Let the Knife Speak: On José Rizal | Hacker News Reader

Let the Knife Speak: On José Rizal

lareviewofbooks.org

53 pointsapollinaire11 comments

This guy also wrote his own future. In one of his books a character from abroad returns home, marries his childhood sweetheart, starts a school and is then executed for treason.

I think the main thing he got wrong is that his childhood sweetheart spurned him.

FYI that he is the grandfather of Hitler is idle speculation much like my fantasy that he could write his own future :).

It's interesting that The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata is not mentioned in Apostol's byline here. As a short piece, this essay focuses on the surface of the history and its immediate implications, but the novel investigates many of the themes more deeply. It's particularly obsessed with the relationship between colonization and translation in the Phillipines, is consistently funny, and teaches the reader how to read it (the book's quite twisty in presentation, in a postmodern lit-crit style). I bounced off Insurrecto a few years ago without loving it (though in revisiting my own journals I learned that I apparently quite loved the first fifty pages), and the more recent (at least in the United States) novel has broken my brain or something because I'm entranced.

Author forgot to mention that Rizal was always high on hashish and a serial womanizer. We have Rizal subject as part of the college curriculum, my most hated subject.

>Travelers to the Philippines are sometimes puzzled to see the statue of this same man, José Rizal, in practically every town plaza on the islands.

dumb tourists, maybe

Personally, I kinda ruined a romantic date in Intramuros by wanting to visit that museum, and then buying and wearing the shirt from Rizal. (you have to choose your priorities, between cheesy 'i love you and this park is so cute' and 'viva la Révolution, colonialism is all over').

And it was worth it, I'm now a bit smarter.

But yeah, as a tourist from France, I was surprised by how dystopian looked Manila.

- Signs and everything remotely important were in American English.

- Some justice court, next to the museums, was in the same building as a Chowking (a fast food chain), which was maybe the worst place to assert the sobriety of justice and public services.

- Everyone had SUVs and cars from TV series, as cycling and public transit aren't that developed.

- There were private security officers all over, as if the government didn't exist, and the ones would could pay would decide what was worth to protect.

- The workforce was ridiculously cheap and allocated inefficiently. There were a lot of security guards for private houses, you could take the tricycles to go around the city. Why isn't workforce more expensive and allocated in industries and R&D ?

- Most filipinos I knew were studying in public universities, paid by state, just to be able to move oversea when they graduate. It's a very bad investment.

- And laws don't make any sense. I'm about to loose my Globe prepaid SIM, as the government just mandated to whitelist who can access the mobile phone network in the PH (the whitelist : Filipinos, residents, oversea filipinoes, aka everyone but tourists). As if you can regulate who can access a public network to make it secure.

However, I have a different perspective than the OP about his own article.

The article depicts modern days Philippines as a 'tyranny', and encourages to 'Let the knife, the Philippine bolo, speak.' to establish freedom.

But as far as I understood on my trip, the country has too much freedom : it's just on neoliberal autopilot. There is no real government to overthrow in a revolution.

The Philippines lack a vision or a dream or something. You guys need to _build_ a state and institutions that can be held accountable, and that can foster a debate to create things that make sense.

The article notes that, in "As the writer Eric Gamalinda has noted, only two things unite Filipinos: gossip and José Rizal." So there needs to be more !

Bolo time is over, now build the nation with books and laws !

Philippine literacy rate is abysmal so Filipinos depend on the mass media and social media. Those who are aware for the need for reform the artists, poets, scientists, engineers, they are all gone. This includes Apostol the author on the article. They migrated abroad and followed the dream.

Rizal, he is very inspirational in every generation a well travelled doctor, pacifist, novelist and poet. To be a well travelled doctor today requires a very rich parents. Novelists, and poets today cannot be fulltime. The modern day Rizals must be extremely lucky if they were born today

I know some very bright Filipino scientists around EU, US. If they choose to go home, what awaits them there are rat races. There's no local industry that would respect their skill and advanced knowledge. Existing tech companies (mostly hardware/electronics/semiconductor) that matter are just outsourced branches of foreign companies in need of cheaper labor. Software companies don't create anything innovative or recognizable. Going back to the local academe means putting up with bureaucracies, seniority hierarchies and heavy teaching/admin workloads which would just drain whatever creativity they might have.

I totally agree with you not blaming them from leaving, because that's an opportunity that a person must take. I really think it's just the philippine weather and the lack of winter, killing all the insects every year.

I lived in the Philippines for a number of years. Traveled extensively in the country, too, visiting several provinces and tourist traps.

Many of your criticisms are accurate. But I don’t know if I’d agree about the country having “too much freedom”.

There is a very real government force in play. It’s just incredibly corrupt. A small number of families essentially control the country with their wealth, and the government has to do what those families want. Or else.

Shortly before I left, a local news outlet called Rappler was pushing hard against the new president at the time, Duterte. He didn’t like that, so he essentially threw the majority of the journalists in jail on trumped up charges. This of course scared off any other would be journalists from reporting on much of anything meaningful. That’s not freedom, that’s tyranny.

Filipino here. I agree with most of your sentiments, there are lots of things to complain in our country but one thing you will never complain about is when it comes to freedom. It's too relaxed compared to other countries who are too polarized in local politics and geopolitics.

When you watch the news, of course you still get a bit of cortisol spikes, but here in Philippines you can literally unplug from that and live a somewhat simple peaceful life.

> The Philippines lack a vision or a dream or something

I too am a tourist to the Philippines, but I saw the world through my Father (Manila) and Mother (Iloilo).

Manila is gritty, pessimistic, but practical and pragmatic. Iloilo is the dreamers, the hypemen, "too the moon".

I'd say Iloilo is where I'd want to visit as a tourist. But Manila is probably where I'd choose to live, if I were to go to the Philippines. While I appreciate the go-getter culture of Iloilo, I imagine it'd get tiring.

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> - Everyone had SUVs and cars from TV series, as cycling and public transit aren't that developed.

But I was able to ride around Jeepneys to get to-and-from where I needed to go in Manila. Maybe it was because I was a tourist with extra time on my hands, but I didn't mind it too much.

Transit infrastructure was bad compared to USA of course. But the transit I did see was huge trucks, huge cargo vessels, and other such large-scale industrial transit. Things are happening in Manila for sure, and it seems like the city has its priorities straight with regards to what makes money.

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I don't know if I'd call labor poorly allocated as much as its the nature of extremely-rich and extremely-poor living together in the same city. Its a difficult problem, and I don't think the nature of neighborhood level "Barangay" government units helps with that. But it does seem like people know "who is in charge" of each area.

Iloilo errs on the other side of things. My entire Mom's side is speculating on various investments everywhere. Guimaras Island is getting a bridge ya know? And its the hot topic on how exactly to "play" the bridge and make the most money, buying/selling properties on Guimaras, or shops / roads / etc. etc. I don't know exactly where all the money comes from, but being the Philippines I've got my worries that I probably shouldn't look into it too deeply. That city was just too damn optimistic.

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As an American, I'd compare Manila to New York City. Huge, sprawling, pessimistic but grounded in reality. My cousin was pretty happy that his bus route was upgraded from open Jeepney to Air-conditioned Bus, for instance. A small pleasure and improvement, but these little things matter.

I'd compare Iloilo to Silicon Valley. Optimists and opportunities around every corner, dreamers, entrepreneurs. But with those are probably scammers and conmen hiding behind the optimistic veneer.

It could just be the difference from my Mom's side vs Dad's side though.

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