Contextual Guessing Game

We rose so gloriously to the challenge the impetus of spirit

sent us spilling down to Borneo & the Moluccas & up to
Formosa & Indo-China, & it seemed for a moment we might
create an empire.
a. instigation
b. counterincentive
c. abort
 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.

a. abeyance
b. continuance
c. ceaselessness
 If it be true that we were enervated by the loss of our primordial freedom,
culture & institutions, then the native tribes that were never under Spain &
didnt lose what we did should be showing a stronger will & spirit,more
initiative & originality, a richer culture & greater progress,
than the Christian Filipino. Do they?

a. vivify
b. lobotomize
c. damp
 Our present problems are surely not what might be called
colossal & insurmountableyet we stand helpless before them.

a. bantam
b. enormous
c. diminutive
 Shouldnt they have long come to the conclusion (as we did) that
theres no point in hustling & laboring & amassing wealth only to see it
wrested away & oneself punished for raising?

a. congregate
b. dissipate
c. squander
A Heritage of

Smallness

By

Nicomedes Marquez Joaquin

Nicomedes Marquez Joaquin

was born on May 4, 1917 in Paco, Manila and died

on April 29, 2004 in San Juan, Phil.
Summary

SOCIETY for the Filipino is a small row-boat: the barangay.

Geography for the Filipino is a small locality: the barrio.
History for the Filipino is a small vague saying: matanda pa kay Mahoma;
noong peacetime.
Enterprise for the Filipino is a small stall: the sari-sari.
Industry & production for the Filipino are the small immediate
scratchings of each day: isang kahig, isang tuka.
And commerce for the Filipino is the very smallest degree of retail: the
tingi.
 What most astonishing foreigners in the Philippines is
that this is a country, perhaps the only one in the world,
where people buy & sell one stick of cigarette, half a
head of garlic, a dab of hair pomade, part of a contents
of a can or bottle, one single egg, one single banana.
 We work but make less.
 The difference is greater than between having
& not having; the difference is in the way of
thinking.
 A galleryful of even the most
charming statuettes is bound to
look scant beside a Pieta or a
Moses by Michelangelo; and
you could stuck up all the best
short stories you can think of &
still not have enough to
outweigh a mountain like War &
Peace.
 Philippines society, as though fearing bigness, ever tends to revert
to the condition of the barangay: of the small enclosed society.
We dont grow like a seed, we split like amoeba. The moment a
town grows big it becomes two towns.
 but the evidence is that we start small & end
small without ever having scaled any peaks. Used
only to the small effort, we are not, as a result,
capable of the sustained effort & lose
momentum fast. We have a term for it:
CULTURAL HERITAGE

First: that the Filipino works best on a small scaletiny

figurines, small pots, filigree work in gold or silver, decorative
arabesques. The deduction here is that we feel adequate to the
challenge of the small, but are cowed by the challenge of the big.
 CULTURAL HERITAGE

Second: that the Filipino chooses

to work in soft easy materialsclay,
molten metal, tree bark & vine pulp, &
the softer woods & stones. Collectors say
that all their searching has failed to turn
up anything really monumental in
hardstone. Even carabao horn, an obvious
material for native craftsmen, has not
been used to any extent the challenge of
materials that resist.
CULTURAL HERITAGE

Third: that having mastered a material, craft or product,

we tend to rut in it & dont move on to a next phase, a
larger development, based on what we have learned. In
fact, we instantly lay down even what mastery we
already possess when confronted by a challenge from
outside of something more masterly, instead of being
provoked to develop by the threat of competition.
Our cultural history, rather than a
cumulative development, seems mostly a
series of dead ends.

fear of moving on to a more complex phase

fear of tools.
 If it be true that we were enervated by the loss of our primordial
freedom, culture & institutions, then the native tribes that were
never under Spain & didnt lose what we did should be showing a
stronger will & spirit, more initiative & originality, a richer culture
& greater progress, than the Christian Filipino. 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.
The trend since the turn of the century, & especially
since the war, seems to be back to the tradition of
timidity, the heritage of smallness. We seem to be
making less & less effort, thinking ever smaller,
doing even smaller. The air droops with a feeling of
inadequacy. We cant cope; we dont respond; we are
not rising to challenges.
 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?
One writer, as he surveyed the
landscape of shortagesno rice, no
water, no garbage collectors, no
peace, no order-
Our present problems are
surely not what might be
called colossal &
insurmountableyet we
stand helpless before them.
As the population swells,
those problems will expand
& multiply. If they daunt us
now, will they crush us
then?
 On the Feast of Freedom we may do well to ponder the
Parable of the Servants & the Talents. The enterprising
servants who increased the talents entrusted to them
were rewarded by their Lord; but the timid servant who
made no effort to double the one talent given to him was
deprived of that talent & cast into the outer darkness,
where there was weeping & gnashing of teeth.
 For to him who has, more
shall be given; but from him
who has not, even the little
he has shall be taken away.
 Main idea / insights
History and the culture of Filipino
-Society: small rowboat; the barangay
-Geography: small locality; the barrio
-Enterprise: small stall; the sari-sari
-Industry and Production for the Filipino are the small immediate
searching of each day; isang kahig, isang
tuka.
- And commerce for the Filipino is the smallest degree of retail; the tingi
 Main idea / insights
Filipinos do not achieve their maximum potential
not because we lack of resources or skill but
because of fear and because weve been trained to
be subservient, to avoid complaining, and to avoid
ambition.
 APPLICATION
The difference is greater than between having &
not having; the difference is in the way of
thinking.