The Indolence of the Filipino

The Indolence of the Filipino 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.