A country of mediocrity?

I was struck by Wagner's proposition:

"Political apathy and a willingness to accept a low common denominator of performance have taken their toll on the psyche of the Philippine people."

Is this really what we are -- a race of highly intelligent, capable, strong, yet hopeless people? I half expected myself to react very strongly, maybe include an expletive or two. But what surprised me more was the fact that I quietly, sadly, if reluctantly, agreed. We have come to expect less of ourselves. "Bahala na" and "pwede na yan," attitudes have finally revealed the damage possible through several generations of perpetuation.

Others would argue, oh but we have hope. I say, most of the time, we place our hope in the wrong things.

We hope to leave the country. We hope someone else gets us out of the rut we're in. We hope others don't notice the shortcomings. We hope there's a way to get out of the commitment. We hope things will change someday.

Why not today? Why do we need others to tell us what to do to survive? Why don't we do things ourselves? We're highly intelligent, capable, strong. Resilient. Why then do we keep returning to the same problems?

Call me unpatriotic and ungrateful. But someone has to say it. It may be an unpopular thing to say but the first step to real change is to admit that you need it. You need to lead it. You need to need it, deep in your heart.

And heaven knows, I've been longing for this change for a long time.

Read the full and insightful column on The Huffington Post.