Our pastor aka life coach last Sunday was quoting a certain Japanese who, some time ago, declared that same line after seeing the treasure house of natural resources that is Mindanao, the southernmost part of our island. I googled up the source - and could find only the same quote told anecdotally in a few blogs.
That imagery is again part of a quote - and I first heard it decades ago from my uncle, the Roman Catholic bishop of Maasin. I didn't understand the context then as I was barely in high school, and ideas of our vast natural resources being wasted by neglect or indifference were the farthest thing from our mind.
What did make me pause long enough through that dinner was his quote of an American businessman who had visited us during that time - and this was in the middle 1970s. My uncle said that the Yank had gone to some of our provinces and left shaking and sighing. Apparently, he told my uncle, "You people have no idea what you've got down in your country. The kind of waterfalls you got - they can generate enough electricity to light up Manila - for free."
A poor boy totally clueless about the wealth lying around in his own backyard. When do we wake up?
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