By NATHAN MARI
I will start with some very basic truths:
1) I am a Filipino.
2) In my parents’ whole life, all they have ever known is a Philippines that is poor.
3) In my whole life I have never known a Philippines that isn’t poor.
4) I am going to be a father, and if I continue to do nothing, the only country that my children will ever know is a poor Philippines too.
5) I am living in the richest and most powerful country in the world.
6) There are 4.5 million Filipino’s living around me in the US.
7) Not a single one of them is a beggar.
The truth is a good place to start because it’s real, it’s true! If I start with the truth, I can see clearly the world in which I live. I cannot stand back and watch my people suffer while I enjoy the privileges of a first world way of life, in a country that is not even mine. Nor can I even claim Australia as my own simply because I was born there and I carry an Australian passport. I’m conflicted! I say that I’m an Australian, but when I look in the mirror, I see a Filipino face?! I have already started with being honest, so I will reveal to you my deepest truth: I used to be so ashamed to be Filipino because my country is so poor!
It would have been much easier to turn my back, forget about who I am and where I come from so I don’t have to face this embarrassing reality. Or the truth that being one of the most religious countries isn’t even enough to reverse this ugly trend. It would have been easy for me to never look back again. I don’t have to have anything to do with the Philippines anymore because I live in a rich country now. But I can’t! I cannot run from who I am when it’s so obvious. I can break every single mirror in the house, destroy and burn every single item I own, because it reminds me I’m Filipino. But everywhere I look I see Filipino faces, my wife’s, and soon I’ll be seeing my child’s, and they are all painful realities of the truth that is so difficult for me to see. These beautiful faces are constant, daily reminders that I cannot sit back and do nothing anymore.
I was brought up on three basic principles: Love God, Love your family, Strive for the best in everything. I was sent to the best schools because that’s how I would become successful. In these institutions I was taught about the “American Dream” - the biggest house, the biggest cars, climbing the highest I can in my career, and earning the most money. I guess this was how they could justify their high tuition fees. But I eventually realised that the “American Dream” is all about me! MY house, MY car, MY family, MY needs, MY wants MY dreams… ME-ME-ME! As I pursue my “American Dream,” I leave people behind! I leave MY people behind! I began to reflect on what the “Filipino Dream” means and I soon realised the “Filipino Dream” is in direct contrast to my “American Dream,” because the “Filipino Dream” is not about ME! -It’s About WE! It’s about Love for God, Love for Family, and Love for Country.
The “Filipino Dream” is what built the Banaue Rice Terraces, built by Free Filipinos, and the Spirit behind it is called “Bayanihan”, to be a HERO to each other. This is the same spirit that is fuelling the work of Nation Building.
There are many agendas out there that essentially want to achieve the same thing: to honor God by building and celebrating a beautiful Philippines. What would happen if we all work together? What would happen if every Filipino, in the most powerful country on earth, decided to work together? What would we do? Let’s ask ourselves a very basic question… “Is my town or province in the Philippines poor?” If the answer is “yes,” why don’t we rebuild it? Can it be done? We have 1,700 working models to prove that it does, so why don’t we make it our life’s work to rebuild the towns and provinces which gave birth to us and nurtured us? Wouldn’t that be Glory far beyond tinikling and pansit?!
I truly believe that every Filipino exists for a driving purpose. -A purpose not just for their own lives and their own families, but for their own country. Many people have given their lives to give me a free Philippines that I have just simply abandoned! What would our Jose Rizal say today, when he realizes he gave his life for a country that looks like this? The Good news is there’s HOPE! And the Hope of the Philippines is with the thousands of people who’ve heard this message of HOPE because we decided that our “Filipino Dream” means more to us.
It’s not about you or me anymore. It’s about WE, and deciding not to see the Filipino as an enemy, a threat, or even a rival anymore. This is about the FILIPINO, everything that is good, that is noble, and that is heroic in our people, and knowing that every Filipino is a part of this because it is our birthright. It’s not about your agenda, or mine, but the basic reality that you and I are Filipinos, and that we cannot accept it as part of God’s design for us to be poor. I refuse to accept things the way they’ve been handed down to me.
I can’t believe that it took a Filipino-American wife, a kicking baby, a Briton and his family, and 22,000 miles of travelling this great nation for me to understand this.
In all of this I recognize that I need to change. That as I simply let go of the excess baggage in my life, I’m left with even more to give. It’s not about counting what I have to let go of or what I need to surrender anymore, but about choosing to embrace something else instead… My Filipino Dream isn’t about looking at the sacrifices I have made, or counting the costs anymore. Instead I see that this beautiful life is mine to have simply because I am a Filipino, and I am in the midst of the greatest miracle happening in the world today!
Mga kababayan, Mabuhay! God’s Kingdom is here!
* Nathan Mari is the GK1mB USA National Coordinator who joined Dylan Wilk and his family in the USA Highway of Hope driving 22,000 miles across the country to spread the work of GK and inspire others to join this exciting movement. Nathan was also the founder of the first Australian GK Youth Great Adventure Tour in 2004.
