What defines your nation? Posted by Stancy , Monday, February 6, 2012 at 10:00 AM, in

Last Friday, I was going through the books about different countries in the library and ran into a book about the most dangerous countries in the world. I scanned through the book out of curiosity on what dangers the author have encountered and which countries were included. The author/s wrote about the different sicknesses and diseases you could accumulate from different countries; the weapons being created or used in those different countries; and many different facts I believe of whatnot dangers you could encounter. In short this is a pretty scary book so if you're easily scared because of the negative facts throughout the book. Not wanting to waste my time going through all the stated "dangers" of the different countries I decided to check out what the author had to say about my countries of interest--most especially what it had to say about the Philippines.

Though I was not born in the Philippines, growing up in that country as a half-citizen helped me develop great love and knowledge about it. Sometimes I feel like I know it more than I know my birthplace. As I was reading what the author was relaying about how dangerous the Philippines is my heart grieved for a couple of reasons. First, I grieved for how the Philippines was described in a way that an ignorant person about the Philippines would not want to consider going to the country. Unless that person is brave enough to face it's "danger". The second thing that I grieve for is that too many negative is relayed and no positive about the Philippines was relayed. Again a foreigner might perceive very different and could forget their desire to discover the country. No matter how dangerous the Philippines could be, there are many good counterpart to it that makes it a wonderful place to live in. Third is the reality that struck me that the Philippines and any other country can be as dangerous as it could be because people are sinners. Danger could be or is available anywhere as long as man remains selfish enough to steal, rape, murder, covet, and any other danger resulted from selfishness.

If you value safety, do you think you are contributing to making your community, or your country a safer place by rejecting selfishness and choosing to care? Or are you the person who choose to contribute to the danger of the world by not choosing to care for the needs of others above your own?

How would you want your country to be interpreted by others? What would you want your country to be defined as? You choose. Every individual of a certain country plays a big part in defining their nation.