Bs Architecture 4 2141113

BISDA, Roma Bianca T.

1. Why must we study the question of indolence among the Filipinos?
It seems to us desirable to study thoroughly this question without contempt or
sensitiveness, without bias, without pessimism. And as we can only serve our
country by telling the truth, however bitter it be, as a categorical and artificial
denial cannot destroy a real and positive fact.
2. Why do you think the word indolence is much misused?
It is because it has many different meaning depending on its aspect. Sometimes, it
is also because Indolence used for a certain word with an associated meaning or
characteristic (biased upon a persons point of view) but in totality does not stand
completely true. For example, in the sense of little love for work, lack of activity,
etc; but ridicule has covered the misuse. In the Medieval Age, and even in many
Catholic countries of our times, whatever superstitious folk cannot understand, or
men because of own and anothers shortcomings, the stupidities of some, and the
crimes of others are attributed to indolence.
3. Why do you think indolence among Filipinos should not be considered the cause of
their backwardness? It is because indolence is not the cause but the effect of
disorder and backwardness which fosters the growth of a disastrous predisposition
4. Why is it good to study the causes of indolence before proposing a remedy for it?
Those who admit its existence and exaggerate it moer or less have not failed to
presIn proposing a solution we must be sure the that it is for its corresponding
problem. That is why we must study the causes of indolence first so we will be sure
that it trully is indolence, until then we could finally propose a remedy.
5. How does climate affect individuals?
The warm climate requires quiet and rest for the individual while cold climates
incites an individual to work. It is a fact that in tropical countries severe work is not
a good thing as in cold countries. Nature somehow compensates by making land in
warmer climates fertile.
6. Explain the object of man in living.
The purpose of man is not to satisfy the passion of another man. A mans object is
to seek happiness for himself and his fellow men by following the road towards
progress and perfection.
7. What is meant byindolence is fostered and magnified?
To foster the good ones and aid them, as well as correct the bad ones and repress
them not absorb them would be the duty of society or of governments, if less noble
thoughts did not absorb their attention. The evil is that indolence in the Philippines
is a magnified indolence, or an evil which increases in direct proportion to the
square of the periods of time, an effect of misgovernment and backwardness, as
we said and not a cause of them.
8. Do you agree with Rizal that the problem of indolence must be thoroughly studied?
Why?

Yes. If the predisposition due to the climate a just and natural disposition did
not exist, the race would disappear, a victim of excessive work in a tropical
country. We must study thoroughly indolence and its cause. Doing so will avoid
blaming our country for the problem of indolence, and will find what its true cause
is. Then finally we can propose solution for it.
9. Why was indolence among the Filipinos not a hereditary one?
It is because filipinos have not always been what they are now, and there
witnesses to prove it. The witnesses were historians from the first years of
discovery of the Philippines. Filipinos, inspite of climate, necessities, were not
indolent people of our time, some proofs were their good morals, industrious
characteristics, own culture, devotion to customs, mode of living, etc.
10.
Why should we be interested in knowing the forces which contributed to
indolence?
To understand how the Filipinos who were so devoted to their customes as to
border on habit, abandon their former industry, thei trade, their sea-farming, etc.
to the point of forgetting completely their past.
11.
How did wars contribute to indolence among the filipinos?
Wars induced decline of work, an evil which instead of being remedied by
prudence, mature reflection, and recognition of errors commetted by a deplorable
policy through regrettable blindness and obstinacy, has gone from bad to worse
intil reaching the condition in which we see it now.
12.
How did the piratical attacks contribute to indolence among the Filipinos?
It has resulted to neglect to industry, agriculture, and commerce, depopulation,
etc.
13.
How did the attitude of the Friars contribute to indolence among the
Filipinos?
Their attitude had made Filipinos stopped living as they trully were, and working.
Filipinos were made to stop work in the mines, abandon their industries, destroy
their loom. They were made to believe that in life, there is only to have your hopes
in heaven, and preparation for death.
14.
How does a man lose interest in work?
Man works for a purpose; remove the purpose and you reduce him to in action.
15.
Exaplain why a person who is not free is not responsible for his action.
He who does not act freaaly is not responsible for his actions; and the Filipino
people, not being free, are not responsible either for their misfortunes or their
woes.
16.
How did lessening encouragement to labor foster indolence among the
Filipinos?
It is because it took away Filipinos motivation for working. It is also because they
were also worried, some in fear that they might get in trouble in doing so.

17.
What is your opinion on the rules governing the permission to use firearms?
I believe that every human being has the right to security and defense for the sake
of his own life. That is why I personally approve in the permission of firearms
usage, but only if with proper and righteous conditions that is fair to all.
18.
How did the miserly return to ones labor foster indolence?
The miserly return that the Filipinos gets from his labor would in the end
discourage him. Through the historians we learn that the encomenderos, after
reducing many to slavery and compelling them to work for their benefit, made the
rest sell them their products at an insignificant price or for nothing or cheated
them with false measures.
19.
How was conflict of interests harmful to the administartion of the
government
The governor, in charge administering the country and collecting the various taxes
in the name of the Government, devotes himself almost entirely to business; for
him the high and noble functions of his office are nothing more than instruments
for personal gain. He monopolizes all business, and instead of stimulating around
him love of work, instead of curbing the very natural indolence of the native,
abusing his authority, he thinks of nothing else but of destroying all competition
which might bother him or attempt to share in his profits.
20.
Are the difficulties mentioned by Rizal similar to difficulties encountered
today? Why?
Yes for some. It is because it is still true that there is still great difficulty that every
enterprise encountered with the administration also contirbuted not a little to kill
off every commercial or industrial movement.
21.
Explain how trading with China was harmful to the people.
Trading with China which was the whole occupation of the colonizers of the
Philippines was not only prejudicial to Spain but also to the life of her colonies.
22.
How was dislike for manual labor influenced by the rulers?
The pernicious influence of the rulers, that of surrounding themselves with
servants and despising physiscal or manual labor as unworthy of the nobility; those
lordly manners that filipinos translated into Tila ka kastila; and desire of the ruled
to be the qual of the rulers, if not entirely, as least in manners all these naturally
resulted to dislike in manual labor.
23.
Was the attitude of the Filipinos on work good? why?
No. A saying that the swine is cooked in its own fat, and as among his bad qualties
he has the good one of applying to himself all the reproaches and censure that he
hears, Filipinos prefers to remain miserable and indolent to playing arole of the
wrethced pachyderm.
24.
How did gambling foster indolence among the Filipinos?
Before the coming of Spaniards, the passion for gambling is innate in adventurous
and excitable races and the Malayan race is one of them. The sugal (from Spanish
jugar, to gamble) indicated that gambling was unknown in the Philippines before

the Spaniards, the tagalog word laro (play) not being equivalent to sugal. The word
balasa is also from the Spanish word barajar. All these foreign origins of this
terrible plant which only produces vice and has found in the character of the Indio
a suitable soil, fertilized by circumstances. Gambling breeds dislike for steady and
difficult work by its promise of easy money.
25.
How did fiestas foster indolence among the Filipinos?
Consider that lack of capital, lack of means, paralyzes all activity and you will see
why the trials, imposts, exactions, he would have to give it to the curates for bulls,
scapularies, candles, and novenae, etc.
26.
How did curtailment of individual liberty foster indolence?
The facility with which individual liberty is curtailed; endless worry of all people
knowing that they are liable to a secret report, an administrative action, and to be
accused of being a filibuster (rebel) or a suspect, an accusation which not need to
be proven or is the presence of the accuser necessary to produce the desired
result; lack of confidence in the future.
27.
How did apathy of the government foster indolence among the Filipinos?
The apathy of the government itself toward everything pertaining to commerce or
agriculture contributes not a little to foster indolence. There is no encouragement
to all either for the manufacturer or the farmer; the government aid either when
the harvest is poor, when the locust waste, etc.
28.
Explain how the ownership of the big estates by the friars fostered indolence
among the Filipinos.
The fact that the best estates, the best tracts of land in some provinces, the most
profitable ones because of their accessibility, are in the land in some provinces, the
most profitable ones because of their accessibility, are in the hands of the religious
corporations whose desideratum is the ignorance and the condition of semiwretchedness of the Filipinos so that they can continue governing them and make
themselves necessary to their hapless existence, is one of the reasons why many
towns do not progress despite the efforts of their inhabitants.
29.

How did lack of moral support foster indolence?

With the absence of moral support, in that country one who is not lazy must
be a fool or at least an imbecile. What future awaits one who distinguished himself,
who studies, who rises above the crowd? A young man becomes a great chemist
through study and sacrifice without the help from the government. A competitive
examination is held to fill in a position and the young man wins it with
perseverance, but after winning it the position is abolished. But when a municipal
laboratory is closed in order to abolish the position of the director who got his post
through a competitive exam, while other position like press censor, are retained.
In the same way, another young man wins a prize in a literary contest, and
as long as his identity was unknown, his work is praised but the newspaper; the
sealed envelopes are opened, the winner turns out to be a Filipino, the losers are
Peninsulars; then all newspapers extol the losers. Not one word of encouragement
from the government nor from anybody for the native who fondly cultivates the
language and literature of the mother country.

30.
How did deprivation of human dignity foster indolence?
He education of Filipino from the birth until the grave is brutalizing, and antihuman. For five or ten years the youth comes in contact with the books, choses by
the very same priests who boldly declare that it is an evil for the Filipinos to know
Castilian, that the Filipino should not be separated from his carabao, that he should
not have any further ambition, etc. During these 5-10 years the majority of the
students have grasped nothing more than that no one understands what the book
say, not even perhaps the professor themselves. During these 5-10 years the
students have to contend with the daily preaching that lowers human dignity,
gradually or brutally killing their self-respect that eternal, tenacious, persistent
effort to humble the naive, to make him accept the yoke, to reduce him to the level
of a beast, an effort supported by some private individuals, writers or not.
31.
Explain why lack of respect for human dignity is harmful.
Indio is a creature something more than a monkey but much less that a man, an
anthropoid, dull-witted, imbecile, exceedingly homely, dirty, meek, smiling, illdressed, indolent, vicious, lazy, brainless, unmoral, etc.
To what is retrogression? Is it the lucky civilization, is it the religion of salvation of
the friars, called euphemistically of Jesus Christ, that has produced the miracle,
that has atrophied his brain, paralyzed his heart and converted him into the vicious
animal that writers depict?
32.
Why did the Filipinos have the right to protest the deprivation of their human
rights?
The whole misfortune of the Filipinos of today is that they have become brutes only
half-way. The Filipino is convinced that to be happy it is necessary for him to lay
aside his dignity as a rational being, to hear Mass, to confess, obey the curate,
believe whatever he is told, pay whatever is demanded of him, pay and always
pay; toil suffer and keep silent, without protesting against an injustice; that is, not
to have a heart, brain, or gall creature with arms and a purse of gold theres the
ideal Indio! Unfortunately, or because the brutalization is not yet complete, or
because the quality of man is inherent in his being in spite of his condition, the
Indio protests, he still aspires, he thinks and strives to rise and theres the
trouble.
33.
Explain why people and government are correlated and complementary.
A stupid government is an anomaly among a righteous people, just as corrupt
people cannot exist under rulers and wise laws. Like people, like government, we
will say, paraphrasing a popular adage
34.
Explain why indolence is a corollary derived from lack of stimulus and vitality.
All these causes can be reduced to two classes: defects of education and lack of
national sentiment. The very limited home education, the tyrannical and sterile
education in the few educational centers, the blind subjection of youth to his
elders, influence the mind not to aspire to excel those who preceded him and

merely to be content to follow or walk behind them. Stagnation inevitably results

from this. Indolence is a corollary derived from the absence of stimulus and vitality.
35.
How did the feeling of inferiority foster indolence among the Filipinos?
The modesty infused into the conviction of everyone. Or to speak more clearly, the
insinuated inferiority, a kind of daily and constant plucking of the soul so that it
would not fly to the region of light, deadens the energies, paralyzes all tendency
towards advancement, and at least strife a man gives up without fighting. An
active man, excels, instead of his example serving as a stimulus to others, it only
induces them to persist in their indolence.
36.
Explain how placing hopes on miracles was partly harmful to Filipinos.
Filipinos spend theirs giving to the Church in hopes of miracles. Since childhood,
they have learned to act mechanically, without knowing the purpose, worshipping
without understanding, of accepting beliefs without questioning, of imposing upon
themselves absurdities, while the protests of reason are repressed.
37.
How did the vicious dressing of the intelligence and will foster indolence?
This incessant struggle between reason and duty, between his organism and his
new ideals, this civil war which disturbs the peace of his conscience all his life, will
in the end paralyze all his energies, and with the aid of severe climate, makes his
eternal vacillation, his doubts, the origin of his indolent disposition. The child or
youth who tries to be anything else is charged of being wain and presumptuous;
the curate ridicules him with cruel sarcasm.
38.
Why must the spirit of the Filipinos be free and their intelligence respected?
Filipino himself is not naturally inclined to routine, for his mind is disposed to
accept all the truth. It is necessary for his spirit, though it is dismayed and
frightened by the elements and the overwhelming manifestation of its mighty
forces, to store up energy, to pursue lofty purposes, in order to struggle against
the obstacles in the midst of unfavorable natural environment.
39.
How did lack of an ideal for a good worker foster indolence among the
Filipinos?
Convinced through insinuation of his inferiority, his mind bewildered by his
education if the brutalization can be called education with only his racial
susceptibility and poetical imagination remaining in him, The Filipino exchange of
usages and ideas among the different nations, allow himself to be guided by his
fancy and self-love. It is sufficient that a foreigner praise to him the imported
merchandise and find fault with the native product for him to shift hastily, without
thinking that everything has its weak side and the most sensible custom appears
ridiculous to the eyes of those who do not follow it. The result was the initiative
people became clerks, devout, prayer-loving, acquired ideas of luxurious and
ostentatious living without improving correspondingly their means of subsistence.
40.
How did lack of national development foster indolence among the Filipinos?
Moreover, the lack of national sentiment breeds another evil which the scarcity of
any opposition to the measures that are prejudicial to the people and the absence
of any initiative that will redound to their welfare. A man in the Philippines is an

individual; he is not a member of a nation. He is deprived of the right of association

and therefore he is weak and inert. The Philippines is an organism whose cells
must have no arterial system to water them; nonetheless these cells must yield
their products, get it where they can; if they perish, let them perish.
The result of this if a harmful measure is promulgated, no one protests; everything
goes well apparently until later the evils are felt.
41.
How did lack of national sentiment lead to the appointment of competent
officials?
Love of peace and the horror many have of accepting the few administrative posts
that fall to the lot of Filipinos on account of the troubles and annoyances they bring
them, lead to the appointment of the most stupid and incompetent men to
municipal posts officials who submit to everything, who endure all the caprices
and exactions of the curates and their superiors.
42.
Explain why it was useless to solve the problem of indolence if there was no
profound study of its causes.
Every attempt is useless which does not spring from a profound study of the
malady that afflicts us. In order to combat indolence some have proposed
increasing the needs of the Indio, raising his taxes, etc. Then, criminals have
multiplied; penury has been aggravated. Because the Indio already has enough
necessities with the Church functions, feasts, head-ships of the barangay, and
bribes that he must give so that his life may drag on wretchedly. The cord is
already too taut.
43.
Explain why good education and liberty can bring progress to the Filipinos.
Without the education and liberty the soil and the sun of mankind no reform is
possible, no measure can give the desired result. This does not mean that we
should first demand for the Filipino the education of the sage and all imaginable
liberties before putting a hoe in his hand or placing him in a workshop; such a
pretension would be an absurdity and vain folly.