a korean national wrote an essay about filipino people not loving their country, the philippines; thus poverty.
i might say it's mostly the leaders of this country. they hold the utmost power to make and let the betterment of the people's lives happen. our presidents have been all over the world and perhaps would book a flight to the moon and jupiter to let our country known. but, essentially, what can we little citizens do? i would say A LOT. it's not that we don't love our country.
i love the flamboyant costumes of our folk dances here. i love fiestas and secretly, i am proud of the respective annual festivals held in every province in this country. dinagyang. sinulog. mascara. they could be equated to the mardi graz of brazil. where else can we dip green mango in shrimp paste? i love the diversity of languages spoken in different subcultures and even more so, the power of tagalog that brings us all together in times of calamity, even entertainment..
filipinos love their country. they are always proud of their town of birth. friendster and facebook among others will attest to that. i was once asked by yet another korean guy why filipinos don't have dreams. i literally gaped to the question. the only sentence that came out of my mouth was, "we do have dreams." that time, we were at a restobar he favored. he was impressed by the food and the way the place appealed to him. so i asked him back. "the owner of this bar is a filipino. if he hadn't had dreams of putting up a bar like this, would you have this bar to come to so often?"
and what about small scale businesses such as sari-sari stores? turo-turos? don't the owners of these businesses dream of sending their children to better colleges? and don't their children want to find better jobs here or abroad as a way to repay their parents' hardships for them? [by the way, working abroad doesn't mean you don't love your country].
yes it is true that [probably] the majority of us are below middle class but that doesn't qualify us for not dreaming and not loving this country. it is true that we have what foreigners from developed countries might call, "ghastly" streets. and it is true that less privileged people live along these streets. and it is true that they might even have had little-or if not, no education at all. but just to note, the philippines is not the country any foreigners who come here is accustomed to. surely, they would notice a lot of things which they are so unaware of also exist in where they come from.
so, with my little knowledge about other nations, why are there streets or villages in america where outsiders fear to tread? think about it, it's america. so these local americans don't love their country as well? some of them can't even tell where america is on the world map.
a month ago or so, i went to the iloilo museum. as i was looking at the almost worn out balck and white photos, i paused in wonderment. my mind lingered at the thought that filipinos had been colonized for so long that they had almost lost their sense of identity as a race, as a nation. but there they were, standing proud in the photos as their fellow countrymen had shed tears and blood just to win back the freedom and independence denied of them for the longest time ever. surprisingly though, the filipinos now never hold grudge against the peoples who for so many times enslaved and maltreated their ancestors.
in the museum, i noticed that many of the buildings in the photos--magnificent and depicted power--are still standing in the streets of iloilo city today! but where is the power that they once radiated? how long has the much more powerful stench of garbage around them reigned?
now, could i do anything about it? you? your high school or college social science teacher? could anyone? aren't we just mere citizens? we need a leader.
surely, the government has done many a great thing to improve the lives of many filipinos. i have taken note of scholarship programs, tree planting and river cleanup projects among others. but still, why the protests? [occasional?] upheaval? filipinos may not be perfect but they they are intelligent enough to sense what kind of leader or government they are under.
think of this an analogy. adolf hitler had all the power to shut anyone up. so do we really believe that all of his nazi soldiers never showed compassion to the jews? after all they were just all humans, weren't they? yet what could they do? they were merely tiny specks in hitler's bigger world.
if there were a movement or a project to renovate the buildings down in calle real, i wouldn't hesitate to spare some of my time to volunteer. after all my father was a carpenter, and we still have his tools at home.
i might say it's mostly the leaders of this country. they hold the utmost power to make and let the betterment of the people's lives happen. our presidents have been all over the world and perhaps would book a flight to the moon and jupiter to let our country known. but, essentially, what can we little citizens do? i would say A LOT. it's not that we don't love our country.
i love the flamboyant costumes of our folk dances here. i love fiestas and secretly, i am proud of the respective annual festivals held in every province in this country. dinagyang. sinulog. mascara. they could be equated to the mardi graz of brazil. where else can we dip green mango in shrimp paste? i love the diversity of languages spoken in different subcultures and even more so, the power of tagalog that brings us all together in times of calamity, even entertainment..
filipinos love their country. they are always proud of their town of birth. friendster and facebook among others will attest to that. i was once asked by yet another korean guy why filipinos don't have dreams. i literally gaped to the question. the only sentence that came out of my mouth was, "we do have dreams." that time, we were at a restobar he favored. he was impressed by the food and the way the place appealed to him. so i asked him back. "the owner of this bar is a filipino. if he hadn't had dreams of putting up a bar like this, would you have this bar to come to so often?"
and what about small scale businesses such as sari-sari stores? turo-turos? don't the owners of these businesses dream of sending their children to better colleges? and don't their children want to find better jobs here or abroad as a way to repay their parents' hardships for them? [by the way, working abroad doesn't mean you don't love your country].
yes it is true that [probably] the majority of us are below middle class but that doesn't qualify us for not dreaming and not loving this country. it is true that we have what foreigners from developed countries might call, "ghastly" streets. and it is true that less privileged people live along these streets. and it is true that they might even have had little-or if not, no education at all. but just to note, the philippines is not the country any foreigners who come here is accustomed to. surely, they would notice a lot of things which they are so unaware of also exist in where they come from.
so, with my little knowledge about other nations, why are there streets or villages in america where outsiders fear to tread? think about it, it's america. so these local americans don't love their country as well? some of them can't even tell where america is on the world map.
a month ago or so, i went to the iloilo museum. as i was looking at the almost worn out balck and white photos, i paused in wonderment. my mind lingered at the thought that filipinos had been colonized for so long that they had almost lost their sense of identity as a race, as a nation. but there they were, standing proud in the photos as their fellow countrymen had shed tears and blood just to win back the freedom and independence denied of them for the longest time ever. surprisingly though, the filipinos now never hold grudge against the peoples who for so many times enslaved and maltreated their ancestors.
in the museum, i noticed that many of the buildings in the photos--magnificent and depicted power--are still standing in the streets of iloilo city today! but where is the power that they once radiated? how long has the much more powerful stench of garbage around them reigned?
now, could i do anything about it? you? your high school or college social science teacher? could anyone? aren't we just mere citizens? we need a leader.
surely, the government has done many a great thing to improve the lives of many filipinos. i have taken note of scholarship programs, tree planting and river cleanup projects among others. but still, why the protests? [occasional?] upheaval? filipinos may not be perfect but they they are intelligent enough to sense what kind of leader or government they are under.
think of this an analogy. adolf hitler had all the power to shut anyone up. so do we really believe that all of his nazi soldiers never showed compassion to the jews? after all they were just all humans, weren't they? yet what could they do? they were merely tiny specks in hitler's bigger world.
if there were a movement or a project to renovate the buildings down in calle real, i wouldn't hesitate to spare some of my time to volunteer. after all my father was a carpenter, and we still have his tools at home.
