Republic of the Philippines

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Urdaneta City Campus

ASSIGNMENT #1
LIT 1: Society and Literature

Name: Albert G. Namoro Course, Year, and Section: B.S Architecture

I. Read the essay, Why We are so Poor, by Francisco Sionil Jose critically and answer the following
questions: (Minimum of 10 sentences each item)

1. List down the reasons why Filipinos are said to be poor in the essay.
2. What is the suggested solution of F. SIonil Jose to alleviate poverty? How will you contribute to
this solution for the society?
3. What is your realization after reading the essay?

1. The reasons why Filipinos are said to be poor in the essay

 We are poor because our people are lazy

 We do not save
 Great show-offs – bad habit of being materialistic
 We are poor because our nationalism is inward looking
 We protect inefficient industries and monopolies
 We are poor because we have lost our ethical moorings
 Cronyism and corruption - we allow their practice because our loyalty is to family or friend
 We are poor because most of us are short spirited and lack of will

2. Suggested solution of F. SIonil Jose to alleviate poverty

F. Slonil suggested t two which is:

1. A nationalist revolution
2. The second is through education

For the first Slonil suggested ,I think promoting a revolution through diplomatic is a must choice in order to
avoid bloodshed and risking people’s lives while through education a longer and more complex process as
Slonil said it is still a big hope for us to move forward through education by providing a good, quality and being
competent student.

3. What is your realization after reading the essay?

 We are our own enemies,the fact that we are so myopic and short-sighted in our views (no vision for
the future) and to be a good and productive country we need a clean and good support of our own
Government but relying too much and depending alone in Government is not the only option instead we
the citizens need to change our way of living, thinking and perspective to such things.