RAISE your hands if you still remember most of what your teacher taught in your history class. Personally, outside of March 16, 1521, and June 12, 1898, I can hardly remember anything from my history classes.
Today, the Order of Sikatuna is the highest award the government can give to a diplomat for fostering the growth in the relationship between the Philippines and their country.
I have always maintained that travel, movies and music are three ways for individuals to learn their own and others’ history and culture. It should really never be based entirely on books and the forced memorization that goes along with it in school.
I rarely travel outside Metro Manila but when I do get the chance, I try to get myself literally lost in the streets and buildings of wherever I am to get a better feel and understanding of the place. It also allows me the opportunity to learn its history.
With music, I get to learn about world events and struggles of nations and individuals like no book can. The songs get me intrigued and push me to learn more.
Heck, even Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” was, at some point, used in schools around the United States to teach history to students. Read the lyrics of the song and tell me how many of them you know and understand.
As for movies, there are historical movies, biopics and films based on true to life events. To me, they are more vivid and inspiring than any of those history books I ever touched in school.
Late last week, I was able to watch Japanese film director Masato Harada’s Kakekomi at the Shang Cineplex. It was the opening movie for this year’s instalment of Eigasai.
Although I was confused during the first five minutes of the movie, as I did not really know what it was about, at the end of it, I came out of the theater fully satisfied at what I just watched.
The movie was set in 1841 during the Edo period of Japan and centered on three women who were fleeing their husbands for one reason or another.
During that time, women would run to the Tokeiji Temple in Kamakura for refuge. Inside the temple, they would live a monastic existence for two years along with women who have suffered from their husbands.
After two years, a divorce will be finalized between the women and their husbands through an arbiter.
The Tokeiji Temple has been credited for having provided shelter and a fresh start to over 2,000 women. In Japan back then, husbands can easily divorce their wives, while the wives have a tougher time before they can legally separate.
So, that got me thinking. Even in the 19th century, some women were already getting a raw deal in what were supposed to be their happily ever after. Men can, at times, be really cruel to women.
And it was simply amazing that Japan during that period, has places where women can find shelter and protection from abuse.
Now, if you were wondering, what was happening in the Philippines during that same period? Well, we were still in a bloody revolution against Spain. That is a given.
However, in particular, the Philippines was having the Religious Revolt of Hermano Pule. If his name does not ring any bell, well trust me, I hardly know him or the events that landed him in the history books either.
But from what I have read, his real name is Apolinario de la Cruz, with his revolt lasting from May 1840 to November 1841.
You see, back then, there were two types of priests in the country. The parish priest who were Filipinos and the religious priests who were Spanish and controls all religious powers. Think of a university now and the religious orders that run them and you will get the picture.
So as you could have predicted, all hell broke loose when Pule organized the Confraternity of Saint Joseph, his own religious order.
With people joining Pule from several provinces, the Spanish government had to send troops to break up what Pule started. In November 4, 1841, Pule was executed by the Spanish government in Tayabas.
So, while women in Japan were fighting for their rights, Filipinos were fighting for religious freedom.
Ah, religion and marriage. They go hand in hand here in the Philippines. Outside of the Vatican, our country is the only place in the world where divorce is not allowed.
And why is that so? Well, I guess it goes back to the Catholic religion Spain brought into the country. Since then, religion has been placed in the center of Filipino families’ lives, with divorce, even if it will do good, is something that should never ever be discussed and let alone considered by married couples.
I do not want to even go into a debate about religion, but here is the thing for me. In Harada’s movie, the three main characters were gravely abused by their husbands in varying forms, including public humiliation.
If these events can happen in the 19th century, imagine what men can do to women these days? Ideally, marriage should last for the rest of our lives. But what if the fairy tale, at some point, turn into a nightmare? There should be a way out of it for both parties, especially the women.
Albay Representative Edsel Lagman seems to have a solution. He recently filed House Bill 116, which, when passed into law, will allow absolute divorce here in the country.
Under the bill, some of the grounds for absolute divorce include sexual infidelity, alcoholism, drug addiction, marital abuse and attempt against ones life. That sounds fair enough.
If Japan, 175 years ago, can find a way to provide a new beginning for abused women and have their husbands live a separate peaceful life at the same time, why cannot the Philippines do so today?
Just asking.
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Image credits: Roy Domingo