Kabataang Manileno, Kaisa
40th Commencement Exercises
Manila Science High School
April 8, 2003

LIFE OF SCIENCE

Efren E.S. Ricalde, Batch '71
President/CEO,
GeoSpatial Solutions Inc.

So much water has passed under the bridge since the day I was privileged to wear the MaSci graduation cap. But time has not dulled my memory of that special day. And that is how it should be.

Listening to another graduation speaker many years ago, I felt privileged and proud. Privileged because I was educated in a special school and proud because such an education was made possible despite my humble background, intellect and hard work. Since that special day, I have been back to MaSci many times and have reminisced with my classmates about our happy days here.

I hope that you too will have fond memories of your days here in our Alma Mater. I was therefore touched when I was invited to deliver the commencement speech with the theme “Sa Matatag sa Republika, Kabataang Manileño, Kaisa.” I want to connect this theme to “The Life of Science” and I hope that the Matatag na Republika will be based, not on the Filipino culture, but on the culture of science.

What is the life of science? The physicist Lise Meitner wrote in old age, looking back: “I believe all young people think about how they would like their lives to develop; when I did so I always arrived at the conclusion that life need not be easy, provided only that it was not empty. And this wish I have been granted.”

I wholeheartedly embrace this view. The life of science is not easy but it is also not empty. Meitner had to flee from her native Austria and from the Nazis so as to remain free as a human and as a physicist. But as always, freedom has a price; for Meitner, the price was probably the Nobel Prize. In the Philippines and other Third World nations, students of science scientists also have to flee -- not from a totalitarian regime but from a culture that is indifferent to science.

Filipino culture and the culture of science are incompatible. Filipino cultural values - puwede na, bahala na, ningas-­kugon, palakasan, palusot, “who you know and not what you know,” transparency and corruption are the antithesis of the cultural values of science-accuracy and precision, patience, persistence, fairness, transparency and integrity. Sadly, Filipino culture is a culture of mediocrity and science is a culture of excellence. In the Filipinos’ hierarchy of values, trapo and trapos which embody the Filipino culture of mediocrity is at the top while science and scientists which embody the scientific culture of excellence is near the bottom.

Notwithstanding this bleak reality, I remain optimistic. I have faith in the positive resilience of the Filipino youth. By resilience, I do not mean the negative kind - that of the pliant bamboo permanently and forever bowing before the wind. Conventional Filipino thinking interprets the resilience of the bamboo as a positive and commendable Filipino trait but in fact such negative resilience is defeatist and fatalistic and is part of the Filipino culture of mediocrity. By resilience, I learn the positive kind -- the resilience to stand tall and steadfast and to transcend the limitations of Filipino culture. It is the resilience necessary to endure and then to overcome the Filipino cultural obstacles of puwede na, bahala na, ningas-kugon, manana habit, palusot and other negative traits.

This then is my question and challenge to you as you look forward to your career and to the future: Do you have what it takes to live a full life and to transcend the limitations of Filipino culture?

This question and challenge is of fundamental and profound importance to me. I am convinced that Filipinos exist in a cultural prison. All the fundamental and destabilizing problems that the Philippines face today can be traced to an intrinsically wrong set of cultural values. As one prominent writer said: “Filipino culture is a damaged culture.”

In contrast to my bleak cultural assessment, I am utterly convinced that if the basis is only intellect, then the Philippines’ future is bright and promising. I believe that the Filipino youth is intellectual, able and talented and you the graduating class is a tangible proof of this.

Having looked and examined the intertwined issues of science, culture and intellect - what can we conclude that is meaningful and relevant to you, the graduating class and to our nation?

It is this: we Filipinos have allowed our dysfunctional culture to dominate our innate intellectual talents. This has resulted in severe fundamental problems for the Philippines and in a climate and environment that is indifferent and not conducive to science and intellectual pursuits. Filipinos are forced to leave the country in order to exercise their intellectual talents in more conducive and hospitable environments. Trapos, probably is the group that find the current situation in the Philippines most attractive.

So what is it that we must do to make a difference to our country and to our individual selves? We must individually and collectively end the domination by culture of the intellect and science and then reverse the process. Intellect and science must dominate Filipino culture. Trapo is an easy and empty life. Science is a hard and full life. And as Einstein said: Politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.


Class of 2003 of the Manila Science High School, I wish you full lives.
Congratulations and Thank you.

Labels: alma mater, CEO blog, commencement, Efren Ricalde, filipino, Life, Lise Meitner, Manila Science, MaSci, Ricalde, Science

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