FILIPINO-ISM: A Perspective of Philippines from an American Blogger

        

"Filipinos: Don't try to be more like us, try to be more like YOU. I believe what the world needs now is more of “you,” not more of “us".”

I think this is the best line from Nathan Allen’s open letter to the Filipino people posted on his blog A Foreign Blogger's Letter to the Philippines. Hearing a foreigner encouraging another nationality to be 'more' like themselves seems downright wrong but could be educating, like a parent to a child. Filipinos love to imitate western culture and all the 'dreams and luxury' it pertains. And it is refreshing to hear from a foreigner who must be very proud of his race and his big country but despite of that, he still persuades a small country with a 'colonial mentality' to think on their own, to stand on their own.

We Filipinos are cheerful and hospitable in nature, especially to foreigners, and I was not surprised to read a blog of an American falling in love with our country and our people.

I should have titled "FILIPINO-ISM: A Bright Perspective of Philippines from an American Blogger" but I removed the word bright because I really am not totally happy with his total perspective, despite the fact that many Filipinos who have read the article seems to like it very much. Though he expressed his love for the country and its people, he also stated that,

"Sadly, perhaps due to colonization and other factors (I'll get to these later), the Philippines may have established itself as a country full of "small minds" - people that were discouraged from being ambitious, and kept from their potential. Those in power wanted to keep it that way, and to some extent I believe it's still the same today."

       
      I beg to disagree. No one has the right to call the Philippines as a country full of 'small minds'. The Philippines have produced a lot of ‘small people’ with ‘great minds’. Statesmen, diplomats, scientists, authors, etc. The best example is Gen. Carlos P. Romulo and Sen. Miriam Defensor- Santiago. If Mr Allen failed to recognize that, then he should have done more research about Filipinos before screaming to the whole world that Filipinos have small minds just because a Filipino friend of his told him that he thinks too much. That is a blatant hasty generalization.

            Our thinkers, unlike Americans, are not always in the limelight. That is the reason why we have very few known intellectuals. And we don’t always over-sensationalize things.

I would like to correct him with this when Filipinos ruminate or pondering over things, they do it privately. Filipinos are highly sociable people, and they don’t like to ruin a moment shared with a friend just because he wants to contemplate over an idea that was boiling inside his mind.

Being a colonized country before is never an excuse for us not to be proud. Printed in our exported products is "Proudly made in the Philippines." Slogans everywhere in the country are "Proud to be Pinoy", "Proudly Filipino", It's more fun in the Philippines." Surely, nobody can't say that it is not enough? Purely breed of Filipino musicians? We have Lea Salonga and Charice Pempengco. And yes, no one could miss mentioning our beauty queen delegates (the list is too long to mention).

And yes, we do take problems and tragedies and injuries lightly (well, of course except for the serious ones). And that is the reason why we don’t need therapists. But if he thinks that just because we took it lightly doesn’t mean that we don’t really care. That we don’t worry. I would like to say this: we think, but we do not overthink. We worry, but we do not overworry. It is all about bravado and trust. We believe that he/she can overcome any pain and sufferings alone. And all the jokes and unmindingness are supports in disguise, to lift somebody's spirits up. It is an encouragement, to smile despite all  the miseries and tragedies. Reminding somebody of his/her miseries is a completely bad idea.

 That is the reason why you can still see the smiles both in the children's and adults' faces after largely suffering from wrath of typhoons and flash floods.

Bayanihan

Re: Consumers and copycats. I might agree that media has a lot to do with this. It happens anywhere in the world, in any culture. The emergence of pop culture. Clearly, Mr Allen really failed to recognize that. And if I'm going to use his tact (hasty generalization) I would really love to say that Americans are hypocrites. So you mean consumers? Copycats? Arent’ you one of the biggest consumers of the world? And yes, where is your originality? Hmm. That made me wonder.

I really appreciated the fact that he made a tremendous effort of writing an article about my people, but I would appreciate more if he won’t write and give an opinion on something that he does not completely understand.

Euphemism is customary to us. It is very polite to keep rude things to ourselves. Despite the fact that we are family oriented, we usually do not share what we always have in mind, especially if it is something unpleasant. What we Filipinos love to share are love, kindness, happiness and joviality. I am pretty sure that every culture and race in the world share the same values, but maybe it is how we show and express it that is totally eccentric to foreigners. It is already inculcated in our culture. That is Filipino-ism.

“Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” - Robert Louis Stevenson