Self-sacrifice, Earthquake, Christianity, Corruption, Society, People

I WAS really deeply touched by and cried over the story Conrado de Quiros narrated in his column “Deliverance.” (Inquirer, 4/21/11) It was about a Vietnamese who worked as a cop in Japan, and a 9-year-old Japanese boy who gave despite having lost everything, including his parents and siblings during the Fukushima tsunami disaster that ensued in the aftermath of a powerful earthquake.

Truth or fiction, the story made a strong impact. I totally agree with De Quiros’ view that the observation of the Vietnamese cop—that “[a] society that can produce a 9-year-old who understands the concept of sacrifice for the greater good must be a great society, a great people”—was “more precious” because the cop was a survivor of a decade-long Vietnam war. Like Vietnam, the Philippines had once been ravaged by war. But after that, what kind of generation did we produce?

Comparing the cop’s and boy’s countries with our own in terms of instilling in children the values of love and charity, we would arrive at a shameful reality that we’re raising our kids far below their standards. It is true—and again I agree with De Quiros—that the Japanese boy and Vietnamese cop are not Christians, yet as the story showed us, they had more Christian charity than we do, and they demonstrated a capacity for self-sacrifice more than we Filipinos do.

So, how soon, then shall we Filipinos—who are mostly Christians—transform our society into one that can produce a generation of Filipinos with values like those that a 9-year-old Japanese orphan exemplified and a Vietnamese cop extolled? When can we produce a generation of Filipinos who “understand the concept of self-sacrifice for the greater good,” so that we Filipinos can also be called “a great society and a great people”? Or shall we just remain as we are now, mired in the culture of corruption, where selfishness and greed are being cultivated by most of our vicious and depraved politicians and government officials?

God bless us Filipinos!

BENJAMIN B. MALLORCA JR.,

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