Cursing the Promised Land

While talking about wealth and leadership with my small group of young businessmen and entrepreneurs, we “accidentally” realized how Filipinos place a curse on their country and subsequently themselves.

To demonstrate this, just compare the Philippines to a house, a building or a company that has been put up to be a home for your family, a place of work for you, or an organization designed to give you benefits. Normally most people would be happy to have a place of their own, a job and an organization that cares for them or gives them “services”.

But how would you feel if the people you wanted to bless or provide for, started to complain, criticize or simply take things for granted. Even worse, how would it look if people started wishing they were in a different house, neighborhood, country or company?

Initially, the question would be — what’s wrong? We try to explain the concept, the reason or the purpose of things. Sometimes that works for people who simply do not know how or why things come about. And as they take a second look or make a second try, things are better appreciated.

But once you realize that the people are simply self-centered, unappreciative or malcontents, it is normal for us to distance ourselves from the lot of complainers because their “sin” becomes discouraging, disappointing and ultimately makes us angry. In effect if we don’t distance ourselves from them, we will ultimately be infected with their disease.

I must confess that I once was a certifiable Malcontent. My initiation came from the example set by others but I quickly got the hang of it and joined the national chorus of curse makers. Today there is a greater number of these particularly in politics, media and their loyal fans of “texters” and “emailers”.

Perhaps when things are not working for us, it is a lot simpler to blame our history and our environment rather than our attitude and our state of mind. Which is how people end up cursing the “Promised Land”.

We declare our government officials and politicians as the national organization of tax thieves. We have put police officers under the term “Kotong Cops”, we pin our hopes and our dreams on jobs overseas and petitions for immigrant status. We base our economic potential and hope on the status of peso-dollar exchange rate. In the process, we say our daily prayers of hopelessness, hardship, and difficulty.

In other words we rarely have any good thing to say except when PacMan Pacquiao wins a match. You never hear Pacquiao utter words of doubt, he never talks about the difficulty of the training, in fact he just goes out and does the workout and fight. Losing is not an option and certainly something he never talks about before the fight. It is a contradiction he has no time for.

Even the great Muhammad Ali had a one-man cheerleader, a guy whose only job was to tell Ali: You’re the Greatest! You can whip this Chump! You’re Good!

 So is it any surprise if things don’t work so well in the Philippines? The earliest curse I can recall in Philippine history was when a Conquistador reportedly named “the place” Isla de Ladrones or island of thieves (the actual location being somewhere near Leyte or the Visayas) and we actually kept the name.

The next statement which Manuel Quezon III has tried to clear up is one linked to his grand dad, President Manuel Quezon who forever will be blamed as saying: “I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos rather than heaven run by foreigners”.

It really didn’t help that Ferdinand Marcos declared: “This nation can be great again” because he did not place a definite time frame to the agenda aside from the looting that went on during his regime! 

“Hindi Ka Nag-iisa” did not really speak life into the nation or our Promised Land. It was in essence a message to a hero or an expression of national sentiment.

 “Kaya Natin ‘to” was more about the work rather than the country and “Erap para sa mahirap” was about personal devotion to the poor. “Matatag na republika” is clearly a constant aspiration and a frequent test of the incumbent.

So if you were head of this household of grumblers, if you were president of this particular company, If you were director of the institution meant to aid these malcontents; would you generously shower them with your kindness and affection knowing they’d rather be elsewhere?!

Not likely. Even God expressed his holy pissed-off-ness when he had to deal with the Israelites. Remember; “The Chosen Nation” of grumblers in the desert. Remember how God decided to terminate that entire generation and not let them enter the Promise Land?! (with the exception of two fine gentlemen named Caleb and Joshua).

I often hear people say: what your mind can perceive, you can achieve. On a more Biblical note, the book of James reminds us that our tongues are as powerful as the small rudder that turns and guides the biggest ships in the ocean. He also points out how our words have Life and how we can give life to what we speak.

Now that you have some sense of how we curse or place a “sumpa” on our country, our people and eventually ourselves, why not list down the curses or the bad things you and I generally say about the Philippines and Filipinos and commit never to repeat them again or to make every effort to discourage such expressions and actions.

Why?

Because you want to be happy, because you want to have blessing, because you want prosperity for you and the people you love. And because it’s the only country you have and it’s the Promised Land you were given.