Essay published in La Solidaridad Madrid, Spain (July 15, 1890 –

September 15, 1890) Why did Rizal write this essay?

• Rizal wrote this essay to defend the Filipinos from the charge that
they were born indolent.
Idle, Lazy, little love for work,lack of activity

• 1. Wars
• the inhabitants of the Philippines were dragged to maintain the
honor of Spain (thousands and thousands of Filipinos were sent but
nothing was said if they ever returned to their homes.)
• great diminution of the natives because the governors got them as
crews for the vessels they send out.
2. Piratical Attacks
• devastation of the terrible pirates
• Reduced more and more the number of inhabitants of the
Philippines
• burned down the towns, captured and enslaved men
• disarmed and subjected to tributes so that they were left without the
means to defend themselves
Hindu country with a Buddhist monarchy”—ruled by a certain
Ch’i-ling (Rajah Kiling) in 1001 AD.
3. Attitude of the Friars
• At that time, the friars advised their poor parishioners:
• to stop work in the mines,
• to abandon their industries,
• to destroy their looms and pointing them that heaven is their sole
hope
• The friars told them that it is easier for a poor man to enter heaven
than for a rich man
4.Lessening encouragement to Labor
• Trade contact or relations between the Borneans, Siamese,
Cambodians and Japanese nations were being cut off

• The coast wide trade which was flourishing before disappeared

5. Miserly return for one’s Labor
• (selfish, greedy, mean)
• Encomenderos
• reduced many to slavery
• compelled Filipinos to work for their benefit Made them sell their
products at an insignificant price or for nothing or cheated them with
false measures
• Treated them like slaves
6. Gambling
• The sugal (from the Spanish word jugar, to gamble) indicates that
gambling was unknown in the Philippines before the Spaniards

• Balasa – from the Spanish word barajar, the introduction of playing

cards
7. Fiestas
• Gave their contribution to large number of fiestas, lengthy masses,
novenae, processions, rosaries

• Filipinos were much less lazy before the word miracle was
introduced into their language
8. Curtailment of individual liberty
• (to cut off, to cut short, doubtful)
• Individual liberty is being cut off
• accused of being a filibustero (rebel) or a suspect
• Lack of confidence in the future
• Uncertainty of reaping the fruits of their labor
9. Apathy of the Government
• No encouragement, aid pertaining to commerce or agriculture
• The products coming from the Philippines were burdened with
imposts and duties and have no free entry in the ports of the mother
country and the consumption of the products are not encouraged
• Due to the fraudulent (dishonest, deceitful) manipulations of the
Chinese, the Filipino industries were dying.
10. Ownership of the big estates by the friars
• the best estates, the best tracts of land in some provinces were in
the hands of the religious corporations
• the friars have deceived many by making them believe that those
estates were prospering because those were under their supervision
11. Lack of moral support
• Absence of moral support
• Absence of help from the government
12. Deprivation of human dignity
• the students have to contend with the daily preaching that lowers
human dignity, gradually or brutally killing their self-respect
• Priests who boldly declared that it is evil for the Filipinos to know
Castilian, that the Filipinos should not be separated from his carabao,
and that he should not have any further ambition.
13. Feeling of inferiority
• Constant plucking (pulling, removing) of the soul
• Deadens the energy
• Paralyzes all tendency towards advancement
14. Vicious dressing of the intelligence and will
• “You can’t do more than old So and So!- Don’t aspire to be greater
than the curate! You belong to an inferior race! You haven’t any
energy.”
• They say this to the child; and as it is repeated so often, it has
inevitably engraved in his mind and thence it seals and shapes all his
actions.
• Ridicules with cruel sarcasm
15. Lack of an ideal for a good worker
• the Filipinos’ spirits were transformed according to the taste of the
nation that imposed upon them its God and its laws INSTEAD:
• Ideal and prototype tanned and muscular laborer (who should have
brought along with him the useful iron implements and the hoes to
till the fields) BUT IT WAS AN:
• Aristocratic lord who brought along with him stamped papers,
crucifixes, bulls and prayer books
18. AS A RESULT:
• the imitative people became clerks, devout, prayer-loving, acquired
ideas of luxurious and ostentatious living without improving
correspondingly their means of subsistence.
16. Lack of national sentiment
• (expression of emotional ideas, feelings, etc.)

• 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

• Deprived of the right of association, therefore they were weak and

inert (inactive, unmotivated, passive)