Our cultural history, rather than a cumulative development, seems mostly a series of dead ends. One reason is a fear of moving on to a more complex phase; another reason is a fear of tools. Native pottery, for instance, somehow never got far enough to grasp the principle of the wheel. Neither did native agriculture ever reach the point of discovering the plow for itself, or even the idea of the draft animal, though the carabao was handy.
The santos everybodys collecting now are charming as legacies, depressing as indices, for the art of the santero was a small art, in a not very demanding medium: wood. Having achieved perfection.
The challenge was not met. The iron law of life is: develop or decay. The art of the santero didnt advance; so it declined. Instead of moving on to a harder material, it retreated to a material, it retreated to a material even easier than wood: plasterand plaster has wrought the death of religious art. Philippine movies started 50 yrs. We have to be realistic, say local movie producers were in this business not to make art but money.
But even from the business viewpoint, theyre not realistic at all. Business dies when it resigns itself, as local movies have done, to a limited market. After more than half a century of writing in English, Philippine literature in that medium is still identified with the short story. That small literary form is apparently as much as we feel equal to. Its no longer as obvious today that the Filipino writer has mastered the short story form.
A small solution to a huge problemdo we deceive ourselves into thinking that possible? The jeepney hints that we do, for the jeepney as a public carrier is about as adequate as spoon to empty a river with. Oh, we have excuses. The land is soft; earthquakes are frequent. Is not our architecture another expression of our smallness of spirit? To build big would pose problems too big for us.
The water pressure, for example, have to be improvedand its hard enough to get water on the ground floor.
Foreigners who think of pushing Philippine fabrics in the world market give up in despair after experiencing our inability to deliver in quantity. Our proud apologia is that mass production would ruin the quantity of our products.
But Philippine crafts might be roused from the doldrums if forced to come up to mass-production standards. The rest of us can only crave to be big enough to be able to deplore bigness. But colonialism is not uniquely our ordeal but rather a universal experience. Other nations went under the heel of the conqueror but have not spent the rest of their life whining. What people were more trod under than the Jews?
But each havoc in their long history of woe merely toughened them up. Spain was yrs. Do they? And this favorite apologia of our gets further blasted when we consider that a people who, alongside us, suffered a far greater trampling yet never lost their enterprising spirit. An honest reading of our history should rather force us to admit that it was the colonial years that pushed us toward the larger effort.
Do we not say we have to set him free through education? Freedom, after all, is more a person like, say, Rizalwas surely more of a freeman than the unconquered tribesmen up in the hills. The war with the Dutch is the most under-rated event in our history, for it was the Great War in our history.
It has to be pointed out that the Philippines, a small colony practically abandoned to itself, yet after year, to conquer the colony to its knees. By then, this elite already so deeply felt itself a nation that the government it set up in Bacolor actually defied the captive government in Manila as illegitimate. Pampango, a habit of leadership, a lordliness of spirit. An observation about us in the last war was that we fight best, not as an army, but in small informal guerilla outfits; not in pitched battle, but in rapid hit-and-run raids.
This was the highest we have reached in nationalistic effort. But here again, having reached a certain level of achievement, we stopped. The Revolution is, as we say today, unfinished. The air droops with a feeling of inadequacy. We cant cope; we dont respond; we are not rising to challenges. So tiny a land as ours shouldnt be too hard to connect with transportationbut we get crushed on small jeepneys, get killed on small trains, got drowned in small boats.
One American remarked that, after seeing Manilas chaos of traffic, he began to appreciate how his city of Los Angeles handled it far, far greater volume of traffic. Is building a road that wont break down when it rains no longer within our powers? Is even the building of sidewalks too Herculean a task for us? If they daunt us now, will they crush us then? The prospect is terrifying. The enterprising servants who increased the talents entrusted to them were rewarded by their Lord; but.
For to him who has, more shall be given; but from him who has not, even the little he has shall be taken away. Open navigation menu. Close suggestions Search Search. User Settings. Skip carousel. Carousel Previous. A Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin If so, then let me observe that essays of this length seldom have just one message. There is the main. A Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin. If so, then let me observe that essays of this length seldom have just one message.
There is the main message to Filipinos, yet the essay is written with attention to what foreigners think and how Filipinos react to other cultures when they travel abroad. There are messages for those who are not from or joxquin not lived in the Philippines; messages that promote understanding.
With that being said, the major message can be seen in the last six paragraphs and it is a heritwge warning in nature. Ask New Question Sign In. What is the message of a heritage of smallness?
The feedback you provide will help us show you more relevant content in the future. A Heritage of Smallness by Nick Joaquin Smallenss so, then let me observe that essays of this length seldom have just one message. What is the message in the essays of Francis Bacon especially in off the truth? The moment a province becomes populous it disintegrates into two or three smaller provinces. As wheel and plow set us free from a bondage to nature, so town and province liberated us from the bounds of the barangay.
How will he be able to meet the needs of his family and at the same time save money? Extracts from this document. The deduction here is that we feel equal to the materials that yield but evade the challenge of materials that resist.
Enterprise for the Filipino is a small stall: It can be read in the rear of architecture. Is even the building of sidewalks too herculean of task for us? Yes, on the brighter side, it may show or represent how the Filipinos are willing to do anything and everything to have money.
The War with the Dutch is the most under-rated event in our history, for it was the Great War in our history. What we jeritage to do is to not stop at one invention. What is the message in the essays of Francis Bacon especially in off the truth?
For the present all we seen to be able to do is ignore pagan evidence and blame our inability to sustain the big effort of our colonizers: The migrations were thus self-limited, never moved far from smmallness point of origin, and clung to the heart of a small known world; the islands clustered round the Malay Peninsula.
We seem to be making less and less effort, thinking ever smaller, doing even smaller. The deduction here is that we feel adequate to the challenge of the small, but are cowed by the challenge of the big. The true businessman ever seeks to increase his market and therefore ever tries to improve his product.
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