The World We Want

The Wall, November, 1949

LOURDES DEL ROSARIO

The world we want is a happy world because there is freedom from want. The world we want

is secure because men are protected. It is an intelligent and wise world for men have their rights,

know these rights and use them to advantage. We want a peaceful world where countries are

friends, where there are no masters and slaves, where the words “submission” and “oppression” can

not [cannot] be found, where men are free, and where no man starves while the others satisfy

themselves, no man weeps while the others sit on thrones.

Thousands of years ago, primitive men already knew the world they want. It was more

simple. Food, clothing, and shelter were all they wish for. The fight started then and there. When a

savage cleared but a path in the jungle, when he started to till the soil, when he began building

sturdier houses, when he made the first alphabet, —he was struggling for the world he wanted. No

man can live without a Divine Being to revere and worship. Our ancestors then worshipped the sun,

the moon, and trees. He wanted gods to bring him faith. The sun appealed to him. It mystified him.

He knew the sun is powerful and so he adored it. To eat is to live—he learned that earlier. Securing

subsistence was heard and so he began to fashion and devise things he knew could bring him the

much wanted freedom from hunger.

When a man is angry, he curses himself, his fellowmen, the world at large. Why? Things did

not turn out as he wished it to be. There was plenty but he could not take hold of these. He becomes

restless, blames the government, his country, his people. His stomach is empty, he can not [cannot]

think and so he becomes useless. People are satisfied more when they are full. They are easier to

please. When a man is contented, he makes a good citizen. A good citizen makes a fine community

and [a] fine community makes a good country. A happy nation, in turn, makes a better world.

“Security” is very broad. We will take it in terms of the individual concept of this world.

Mankind has heard of war ever since its existence. Humanity has tasted its stings and felt its

crippling impact. The rows of white crosses unguarded save by some lonely trees, the pathetic

begging palms of the orphaned, the tears spilled from someone who will never come back—these

are the cruelty of war. The conquered, cowering beneath the conqueror’s heel, often pause to

wonder, “Is this the world I want? I am a man. This is my brother but he is not my brother now.” A

world of bitterness, made bloody by men’s ambitions and greed, a world reddened by the rays of the

setting sun whose rising others will not see again, —this is not what we want. Peace existed now

only in dreams. Oh, for the world where brotherhood and friendship reign! Nations will fight nations

as long as the desire to conquer is inborn in man. Rebirth! Reformation! Or else—disaster! Chaos!

Confusion! So that existence becomes a terror and life a drudge. Is it the lot of men to be thus?

When God created us to people the earth, he created us equal, all with the same gifts, rights,

and privileges. Those rights which God has given are our weapons in battling for a happy, Christian

existence. These rights are for us to use and employ as a means to bring about the universe we

want. They are the poor man’s wealth and the wealthy man’s blessing. When they are taken away,

we rebel and fight it out till they are given back. We know it is our right to own these rights. In a

democratic country, we do not have to fear for them though once in a while, in the happy grounds of

democratic principles, also spring false, pretentious democracies whose professions of the equality

of men are but a mockery and a farce! But the people, who comprehends what the true doctrine is,

cannot be fooled. In a dictatorship, things are the opposite. What are those rights to the dictator, an

egomaniac, a master, have no place in the ideal world we want.

International friendship is one of the aims of the UNO. It plans to bring about world peace by

promoting whole-hearted cooperation among the countries of the world. We must help one another.

Race or creed must be forgotten, personal desires put aside. Big nations should help the little ones.

Governments, already strengthened and firmly established on its foundations with added years of

experience and self-perfection, should aid those struggling, yet unstable republics. That help would

be much appreciated. Gratitude is still natural in men. But would you be grateful to a nation which

helps out a fellow-country, but expects something in return, which has its eye already cocked on the

others riches and wealth? It seems to be an inherent evil in all creatures with souls—to expect

always something in return for any help we extend. As a young government, I would prefer long

years of trying to get on my feet, long years with blunders and mistakes, rather than a year of fast

progress with every step of perfection, with the help of a country which threatens to deprive my

people of the patrimony of my race! We are to be free men and yet, virtually slaves.

Some five hundred years ago, the first Filipino to rebel against foreign invasion, used his

bolo to slay a foreigner who wanted to be a master. Lapulapu killed Magellan in the battle of Mactan.

That is a statement—a plain setting out of facts. But behind those words, a great significance lies,

which every Filipino with the true blood of the brown race would be able to find. It is with pride I

state, —the people of Rizal and Bonifacio, are a freedom loving race. In their hearts born the fire of

liberty which many centuries of attempted but never successful conquests were not able to quench.

The thousands who fell, many sprung to take their place. The blood spilled brought new life and

every tear shed freshened the flower of hope. The struggle culminated last July 4, 1946 as we

believe. It did not. It will go on with the years of independence. We are now our own masters but as

yet we may turn slaves again. Chains of slavery are now being heated, forged, and soldered, —by

whom and where, we can not [cannot] say. “Masters and slaves” —this phrase must fade out of

existences. “Free men all”, is the term we want.

Countries call themselves educated and civilized. Nations profess to be Christian and

human. We do not know the extent of the truth of their statements. We also say these things. We

take pride in ourselves as a democratic country and a Christina one. We have a good form of

government, we have human standards and social as well. Education is free for everyone. Chance

and opportunity are denied none. But why are there beggars still, why do men still steal to live, why

is there no peace and order, why is the people restless, why do officials commit grafts and

corruptions, why are the seeds of communism slowly and surely taking roots in our country? There is

something wrong, everything is wrong. In this organization of our lives and activities, we side-

stepped something and that flaw now forms the nucleus that threatens to destroy us. It is twisted

somewhere. We go to church and attend mass, pray devoutly, and then the first thing we do as soon

as we get out of the church, we criticize and gossip, flaying with our tongues every thing [everything]

conceivable. A well-known authority on education, etc. lectures at a meeting on democracy and the

equality of men. But first thing he does when he gets home is to baul his servant out for he dared

sleep in the master’s chair. At school, a student is always admonished, “Love your country’s flag and

respect our National Anthem.” Then he sees older men, educated at that, falling to show proper

reverence for our flag. What are these things? We have them; they are not included in the world we

want.

We want a beautiful world, too. Beautiful, because it helps us know art. Who knows are?

That gift of being able to judge what is beautiful and what is not what was given only to few. Maybe

you can not [cannot] draw even a carabao, maybe you can not [cannot] distinguish the music of

Wagner from those jazzy tunes, may be you cannot understand Edgar Allan Poe, maybe you can

not [cannot] sing even a “do-re-me”, maybe you can appreciate but you can not [cannot] express

your admiration, —still you are an artist. The janitor who leads a simple, straight[-]forward life is an

artist. The teacher who sacrifices in training the youth is an [a] sculptor who molds out of life’s

human clay, individuals who will serve the world. The politician who makes beautiful, though often

untrue speeches, the president who is at the helm of the ship of the state, the housekeeper who

keeps the household efficient and smooth, the stenographer of art though they may not know it. Art

is very important. Mankind can not [cannot] go along without it. It made poets write to interpret what

they feel, it made singers sing to make people read their hearts, [and] it made sculptors work out on

clay and stone all the wonders of life. In the world we want, art should be present. Living can be an

art if we know how. And life with the freedom of self-expression is truly a step in the perfection of

every phase human endeavor [in every phase of human endeavor].

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” A pen is such an insignificant thing, a very trivial

matter, and mention of it often brings only a shrug. That is because you do not recognize in it the

prime weapon of mankind. We know cannons, spears, bombs, boomerangs, lances but we do now

know the pen and the battles it fought for use. Was the voice of the press ever silenced? Never!

Hear Hamilton defend Peter Zenger, the poor printer, who fought for the right to express what he

thinks! Hear Marcelo H. del Pilar lambast the Spanish government for trying to suppress the voice of

the press! Of course, these happened a long time ago. But we still have modern heroes who

continue the fight. It is a right and we must keep it.

It is a modern weapon of warfare. Scratch the word “modern” out for the pen has gone with

ages side by side with mankind in fighting for a better world. In the world we want, people can

express what they think, they can speak as the heart or conscience dictate, without fear of a stern,

repressing hand to silence them.

We must not say, “the world we want,” but instead “the world I would fight for to keep for the

future generation.” We may want, something but we may not get it unless we struggle and work hard

for it. It must not end with just wishing for a better world. It must end when we already have a better

world.

K’s additional notes, prior to republishing the essay: clearly state that it was published back in 1949.

“Though the essay dates back to 1949, a lot can still be learned from The World We Want...”

Footnotes for certain historical references and figures are needed so as not to “alienate” the

contemporary reader. EX: “Free Men All” of the 19th Century. Hamilton-Zinger etc.