Rizal Day may have become Saddam Hussein Day...
For the benefit of the non-Filipino folks reading this blog, December 30 is a national holiday in the Philippines due to the celebration of the heroism of Dr. Jose Rizal, national hero. Rizal is a noted pacifist, opposing armed struggle against the Spaniards and exhausting all diplomatic means before conceding to radical measures. Why December 30? This was the day when he was executed by firing squad in 1896.
It is with mild irony, therefore, that a murderous dictator such as Iraq's Saddam Hussein may be given the same national holiday as Rizal's, by dint of his execution by hanging at 6:05 a.m. Baghdad time 210 years later.
I don't see it happening, as will most people, but it makes for irony all the same.
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"The day on which you would see me in the clutches of the friars, do not waste time making petitions or uttering complaints or lamentations — it is useless. Try to put another in my place who may avenge me and make them pay dearly for my misfortune! If I would see a son of mine in the mouth of a shark, I would not try to pull him out — for it is useless and all I would achieve is to destroy him — I would kill the shark if possible, and if not, I would waylay him!"
-Dr. Jose Rizal to Mariano Ponce
Paris, 18th April 1889
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"When the people is gagged; when its dignity, honor, and all its liberties are trampled; when it no longer has any legal recourse against the tyranny of its oppressors; when its complaints, petitions, and groans are not attended to; when it is not permitted even to weep; when even the last hope is wrested from its heart; then..! then..! then..! it has left no other remedy but to take down with delirious hand from the infernal altars the BLOODY and SUICIDAL DAGGER of REVOLUTION!!!"
Dr. Jose Rizal,
To Our Dear Mother Country, Spain, 10 October 1889
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"Oh I tell you that our Catholic religion is no longer a religion of God; no I deny it. God ought not to be responsible for such a religion."
-Dr. Jose Rizal to Ferdinnand Blumentritt
Paris, 15 July 1889
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“I am readying myself for death. I am making arrangements for what I will leave behind and am preparing myself for any eventuality; Laong Laan is my real name. That is why I wish to finish the second volume of Noli at any cost and if it is possible, I do not wish to leave what I have begun without anyone to continue it…
May our compatriots there obey the voice of their heart and devote the precious time of their youth to something great, which is worthy of them. We do not have the good luck of other young men who can dispose of their time and their future.
We have upon as A DUTY; TO REDEEM OUR MOTHER FROM HER CAPTIVITY; our mother is pawned; WE MUST REDEEM HER before we amuse ourselves.”
-Dr. Jose Rizal to Marcelo H. del Pilar
Brussels, 11 June 1890
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"It is a grievous consequence of hatred of the friars that my aged mother, who was so devout and pious, now does not want to believe any more. She says that everything is deceit, the friars have neither faith nor religion. She wants to believe only in God and the Virgin Mary, and nothing more. And like my aged mother so are my sisters, and like them are many women of the Philippines. Look, Spain, look, Catholicism, at the immediate consequence of your policy."
-Dr. Jose Rizal to Ferdinand Blumentritt
Hong Kong, 31 January 1892
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“We are children, we are the latestborn. But our hearts beats high, and tomorrow we shall be full-grown men who will know how to defend their hearts and homes. We are children, yes but nothing daunts us, neither wave nor storm or thunder. With strong right arm and unclouded brow WE SHALL KNOW HOW TO FIGHT IN THE HOUR OF DANGER. Our hands shall take up in turn those instruments of sovereign reason, the SWORD the pen, the SPADE!”
Dr. Rizal's "A Talisay de Laong Laan"
Dapitan (circa 1895)
Please visit:
http://j-rizal.blogspot.com/
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