as real can be. She has to be loved and revered, and appreciated for all the goodness that she brings to each and every one of us. (In fact, I believe we must have an "Inang Pilipinas Day" dedicated to Mother Philippines!) Without her abundance and loving care, we would all die. This concept must be implanted in every Filipino mind.
What should you do for Inang Pilipinas?
You have to protect her environment. Be a strict guardian of nature. Stop pollution of all kinds. Don’t litter. Know how to segregate and color code your garbage. Throw trash in designated containers and places only. Practice compost disposal and recycle.
Conserve Inang Pilipinas’ natural resources. Re-forest and plant trees. Green the environment by planting vegetables and fruit-bearing trees which people can get food from. Report illegal logging and any abuse of nature. Don’t dirty the Philippines’ beautiful beaches.
Protect endangered species. Stop fish bombing and destruction of underwater coral reefs which house fish and aquatic creatures.
Start a new life. Live your very best life. Develop a righteous sense of responsibility. Always clean up after yourself. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you.
You must help set up a strong, dynamic and prosperous government. Nourish the freedom and the dreams that our heroes died for.
Take out graft and corruption from the national psyche. Start with yourself, never fall into the graft trap, and keep discouraging it until it is erased completely from every Filipino’s mind. We have to start somewhere – it has to be today!
Do the obligations expected of a good citizen. Follow the law; obey traffic rules and regulations. Pay the right taxes. Think of the country first; remember that you are nothing without the country!
Develop a strong sense of nationalism and national pride. Achieve good things which the country can be proud of.
Teach your children by setting and being a perfect example.
And most of all, do it all for the love and appreciation of Inang Pilipinas, the mother most of us have forgotten to cherish and treasure.
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