RIZAL FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

RIZAL FOR OUR TIME



The anniversary of the death of the Philippines' national hero Jose Rizal this Dec. 30 affords us the occasion to reassess his work, particularly in the context of ongoing fierce class war in the Philippines between the oppressed, impoverished majority and the few privileged landlords and politicians bought by global capital. This is taking place at a time when the Philippines is being re-colonized by the U.S., the world's imperialist hegemon. Would Rizal want the country partitioned by greedy transnational corporations and their racist elites in the brutal terrorist war against peoples of color? These reflections hope to provoke a re-thinking of what it means to be a Filipino with the Philippines in dire crisis, using Rizal as a point of departure, especially in the light of its citizens becoming an embattled diaspora--more than ten million OFWs as exploited domestics and contract workers scattered around the planet, while the country's rich natural resources, cultures and traditions are wasted by foreign profiteers supported by local comprador parasites currently headed by the corrupt Arroyo regime. "O where is the hope of the motherland...."?