The Missionary and the Libertine by Ian Buruma

Author:Ian Buruma [Buruma, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-82897-2
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-09-19T04:00:00+00:00

In Ermita, a former historian called Cruz, now “prostituting” himself for a multinational company, tells Ermita that

we are witnessing the slow demise, the gradual self-destruction of this nation. And we don’t need a foreign colonizer to do this. We are blissfully doing it ourselves.… Our entire educational system—and I am its product—is valueless. It is our creation. We cannot blame it for the fatal flaw in us. Maybe we deserve the darkness that is coming.

José’s rage seems at odds with the seemingly indestructible carnivalesque jokiness of the Filipinos. Yet it reflects a dark current that runs through their history, occasionally erupting in messianic zeal and violence. José is an urbane, witty, cosmopolitan man of the world, a pillar of the local PEN club, a gourmet and a connoisseur of art. He is not a communist, and voted for Cory Aquino. But his spirit is with the rebels in the hills, in whom he thinks he sees the latest incarnation of his Indio ancestors, still waiting to exact their blood debt from the mestizos who betrayed them.

1989

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.