People should talk more about Human Responsibility and less about "human rights"

By -


Human Rights Watch routinely criticize everyone, including the EU. They do this because they hope criticism can help build a better world. The Filipino, being incapable of even considering a future that’s better than today, sees criticism only as an insult.

For what it’s worth, I think talk of “Human Rights” is nonsense: there should be far more talk about Human Responsibilities, from which Rights naturally emerge. When people uphold their own Responsibilities, others have Rights.

In civilized countries, citizens mostly understand their Responsibilities. They know their duty to each other, to the State, and to the world in general. Not everyone, and not all the time: they need to be reminded, for example by the police, by propaganda, or by organisations like Human Rights Watch.

In the Philippines, you will be laughed at if you tell people they have certain Responsibilities towards others. To some extent, this is understandable: why should one be Responsible for paying taxes to the government, when we know the government will waste it or steal it? However, the Filipino has the same attitude towards (say) blasting his neighborhood with full-volume KTV, letting his animals run riot over his neighbor’s land, or for that matter, shooting his neighbor over some argument. He doesn’t care. It’s all about me me me.

Duterte could have explained all this. He could have pointed out how things work here to the EU or HRW officials: they are nice privately-educated men who don’t know anything about drug dealers, or criminals, or Filipino KTV. They simply don’t get what a mess the country is in. They don’t get that solutions that work in Belgium are unlikely to work in a bottom-of-every-list failed state.

Telling people to f’off and mind their own business only alienates people. But that’s the Filipino way, isn’t it? As long as the Filipino still has his Pride, it doesn’t matter if he loses everything else.

------------------------
This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular this week

Anti-Duterte sentiment borne out of arrogance rather than genuine love of country

By -
Image
Late night realizations (aka distractions while I'm supposed to be working): The day before yesterday, I posted a sarcastic status on Mocha Uson and the hypocrites who wanted to shut down her page. Because it wasn't straightfoward, so many of her supporters came at me and bashed me and messaged me because they thought I was calling for the suspension of Mocha's page.(Actually some people are still messaging me now because they don't get it still). It was overwhelming in volume and emotion--and I thought I was passionate, LOL. While there were many jolog posts, and yes death wishes that bordered on inane and stupid, although never seriously dangerous (a favorite refrain seemed to be ' Magbigti ka na lang ,' but never ' Aabangan kita at papatayin ') I couldn't help but compare the "hate" from her supporters with the hate I see from the anti Duterte forces. The hate from Mocha's supporters were inextricably laced with frustratio...
Read more

To all #Iglesia ni Cristo apologists...

By -
Image
To repeat the question: How does blocking Roxas Boulevard (or any other major thoroughfare) make up for its economic costs? So far none have provided a detailed description of how exactly this charity event helps the victims of Yolanda/Haiyan or how they make up for the economic costs in any way. Good intentions are not a good answer and dodging the question by making flawed comparisons to other equally dubious religious events doesn’t cover it. Saying that we should all be grateful that it is showcasing unity instead of divisiveness is disingenuous at best. Also, you can’t blame people for being skeptical of your organization’s motives given your political history and organizational structure. The leader of the INC holds far more sway over its followers than the Pope does over Catholics, making it more like a cult than a bona fide religion. Source: http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/02/iglesia-ni-cristo-charity-walk-for-haiyan-victims-was-its-imp...
Read more

Jose Rizal never had Tagalog in mind when he encouraged us to love our own language

By -
Image
Posted by a certain Chloe Santiago on the Facebook GRP Community Group : Jose Rizal died in 1896 and Tagalog was declared the official language of the Philippine only in 1937. This can only mean that Rizal wasn't really talking about Tagalog when he made this statement: "He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish." Indeed. Who made the arbitrary directive to make the Tagalog dialect the "National Language" to begin with? Furthermore, why have a "National Language" when Filipinos are already proficient in the global lingua franca of commerce and scientific achievement?
Read more

A critique of #MyHusbandsLover

By -
Image
A friend of mine reposted a status of his friend on Facebook: “Having watched almost one month worth of episodes of ‎# MyHusbandsLover I can’t help but be disappointed. What I initially thought as groundbreaking television show was actually just another teleserye about adultery (which is pretty much almost all of our teleseryes are about). The only difference is we have a married closeted gay man and another gay man as a third party. Give me something that would further gay rights. Give me some insight to same sex relationship dyn amics. Tell me how it is like to be a successful but closeted gay man in a very testosterone dominated company. Tell me how scary it is to have a homophobic family. Explain to me why there are relationships composed of two masculine gay man (or two flamboyant gay men) instead of one masculine and one flamboyant which is still the society’s concept of a gay relationship. Explain to me why it is easier for some people to accept someone’s sex...
Read more