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Written by my late grandmother for an essay contest back in the 50's. I'm posting it here as a form of documentation (and back-up).
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The World We Want
The Wall, November, 1949
LOURDES DEL ROSARIO
The world we want is a happy world because there is freedom from want. The world we want
is secure because men are protected. It is an intelligent and wise world for men have their rights,
know these rights and use them to advantage. We want a peaceful world where countries are
friends, where there are no masters and slaves, where the words “submission” and “oppression” can
not [cannot] be found, where men are free, and where no man starves while the others satisfy
themselves, no man weeps while the others sit on thrones.
Thousands of years ago, primitive men already knew the world they want. It was more
simple. Food, clothing, and shelter were all they wish for. The fight started then and there. When a
savage cleared but a path in the jungle, when he started to till the soil, when he began building
sturdier houses, when he made the first alphabet, —he was struggling for the world he wanted. No
man can live without a Divine Being to revere and worship. Our ancestors then worshipped the sun,
the moon, and trees. He wanted gods to bring him faith. The sun appealed to him. It mystified him.
He knew the sun is powerful and so he adored it. To eat is to live—he learned that earlier. Securing
subsistence was heard and so he began to fashion and devise things he knew could bring him the
much wanted freedom from hunger.
When a man is angry, he curses himself, his fellowmen, the world at large. Why? Things did
not turn out as he wished it to be. There was plenty but he could not take hold of these. He becomes
restless, blames the government, his country, his people. His stomach is empty, he can not [cannot]
think and so he becomes useless. People are satisfied more when they are full. They are easier to
please. When a man is contented, he makes a good citizen. A good citizen makes a fine community
and [a] fine community makes a good country. A happy nation, in turn, makes a better world.
“Security” is very broad. We will take it in terms of the individual concept of this world.
Mankind has heard of war ever since its existence. Humanity has tasted its stings and felt its
crippling impact. The rows of white crosses unguarded save by some lonely trees, the pathetic
begging palms of the orphaned, the tears spilled from someone who will never come back—these
are the cruelty of war. The conquered, cowering beneath the conqueror’s heel, often pause to
wonder, “Is this the world I want? I am a man. This is my brother but he is not my brother now.” A
world of bitterness, made bloody by men’s ambitions and greed, a world reddened by the rays of the
setting sun whose rising others will not see again, —this is not what we want. Peace existed now
only in dreams. Oh, for the world where brotherhood and friendship reign! Nations will fight nations
as long as the desire to conquer is inborn in man. Rebirth! Reformation! Or else—disaster! Chaos!
Confusion! So that existence becomes a terror and life a drudge. Is it the lot of men to be thus?
When God created us to people the earth, he created us equal, all with the same gifts, rights,
and privileges. Those rights which God has given are our weapons in battling for a happy, Christian
existence. These rights are for us to use and employ as a means to bring about the universe we
want. They are the poor man’s wealth and the wealthy man’s blessing. When they are taken away,
we rebel and fight it out till they are given back. We know it is our right to own these rights. In a
democratic country, we do not have to fear for them though once in a while, in the happy grounds of
democratic principles, also spring false, pretentious democracies whose professions of the equality
of men are but a mockery and a farce! But the people, who comprehends what the true doctrine is,
cannot be fooled. In a dictatorship, things are the opposite. What are those rights to the dictator, an
egomaniac, a master, have no place in the ideal world we want.
International friendship is one of the aims of the UNO. It plans to bring about world peace by
promoting whole-hearted cooperation among the countries of the world. We must help one another.
Race or creed must be forgotten, personal desires put aside. Big nations should help the little ones.
Governments, already strengthened and firmly established on its foundations with added years of
experience and self-perfection, should aid those struggling, yet unstable republics. That help would
be much appreciated. Gratitude is still natural in men. But would you be grateful to a nation which
helps out a fellow-country, but expects something in return, which has its eye already cocked on the
others riches and wealth? It seems to be an inherent evil in all creatures with souls—to expect
always something in return for any help we extend. As a young government, I would prefer long
years of trying to get on my feet, long years with blunders and mistakes, rather than a year of fast
progress with every step of perfection, with the help of a country which threatens to deprive my
people of the patrimony of my race! We are to be free men and yet, virtually slaves.
Some five hundred years ago, the first Filipino to rebel against foreign invasion, used his
bolo to slay a foreigner who wanted to be a master. Lapulapu killed Magellan in the battle of Mactan.
That is a statement—a plain setting out of facts. But behind those words, a great significance lies,
which every Filipino with the true blood of the brown race would be able to find. It is with pride I
state, —the people of Rizal and Bonifacio, are a freedom loving race. In their hearts born the fire of
liberty which many centuries of attempted but never successful conquests were not able to quench.
The thousands who fell, many sprung to take their place. The blood spilled brought new life and
every tear shed freshened the flower of hope. The struggle culminated last July 4, 1946 as we
believe. It did not. It will go on with the years of independence. We are now our own masters but as
yet we may turn slaves again. Chains of slavery are now being heated, forged, and soldered, —by
whom and where, we can not [cannot] say. “Masters and slaves” —this phrase must fade out of
existences. “Free men all”, is the term we want.
Countries call themselves educated and civilized. Nations profess to be Christian and
human. We do not know the extent of the truth of their statements. We also say these things. We
take pride in ourselves as a democratic country and a Christina one. We have a good form of
government, we have human standards and social as well. Education is free for everyone. Chance
and opportunity are denied none. But why are there beggars still, why do men still steal to live, why
is there no peace and order, why is the people restless, why do officials commit grafts and
corruptions, why are the seeds of communism slowly and surely taking roots in our country? There is
something wrong, everything is wrong. In this organization of our lives and activities, we side-
stepped something and that flaw now forms the nucleus that threatens to destroy us. It is twisted
somewhere. We go to church and attend mass, pray devoutly, and then the first thing we do as soon
as we get out of the church, we criticize and gossip, flaying with our tongues every thing [everything]
conceivable. A well-known authority on education, etc. lectures at a meeting on democracy and the
equality of men. But first thing he does when he gets home is to baul his servant out for he dared
sleep in the master’s chair. At school, a student is always admonished, “Love your country’s flag and
respect our National Anthem.” Then he sees older men, educated at that, falling to show proper
reverence for our flag. What are these things? We have them; they are not included in the world we
want.
We want a beautiful world, too. Beautiful, because it helps us know art. Who knows are?
That gift of being able to judge what is beautiful and what is not what was given only to few. Maybe
you can not [cannot] draw even a carabao, maybe you can not [cannot] distinguish the music of
Wagner from those jazzy tunes, may be you cannot understand Edgar Allan Poe, maybe you can
not [cannot] sing even a “do-re-me”, maybe you can appreciate but you can not [cannot] express
your admiration, —still you are an artist. The janitor who leads a simple, straight[-]forward life is an
artist. The teacher who sacrifices in training the youth is an [a] sculptor who molds out of life’s
human clay, individuals who will serve the world. The politician who makes beautiful, though often
untrue speeches, the president who is at the helm of the ship of the state, the housekeeper who
keeps the household efficient and smooth, the stenographer of art though they may not know it. Art
is very important. Mankind can not [cannot] go along without it. It made poets write to interpret what
they feel, it made singers sing to make people read their hearts, [and] it made sculptors work out on
clay and stone all the wonders of life. In the world we want, art should be present. Living can be an
art if we know how. And life with the freedom of self-expression is truly a step in the perfection of
every phase human endeavor [in every phase of human endeavor].
“The pen is mightier than the sword.” A pen is such an insignificant thing, a very trivial
matter, and mention of it often brings only a shrug. That is because you do not recognize in it the
prime weapon of mankind. We know cannons, spears, bombs, boomerangs, lances but we do now
know the pen and the battles it fought for use. Was the voice of the press ever silenced? Never!
Hear Hamilton defend Peter Zenger, the poor printer, who fought for the right to express what he
thinks! Hear Marcelo H. del Pilar lambast the Spanish government for trying to suppress the voice of
the press! Of course, these happened a long time ago. But we still have modern heroes who
continue the fight. It is a right and we must keep it.
It is a modern weapon of warfare. Scratch the word “modern” out for the pen has gone with
ages side by side with mankind in fighting for a better world. In the world we want, people can
express what they think, they can speak as the heart or conscience dictate, without fear of a stern,
repressing hand to silence them.
We must not say, “the world we want,” but instead “the world I would fight for to keep for the
future generation.” We may want, something but we may not get it unless we struggle and work hard
for it. It must not end with just wishing for a better world. It must end when we already have a better
world.
K’s additional notes, prior to republishing the essay: clearly state that it was published back in 1949.
“Though the essay dates back to 1949, a lot can still be learned from The World We Want...”
Footnotes for certain historical references and figures are needed so as not to “alienate” the
contemporary reader. EX: “Free Men All” of the 19th Century. Hamilton-Zinger etc.
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