Life is better than we think

In the yearlong celebration of Manila Bulletin’s 125th anniversary, let’s pause to look back with clearer eyes and realize how far we have come

Do you realize that this paper in your hand, or this essay you are reading on the screen of your smartphone on mb.com.ph, was established only four years after the Philippines’ most revered hero, José Rizal, was shot at Luneta? 

Yes, Manila Bulletin first saw the light of print on Feb. 2, 1900, right smack in the middle of the Philippine-American war, which raged on from 1899 to 1902. The war, along with the resultant famine and diseases, claimed the lives of 20,000 Filipino combatants and nearly 200,000 civilians.   

We are a people drawn to memory. It is in the way we gather around stories told and retold, in the way a familiar song can bring us back to places we thought we had left behind. Yet memory has its way of smoothening rough edges. We imagine a time when life was simpler, gentler, slower. We speak of days when letters were written by hand, and afternoons stretched long under quieter skies. It’s tempting to believe life was better then, untouched by the speed and noise of modern existence. But this yearning, however poetic, often forgets the burdens those times carried.

Maybe there is truth in that longing. But as Manila Bulletin celebrates 125 years since its first issue in early 1900, it is worth pausing to look back with clearer eyes.

At the turn of the last century, the world was a different place. In the Philippines, life expectancy, due to food shortages, diseases, and the war, barely reached beyond 25. Childbirth was often perilous. Diseases we now consider minor could claim lives without warning. Medicine was still finding its way. Today, what was once fatal can be treated with a visit to the pharmacy or a call to a doctor. We live longer, not just in years but in the quality of our days.

I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it … and forget not those who have fallen during the night! —José Rizal 

In 1900, news arrived by ship, carried over weeks and months. Now, a message can circle the globe in seconds. What was once the privilege of a few—the right to information, the luxury of education, the vastness of human thought, the meanderings of Proust, or the science of the cosmos—is now within reach for many, often at whim, therefore often taken for granted. Knowledge no longer waits on the shelves of distant libraries. It sits in our pockets, travels with us, moves as quickly as we ask it to.

Look too at the freedoms we hold. A century ago, vast swathes of the world lived under colonial rule. Many voices were silenced by circumstance or law. Women could not vote. Many Filipinos lived at the beck and call of foreigners, their aspirations for independence still distant dreams. Today, though the road remains uneven, there is movement. Conversations once whispered are now spoken aloud. Mental health issues, once hidden in shame, for instance, have emerged into light, inviting compassion and understanding. Justice comes slowly, but it comes.

Of course, modern life has its discontents: the ceaseless pings, the rush, the overstimulation. But these are challenges of abundance, not scarcity. We must learn to wield technology as a tool, not a tether. The quietude we romanticize from the past is still ours to claim—in early morning walks, in pages turned slowly, in the lull between waves crashing on the shore.

There are those who say life has become too fast, too crowded, too loud. There is some truth in that too. But this speed has also meant connection. During the pandemic, it was technology that kept us speaking, seeing, holding on to one another across the distance. We have gained much, though not without cost. The challenge now is not to retreat into nostalgia but to choose presence amid the noise.

When we look back at the pages of Manila Bulletin across these 125 years, we find stories of a world in motion. Wars and peace. Progress and setback. Sorrow and celebration. Through it all, Manila Bulletin has borne witness. And in witnessing, it has reminded us that history is not just what was but what is becoming.

The gentleness we seek is not behind us. It is here—in the morning light, in the conversations we choose to have, in the moments we decide to slow down even when the world rushes on. 

Life is better now. Not perfect, but fuller. Not simpler, but richer. The past holds its lessons, and we carry them forward. What matters is that we keep looking ahead, eyes open, heart steady, grateful for the journey that has brought us here.