This hits the nail on the head. Filipinos have this thin veil of national pride, but they always wanna be someone else, either white/european with their “spanish” link, or japanese/chinese because of geography. They are some of the most ardent Christians you will find, but not because of a deep belief in christian doctrine, but because they are so eager to be associated with western culture and identity. And they ARE always sycophantically seeking confirmation and assurance that, hey, they’re just as European as any other European, or, hey, they’re just as Japanese as any Japanese person. They’re cheesy about everything too. They’re generally able to only pick up on the basest, cheesiest aspects of the cultures they soooo much want to be like. Take one example: Serenading. They love to serenade their girls. They think westerners will be so impressed with their ’sophistication’ in serenading…..its screwy. They have an insincere, overdone baroque politeness about them that seems more tactical than anything else. My advice, forget about being Spanish, or English, or Japanese. There’s nothing wrong with cultural transformation either and adopting things from other cultures into your own. But you should be first Filipinos, then these other things, and why do you always feel you need other peoples’ approval. Damn other people. People from India take a rich pride in their culture, so do people from Japan or China, or Germany, or Venezuala. When you talk to any other culture you can feel an intense passion for their culture, an sense of pride and confidence. With Filipinos you sense nervousness, anxiety, and desperation in their own identity. Bizarre.

No sense in discussing this with you, Bobby…you would never say those things here. I’m not Filipino but know that the real reasons why people mock so many of this heritage has more to do with no fixing errors than genetics. Do you need six cars when you only have two drivers in the house? Must you install a Santa Nino on each dashboard but then curse like a sailor when driving on the sidewalks and through red lights? Should you, the OFW, forget how to behave back home but follow every law while abroad? Is it possible for you, the guy making $200 a month, to stop making kids? When will you realize that ten sachets of hair products cost more than the bottle and don’t pollute as much? Can you live without texting for more than five muntes? Isn’t it better to get a job and try to act like an adult rather than sponge off Mom and Dad for forty years? Stealing utilities is not an art…it is a crime and you should stop doing it. Squatting on someone else’s land is not a Constitutional privilege, it’s laziness and shameful. Those are far more intersting and a whole lot less racist.

@SpinDoctor: Yeah, it really is messed up pretty badly over there, but I guess politicians are always going to be politicians, though I suppose Philippine politics is always going to be somewhat a comedy of errors, especially with Joker, Miriam, and Enrile doing some grandstanding. I think it’s a way of coping with the horrid state the country is in. I wish the Philippines could reset itself and start anew.

The foreign investors were invited to the Senate for what they expected to be a routine press conference to highlight the cooperation between nations. Instead Joker, Miriam and Enrile blasted those who attended. They shocked this nation by stating that foreign companies are given too many tax breaks and that the Philippines should do away with them. A few CEOs responded that they provide hundreds of thousands of jobs here, pay taxes and incredible utilities fees, donate huge sums philanthropically and invest in infrastructure for the betterment of the Philippines. They were met with raucous booing from the crowd (obviously planted by the Three Bumbleers) and told that they can take it or leave it. Well…Intel announced that they are closing a production facility, UPS will remove the terminal and relocate to China, two semiconductor companies announced that they will pull out at the end of their lease since the RP seems intent on punishing foreign investors. Joker went on to say that we still have the call center business and OFWs to carry on. I guess he forgets who owns the call centers. What an a-hole!

The sad fact of the matter is, there is something very, very wrong with Filipino culture. If it weren’t so, how else could you explain why our country is such a basketcase and has been such for pretty much its entire history. It boils down really to two things, related to how we Filipinos view our problems:

First, someone else is ALWAYS to blame for our problems, we are never responsible for anything. For example, I hear people complain all the time that it is multinationals, the evil Spanish and their colonization, the Chinese, Marcos and the Americans, etc who are the cause of Filipino poverty. From where I stand, the #1 cause of Filipino poverty is Filipinos. Take a look at our politicians. When Filipinos have no power, we are subservient. When we gain power, we are abusive a-holes. They are both sides of the same coin, think about it, it’s logical.

Second: Family members are always the #1 priority in an obscene and disgusting way that people in developed western countries will never understand. Our country is probably the only one in the world where criminal law forgives accessories to a crime because they are a relative of the offender. Yes, it’s true look it up. Nothing is too low or obscene so long as it is for the good of a family member, nevermind that such member is a 4th degree cousin because blood always beats nation ALL THE TIME. Why else did we accept the wife of a so-called hero as default president without benefit of an actual election? Right…

Anyway, you’re sick of negativity, I’m sick of your delusion. Wake the hell up and realize our country sucks, is a laughing stock in Asia and our culture is sick and it’s unhealthy obsession with the family retarded. Maybe one day when you wake up and the Philippines has become a colony of China you’ll finally realize that yes, we are terrible and we could have done better but now it’s way too late.

I don’t fault pride in ones nation…I take issue with misplaced pride. Cheering for Manny is cool. Thinking he is the best that ever lived is not. Supporting OFWs who are mistreated is noble. Asking for clemency for the ones who kill in foreign lands is not. Standing by one of your own when she claims to have been raped is laudable. Finding out that she was banging two different U.S. military personnel (each told they were exclusive BTW) when she went to a U.S. Marine bar to pick up another yet still supporting her is repulsive. Living the Rizal Code of Honor is amazing. Thinking that this nation is in trouble solely because of corrupt trapos is absurd.

The list of hypocrisy is endless.

Now, this dialogue is about the RP not other nations. I am not too silly to ignore the hypocrisies of my home nation. When that debate begins, I will happily contribute without misplacing my pride.

When Malu Fernandez wrote in People Asia magazine of her disgust with the behavior of OFWs, she was condemned. She was forced to resign from her newspaper and an ‘apology’ issued by her editors. It seems that many Filipinos are willing to mock others but God forbid anyone make fun of things close to their hearts. The hypocrisy is astounding.

That’s pretty much what these spammers did to my blog, really. I had to ban several flamers, including Olivia Gonzales and her cohorts because the attacks are off-tangent, crude, and paint an ugly picture of the undocumented Filipino immigrants the Filipinos in California.

Each nation, I believe, has its own list of “Awful Truths”—it just so happened that it’s so easy to poke fun at Filipinos, of course, because Filipinos [an oppressed people] easily get offended when they are made fun of. Then again, I see no hope for positive change. Not soon, anyway. However, it doesn’t hurt to try to boost the sense of pride once in a while.

You may call this a misplaced sense of national pride, SpinDoctor, and I might agree to an extent. However, if we Filipinos do not love and take pride in our country, nobody will. It may be an exercise in futility, but optimism is a good thing. However, thanks for taking time to post intelligent comments; they’re much appreciated.