BACKGROUND OF THE INDOLENCE OF THE FILIPINOS

Sobre la indolencia de los filipinos ("On the Indolence of the Filipinos"

in Spanish) is a socio-political essay published in La
solidaridad in Madrid in 1890. It was written by Jos Rizal as a response to
the accusation of Indio or Malay indolence. He admits the existence of
indolence among the Filipinos, but it could be attributed to a number of
reasons. He traces its causes to factors such as the climate and social
disorders. He defends the Filipinos by saying that they are by nature not
indolent, because in fact, even before the arrival of Spaniards, Filipinos
have been engaged in economic activities such as agriculture and trade.
Indolence therefore has more deeply rooted causes such as abuse and
discrimination, inaction of the government, rampant corruption and red
tape, wrong doctrines of the church and wrong examples from some
Spaniards who lead lives of indolence which ultimately led to the
deterioration of Filipinos values. In the end, Rizal sums up the main causes
of indolence to the limited training and education Filipino natives receive
and to the lack of national sentiment and unity among them. Education and
liberty, according to Rizal, would be the cure to Filipino indolence.