What I know about Philippines and Filipinos?
Philippines is a distant country. I was interested in what other people know about this country. I went to streets and asked a few people what they knew about Philippines. They often didn’t know very much but almost everyone knew where it is situated. But when someone said that he knew Philippines and he had never been there he couldn’t say truth. Some people only saw maps and read some reports about this strange country and they often say: “I like Philippines. I know it.” Maybe they know from maps where the highest mountain or the largest lake is. Maybe they know about head of the state and politics from newspapers. But they have never been there. They can’t know more than they have read. They have got the same opinion as the authors of reports.
There is also another group of people who say that they know Philippines. These are people who were in Philippines. But can they known all about Philippines and Filipinos? Many people who visited Philippines spent there only two weeks or maybe one month. It is short time and they couldn’t visit everything. They often visited only historical and nature monuments in tourist centers. They didn’t talk with ordinary local people. I don’t agree with it and I want to visit people who live there. People are often very friendly there.
I believe that if you want to know foreign country you must not only spend some time there and get familiar with local people but you also need to know its history. Because I have never visited Philippines, it is rather daring for me to write anything about it. Before I have read some books and prospects and have seen some videos, I didn’t know much about Philippines. But while I was looking for information about its history, I found small book about Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. It has changed my opinion about this country. I realized that when in 1521 Ferdinand Magellan discovered these islands he found well-developed country with rich trade relations. But the Spanish colonial government suppressed rights, education and economic development of local people. Despite of it Jose Rizal was able to break these limitations. He got excellent education but instead of living as a rich doctor in Europe, he sacrificed his live to help Philippine nation. Although he was only 35 years old when sentenced to death by Spanish colonial government, he and his books helped to form Philippine nation and started its way to freedom. I was pleased to read that one of Jose Rizal’s friends lived in our country in Litomerice.
Although my knowledge of Philippines is based only on books and maps, I dare to write few words about some topics which have taken my interest. First of them are rice fields. Many Filipinos work there. They are spread on 20000 km2; it is seven percent of some territories. Filipinos had to be very industrious. They build some of these big fields as terraces in mountains 2000 years ago. How did they build it? They didn’t have any machines and they had to do all work using their hands only. These rice terraces are now called “The eighth wonder of the world”. But local people call them “steps to the sky”. I think it is really truthful description. These terraces are as steps and they climb up to the top of the mountains - to the sky. I have never seen rice growing but it certainly must be a wonderful view especially from plane. Around terraces stone walls are built. These terraces and walls are necessary to allow production of rice on mountain slopes. Rice must grow for several months of the year in water. So an ingenious system of irrigation is necessary for every terrace. Ancient Filipinos invented a complicated system of canals and dikes. But how could they find the right way to build it? It had to be very difficult. They build these terraces at time when people in our country were not able to build anything more than simple wooden cottages. Philippine Cordillera, where the fields are situated, is very good place for rice growing because many rivers are there. The monsoon rains are also very important for cultivation of rice. They give water to the rivers and then it goes through the canals to the fields. But strong water often destroys walls of dikes and people must repair it. The harvest must be also very difficult. People have to do everything using only their hands. I think that these rice terraces are clear proof of cleverness and work efforts of generations of Philippine people.
Another thing that is known here about Philippines is cock-fights. I don’t like this idea. I think it is cruel. It resembles me the bullfights in the Spain. But this is a fight between a man and a bull. The man is in danger during the fight and sometimes he is also hurt. In the cock-fighting only animals take part and one of the cocks is always killed. Cocks have got a razor on their legs. Aren’t a beak and a claw enough? People also put both cocks neck by neck before the fight to arouse them and to make the fight wilder. I think that cock-fights should be forbidden. I can’t understand who likes this. Yes, it is a tradition. But must the cock-fights be organized so often? How can people go to see this fighting regularly? Is the death of an animal funny? How can someone bet on the death? I was pleased when I read that Jose Rizal hadn’t agreed with cock-fights too.
When I asked people about their knowledge of Philippines, some of them mentioned healers. They didn’t talk about traditional medicine which was using certain herbs but about modern faith healers. I saw it on TV. A healer did “a psychic surgery” and without any injury he pulled out “a tumor” from the patient’s body. But some people say that it wasn’t a real tumor but a part of guts of some animal. I think it is true and that many of healers are only jugglers doing their tricks. I don’t understand how somebody can believe that healer is able to get his hand through the body without any cut. I don’t know. But many people from Europe and USA arrive to Philippines to be cured this way. It must influence patient’s psychic and people who believes this medicine can be recovered. Maybe someone can say that it doesn’t depend on how people are made healthy, only a result is important.
I mentioned some topics which I had found to be most the known about Philippines in our country. But I am quite sure that it is not a real description of this wonderful country and its people. Philippines is a country of many faces with a long and rich history. Though peaceful by nature, the freedom-loving Filipinos started Asia's first nationalistic revolution in 1896. Now Philippines is a country with big cities and high-tech industry, with well-known sightseeing places full of foreign tourists, but also with lonely country sides where people live their ordinary life. It is not possible do describe such country in few words. I would like to know much more about this country and its people and I hope I will be able to visit it sometime in the future. I believe that good knowledge of foreign countries makes our lives richer. I also believe that if peoples of all countries tried to know and to understand each other, the world would become more peaceful and better place to live in.
