The Indolence of the Filipino | Page 3

superstition, if not a punishable delusion. Yet it is not to be
inferred from the misuse of a thing that it does not exist.
We think that there must be something behind all this outcry, for it is
incredible that so many should err, among whom we have said there are
a lot of serious and disinterested persons. Some act in bad faith,
through levity, through want of sound judgment, through limitation in
reasoning power, ignorance of the past, or other cause. Some repeat
what they have heard, without, examination or reflection; others speak

through pessimism or are impelled by that human characteristic which
paints as perfect everything that belongs to oneself and defective
whatever belongs to another. But it cannot be denied that there are
some who worship truth, or if not truth itself at least the semblance
thereof, which is truth in the mind of the crowd.
Examining well, then, all the scenes and all the men that we have
known from Childhood, and the life of our country, we believe that
indolence does exist there. The Filipinos, who can measure up with the
most active peoples in the world, will doubtless not repudiate this
admission, for it is true that there one works and struggles against the
climate, against nature and against men. But we must not take the
exception for the general rule, and should rather seek the good of our
country by stating what we believe to be true. We must confess that
indolence does actually and positively exist there; only that, instead of
holding it to be the cause of the backwardness and the trouble, we
regard it as the effect of the trouble and the backwardness, by fostering
the development of a lamentable predisposition.
Those who have as yet treated of indolence, with the exception of Dr.
Sancianco, have been content to deny or affirm it. We know of no one
who has studied its causes. Nevertheless, those who admit its existence
and exaggerate it more or less have not therefore failed to advise
remedies taken from here and there, from Java, from India, from other
English or Dutch colonies, like the quack who saw a fever cured with a
dozen sardines and afterwards always prescribed these fish at every rise
in temperature that he discovered in his patients.
We shall proceed otherwise. Before proposing a remedy we shall
examine the causes, and even though strictly speaking a predisposition
is not a cause, let us, however, study at its true value this predisposition
due to nature.
The predisposition exists? Why shouldn't it?
A hot, climate requires of the individual quiet and rest, just as cold
incites to labor and action. For this reason the Spaniard is more
indolent than the Frenchman; the Frenchman more so than the German.

The Europeans themselves who reproach the residents of the colonies
so much (and I am not now speaking of the Spaniards but of the
Germans and English themselves), how do they live in tropical
countries? Surrounded by a numerous train of servants, never going
afoot but riding in a carriage, needing servants not only to take off their
shoes for them but even to fan them! And yet they live and eat better,
they work for themselves to get rich, with the hope of a future, free and
respected, while the poor colonist, the indolent colonist, is badly
nourished, has no hope, toils for others, and works under force and
compulsion! Perhaps the reply to this will be that white men are not
made to stand the severity of the climate. A mistake! A man can live in
any climate, if he will only adapt himself to its requirements and
conditions. What kills the European in hot countries is the abuse of
liquors, the attempt to live according to the nature of his own country
under another sky and another sun. We inhabitants of hot countries live
well in northern Europe whenever we take the precautions the people
there do. Europeans can also stand the torrid zone, if only they would
get rid of their prejudices. (2) The fact is that in tropical countries
violent work is not a good thing as it is in cold countries, there it is
death, destruction, annihilation. Nature knows this and like a just
mother has therefore made the earth more fertile, more productive, as a
compensation. An hour's work under that burning sun, in the midst of
pernicious influences springing from nature in activity, is equal to a
day's work in a temperate climate; it is, then, just that the earth yield a
hundred fold! Moreover, do we not see the active European, who has
gained strength during the winter, who feels the fresh blood of spring
boil in his veins, do we not see him abandon his labors during