From Generational Discord to Global Accord: Path for Sustainable Future

Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine that you are being re-born in this world - imagine looking around with a fresh perspective and a profound desire to make something out of your life. Imagine harboring a fervent yearning to unravel your talents and discover what makes you human and what your limits and capacities are. Imagine that intense need and imagine how, once you bumped into the reality around you, your aspirations are crushed by the deplorable situation you suddenly found yourself in. Suddenly – priorities changed, hope turned to disillusionment, idealism transformed to compromise, and that will to push life and your senses to the fullest has petrified along the periphery of your hardened heart.


This is how a fraction of the generation of today – trapped in the vestiges of economic difficulties, social unrest, and political pandemonium – feels. As it turns out, we do not need to imagine after all – we are living it. Betrayed by the past generations who passed on to us a long and winding string of conundrums and quandaries – our life has been infected by the lingering poison ingested by others only to be spread out to unassuming and innocent people. Indeed, some of us feel cheated – being born in a world that is adorned, ironically, by a cornucopia of obstructions to living the kind of life we want, nay, we deserve.

I was born and grew up in a country where the double-edged legacies of the previous generations are still enduring. In the Philippines, and I believe it is the same elsewhere, every single child that is born is automatically expected to take part in the payment of our state’s escalating foreign debt. He will set foot in a public primary school where teachers are not paid well and some are not even competent in their job. He will be expected to learn in school and be educated since education is deemed to be a key to escape poverty. He will be taught that he should work hard so that he could get the kind of life he wants when he grows up. But he will be asked to share a single textbook with ten other students, cramped in a tiny classroom – how can we expect these kids to learn and hone their abilities? If he is lucky, he will set foot in secondary school and hopefully in the university. Nevertheless, once he is outside the walls of the educational institution, the sinking reality creeps in even more. It is a jungle out there and jobs are lacking. Soon he will realize that all he needs is a personal connection, not a diploma, not a proof of competence, to land on a job in the civil service. If he manages to get a job on his own, he will be underpaid, overtaxed, and without any health insurance. He will work in a mediocre company all his life just to feed his family and send his kids to school – he will bear in his kids’ minds the same ideal that his parents taught him, again, because education continue to be perceived as a way out of poverty. However, the cycle did not end. In fact, for many Filipino families, the cycle of poverty does not end. We are born in a society where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is as if the society has been structured by the ceding leaders to ensure that the political and economic elites will remain in control of the country.

In the Philippines, once you turn on the television or read the newspapers, you will see the news of how a gang of prominent politicians connived with each other to trick the populace and divert public funds – the product of hard work, sweat, and blood of the common people – to their owns pockets. Totally appalling! In a recent expose, an infamous member of a political dynasty in Metro Manila bullied and sacked two security guards who were only doing their job and implementing the law! Another high official was caught in camera dismissing the plight of hundreds of thousands of people who were affected by the super typhoon on account of personal discord among political clans. The House of Representatives has long been the abode of political dynasties and inept actors turned useless politicians. These are the people who rule our country – the people who are supposed to help the nation develop. They made the decisions before, they make the decisions today, and in the future their decisions will still matter and will still affect the lives of millions of young Filipinos. How can we expect these people to think of the future if their short-termed priorities are only confined to their own greed?

The current president of the Philippines rose to power promising to be effect meaningful change in our corrupt and rotten political system. In front of the millions of Filipinos who were desperately hoping for change, he vowed to lead a virtuous road to governance. He proclaimed that the people are his bosses and that he will dedicate his term in the service of the Filipino people. That promise was made three years ago. Today, as I reflect on the plight of my Third-world country, I am crestfallen by the lingering fact that nothing has changed: the corruption is still high, poverty still is looming, and the recent inefficiency of relief action to help the typhoon victims still screams of a weak government. Half-way to his term, nothing really has changed and now the people have stopped pinning their hope to the empty promises of this man who claimed to be the son of a martyr. I am disheartened but the worst part of it is that I am not surprised. Administrations come and go in the Philippines. In the beginning, they all say the same things promising change and 100% service to the people. They all end in the same rut. Corrupt administrations emerge and fall only to give way to another corrupt administration. It is a vicious cycle. It must end. Now.

As a historian, I understand that the past is not dead – in fact the past is living with us and the young people of today are bearing the impacts of the past generation’s mistakes. The policies made by our past presidents shaped our current context and yes, our predicaments. This is not to say that the past generation is the only one to blame – societal problems do not appear overnight, they are grounded on historical contingents. Nonetheless, I understand that to move forward, we need to look into what transpired in the past and identify the roots of our society’s problems. I understand that the way to move forward is also premised on our ability to look back. So, look back. Where have we lost our way? How did we get to this point? We can start from that. Needless to say, the answers to those questions are equally complex as the questions themselves. But hopefully, once the arena for discussion is opened, then clearer path towards strategy for resolutions will follow.
I believe, at the very core of this generational discord is the lack of a vision – a vision of a sustainable future. We have to understand that the decisions we make today – from the most mundane (as throwing away a plastic bag) to the most critical (as a bilateral economic trade agreement) will define the future. It is important that we ask what kind of future we are building with our decisions. This may sound very simplistic – but I believe it is also very important that this is raised. What kind of future do we want? As a historian and student of history, I believe that in order to bridge the problems in generational contract, it is of utmost importance that we agree on a sustainable future – a future that can be enjoyed well not only our generation but also of the generations ahead of us. It is difficult to imagine a long and distant future because of the multitude of problems that are haunting us right now – it is as if we need a quick fix, never mind tomorrow, que sera sera. But simultaneous with our attempts to cure present illnesses, there should be a genuine effort to ensure a sustainable future for our world. Alongside our efforts to curtail the impacts of economic recessions, there must be a continued effort to promote food, human, and environmental security – a holistic and integrated framework for sustainable and secured tomorrow.


An underlying premise that weaves the network of political, economic, and social issues that plague our society is the lack of integrated and comprehensive regional or even global plan towards sustainability – what is direly needed is a global commitment to a sustainable development and therefore a sustainable future. States think of their own states and governments think of their own governments. We have erected modern states to organize our societies but the as the nature of our societies change, we should also take into account that we are not only responsible to our own people – we are responsible to the whole of mankind, even the generations to come. The rise of nationalism and the solidification of a common national identity, language, and values are relevant historical movements – but they are also contingent. In the international arena, there is a growing realization that most of our current problems do not remain within state borders – they are transnational, transborder, and trans-continental. People cross borders more today that we ever have imagined. People are transitory, shifting from one place to another, and more and more people are not attached to any country at all.

This change in lifestyle is very telling – borders matter less now. It is imperative that we cultivate a yearning to transcend boundaries and formulate policies that are global in scope and long-term in perspective. The past generations have emphasized the importance of states – and yes states do matter – but the transformations in the dynamics of the human relations in our contemporary world calls for a novel view – going beyond the lens of the state and out and forward to the world.

There is no universal remedy – a panacea – to this whole gamut of quandaries. There is no one-size fits all formula to the pressing problems we are in. In my humble opinion, from the perspective of a simple young adult from a middle class family who struggled through school and was immersed in the string of sordid reality of inequity, poverty, and oppression, the gap between generations, the failure of the past to ensure a better future, and the unrelenting degeneration of the Philippines, will not be resolved by purely political policies. In fact, it will not be resolved by one policy – but we should start from somewhere. If we want to bridge the gap between generations, what we need is to polish the tools that we will need to build a sustainable future. Blaming or putting fault to anything or anyone – be it the government or the past generations – will not change the present but recognizing past mistakes will widen the possibilities of our future – perhaps a better and brighter future. So, we start with the basic steps: honing the capacities and skills of the present generation; inculcating within them a moral vision of the future; and finally to shape a community of young change makers committed to abide by the principle of magnanimous leadership. Capacities are shaped in the classroom – I strongly believe that if we invest in the young minds and if we equip them not only with the necessary skills but also with the right vision to guide their actions and behavior, they will acquire the tools they need to build a strong society for the future. Yet, capacities are nothing without the correct vision – so teach the youth with the values that do not erect barriers but stimulate collaboration, cooperation, and solidarity among all peoples from differences ethnicities and different sectors. The era for promoting rigid and aggressive nationalism must come to an end – our world today prospers on connectivity and linkages. We need global leaders and not nationalist leaders. Finally, our present problems cannot be resolved by mere politicians or economists or political scientists – what we need to produce are magnanimous leaders – leaders who are capable of listening to both the heart and the brain; leaders who are prepared to empower the society instead of empowering themselves; leaders who value innovation, creativity, and sustainable development.

Needless to say, we have a long way to go in terms of restructuring our societal framework – but we also have it takes. One small step at a time.