Articles

THE DIGNITY OF WORK

The Ilocano Low Profile of Economic Status, Self-worth and Self-esteem

With steady hands This is a local pottery factory in Vigan, Ilocos, Sur. With steady hands, this worker slowly molds the clay into its final shape. It usually takes 10-15 minutes to complete the shape of the product, after which it is dried, placed inside an oven to harden it, and finally drawn/painted with designs. The finished products can be bought at a very cheap price at the factory, but once released into the market, the price shoots up to 8 times its original value. These high-value products have to be safeguarded always at the factory.

T

ay la rigat ti adda. Awan pay maigatang ti tali nga pagbekkel", meaning "We have nothing but poverty, we don't even have enough to buy a piece of rope to hang ourselves." That is the standard reply of a typical llocano family, when asked, "How are you getting along with the rest of your family?"

But how come they have become role models of thrift and industry, of the love of work and their high sense of the value of work, work, work, among all the major tribes of our country? And was it not the great llocano educator, politician, and philosopher, Camilo Osias, who said, "To succeed in any line of work, one must love work. The second law of success is 'more work', and the third is 'more work'.

In his "Code of Ethics", Manuel L. Quezon stated, "Be industrious. Be not afraid or ashamed to do manual labor. Productive toil is conducive to economic security and adds to the wealth of the nation."

Gaby A. Mendoza in the March, 1990 issue of the "World Executive Digest, said "A society where a man's work is only an object of commerce carries within itself the cancer that will ultimately devour it. A community where men work only to earn money will lose its soul. The work of a man's hands and of a man's mind is his participation in the divine act of daily creation. It empowers him to touch, affect, nourish, improve, and enlarge the lives of others."

And that explains the llocano's love for work as separate and distinct from its economic value. Work to them is not a commodity, something to be bought and sold in the market. Their work is not mere merchandise.

The llocanos conviction that man must work not only to earn a living but also to live joyfully, to satisfy his most deeply rooted needs, to give free reign to his talents, release his creativity, participate in remolding his world, nearer to his heart's desire, enhance his human dignity and partake of the divine.

They must have recaptured the ancient idea that to work is man's nature, his need, his imperative, his life. They have realized that when man refuses to work, he also loses his capacity to live the virtuous life.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF SUCCESS

1. Work hard

2. Study hard

3. Have initiative

4. Love your work

5. Be exact

6. Have the spirit of conquest

7. Cultivate personality

8. Help and share with others

9. Be democratic

10. In all things do your best