There has been a few Filipinos catching limted world attention lately courtesy of the internet marvel YouTube. Arnel Pineda becoming Journey’s lead vocalist, Charice Pempengco guesting at a popular US TV show and the Philippines being credited as the origin of the new dance craze Papaya.
Randomly check the comments on the videos and you’ll see praises in various forms and level but with all practically proudly proclaiming the world-class and unmatched talent of the Filipinos.
And this is where the problem lies. Or this is where the issue is. At least to me, I believe.
I have no argument with Filipino talent. It is patent and proved. It is how this talent, so abundant and so rich, is used and where it has brought now us as a people that perplex me. If we are truly a talented people, why are we so behind other countries who do not have a Pempengco, a Pineda, or a Salonga, or beauty queens, or boxing champs?
Sadly, our claim to fame and world-class talents is matched only at home by massive poverty, repression, and mass exodus of workers.
We sing praise in unison to a copycat singer yet remain dumb and deaf to a stealing and murdering illegal president. We marvel at a high-notes-hitting-Dion-Houston- wannabe- teenager’s guesting in an American television yet remain cold and indifferent to the abduction of a press freedom icon.
We take pride in having all these so-called world class entertainers who continuously ape foreign artists but we haven’t developed our own music. I would like to think of how Bob Marley and reggae music of tiny Jamaica has contributed for example.
We claim to have a chef in the White House yet we cannot even have mainstream restaurants in the US despite the fact other nationalities who have lesser population have managed to do so, like the Thais, the Greeks and even the Afghans.
We pride ourselves on being the best care-givers and nurses, a sad tale that is a different story by itself and requires a different page, yet our people’s health resembles that of a sickbed.
We insist on using the English language, no matter how ridiculous we may sound and appear (take a bow Janina San Miguel) arguing it is the passport to success and progress, when all it has given our people are call centers and not real industrialization.
We claim to be the home of the world’s most beautiful women for having beauty contest title holders when this only perhaps speeds up further the global traffic of our women.
We are the origin of People Power yet we are ruled by a fake, criminal, corrupt and lying president.
Our world class talent rings hollow and our claims to fame fall flat in the face of stark realities.
Quo vadis my countrymen?
14 April 2008 at 9:28 pm |
>>If we are truly a talented people, why are we so behind other countries who do not have a Pempengco, a Pineda, or a Salonga, or beauty queens, or boxing champs?
Maybe it’s because we use up all our time complaining about things instead of doing something to rectify them.
14 April 2008 at 9:55 pm |
Sadly, our claim to fame and world-class talents is matched only at home by massive poverty, repression, and mass exodus of workers.
I don’t know why you insist on straining to make a connection between these talented Filipinos who get worldwide attention and our political/economic/social problems. Are they mutually exclusive? Should we stop being proud of them because we have problems at home?
We sing praise in unison to a copycat singer yet remain dumb and deaf to a stealing and murdering illegal president.
Seriously, are we living in the same country? Have you no idea what’s going on around you? No one is dead and dumb to corruption in government. We’re all too aware of it. And really, you need to get over Arnel Pineda’s success.
We take pride in having all these so-called world class entertainers who continuously ape foreign artists but we haven’t developed our own music. I would like to think of how Bob Marley and reggae music of tiny Jamaica has contributed for example.
What is our “own” music, pray tell? Does it necessarily have to be about the “painful laments, heroic struggles or rich stories” of the Filipino? Does it have to be played on tribal gongs? If so, you have a very narrow conception of culture and identity.
Culture is more than a set of values, beliefs, symbols, meanings, institutions, and behaviors shared by a certain group of people. Culture is not merely a noun, it is also a verb. Culture is something that people do, something they’re constantly engaged in, and it’s in a constant state of flux. The culture of a people will not always be what it has been since time immemorial. Culture is a dynamic process. It is a contested process of meaning-making. Culture is what people make it to be, and people are not always in agreement over what it is and what it ought to be (which is precisely why I am replying lengthily to this post, because though we were both Filipino we don’t agree over what that actually means). Cultural identities are not bound or static: they are dynamic, fluid, constructed situationally, in particular places and times. As conditions change, cultural groups adapt in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable ways.
Filipinos today are so much more than the tribal people in g-strings who were living in huts in the 16th century when the Spaniards first arrived in archipelago. They’ve been colonized several times over and have learned and absorbed many things from their colonial masters, as well as from their various trading partners over the centuries. And because of this people accuse the Filipinos of having no culture of their own because it is an amalgam of so many different cultures.
But that’s precisely what Filipino culture is, it is the unique way that Filipinos have combined various their influences and applied them to their everyday lives.
I don’t know why some people are obsessed with the idea of returning to the “uncorrupted” or “original” Filipino culture. This implies that the more we return to what is native and the more we abolish what is foreign, he more truly Filipino we become. To loosely quote Nick Joaquin, is culture simple addition and identity subtraction? Peel away all the accumulated layers of foreign influence and we’ll end up with the true basic Filipino identity?
Change is necessary for survival – organisms, people, nations must either change or die. You can’t change without incorporating new things. You can’t come up with all these new things by yourself. Just because someone else thought of it first, is that reason enough to reject it? Is where it came from more important than what it can do for you? Should we abolish all Western practices? Should we do away with Democracy, modern medicine, electricity etc. because they aren’t indigenous to the Philippines?
Filipinos have embraced many aspects of western culture and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If we identify with these cultural elements, if we apply them to our daily lives, then we have claimed them and made them ours. Japanese Anime, for example, is distinctly Japanese, but it got it’s inspiration from American cartoons, specifically Mikey Mouse and Betty Boop. I admit that, particularly in our pop culture, Filipinos tend to copy from other cultures wholesale. But I see this as the early steps in a process of development. Going back to the Japanese, before they were making their own electronics, they were copying wholesale from the Americans. After a while, when they mastered the technology, they began to innovate and develop on their own. That’s just how culture is. It’s a learning process and there’s no shame in learning from someone who’s better at something than you presently are.
We claim to have a chef in the White House yet we cannot even have mainstream restaurants in the US despite the fact other nationalities who have lesser population have managed to do so, like the Thais, the Greeks and even the Afghans.
There are Filipino restaurants abroad, and perhaps they just need a little time to hit the mainstream. Many foreigners enjoy Filipino food, and my friends and family abroad have told me that the Filipino restaurants they dine at are also frequented by foreigners. A friend of mine who recently married a Canadian and moved to Canada is considering opening her of Filipino restaurant and deli there. I’m sure the idea has occurred to some other Filipinos as well, perhaps the business opportunity for them to do so has not yet presented itself. It’s not like a significant number of people have ventured into the business in failed, so I don’t think the absence of mainstream Filipino restaurants in the U.S. at this particular point in time merits any lamentations from you or for anyone. Sounds to me like you’re just grasping at straws for something to feel culturally inferior about.
We are the origin of People Power yet we are ruled by a fake, criminal, corrupt and lying president
“Even Westminster – the so-called Mother of Parliaments – took well over a hundred years to elect its predominantly middle-class, non-landed House of Commons. As late as 1841, individual votes were selling for between £4 and £15; and electors were subject to bribery, intimidation and every species of undue influence.” (Former House Speaker Ramon Mitra, 1999)
We are a very young democracy. People who complain that it’s taken us so damn long to get it right lack a sense of history. It took the developed countries of the west centuries to make their democracies work, and even today they still aren’t perfect. We haven’t been a democracy for even century, and we’ve actually achieved in decades what other countries took much longer to achieve. (Because we have the benefit of learning from their experiences, among other things.)
We can have democratic institutions (laws, political structures, etc.), but unless we have a democratic culture (civic virtues), it’s really not going to work.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame just the people in government for our problems. It’s everyone’s fault, from the politicians to the ordinary Filipino citizens.
“If liberty and equality, as it is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” (Aristotle, Politics)
Aristotle viewed citizenship as consisting not of political rights, but rather of political duties. Citizens were expected to put their private lives and interests aside and serve the state in accordance with duties defined by law. He explains that the ideals of democracy are only completely realized when every member of society shares in its governance. The very essence of democracy is self-governance, and, therefore, an effective democracy requires a civically responsible citizenry.
“I have given proofs as one who most wants liberties for our country and I continue wanting them. But I put as a premise the education of the people so that through education and work, they might have a personality of their own and make themselves worthy of liberties. In my writings I have recommended study and civic virtues, without which redemption is impossible.” (Dr. Jose Rizal, Manifesto)
Civic virtues are habits of personal living that are considered important for the success of a community. A civically responsible individual is one who “recognizes himself or herself as a member of a larger social fabric and therefore considers social problems to be at least partly his or her own; such an individual is willing to see the moral and civic dimensions of issues, to make and justify informed moral and civic judgments, and to take action when appropriate.” (Dr. Thomas Ehrlich, Civic Responsibility and Higher Education)
Until ordinary Filipinos are able to live up to that standard, no matter who we put in office the Philippines will not be a functioning democracy. We’re not there yet, but we’ve certainly come a long way since the beginning of Philippine democracy in 1935. There are examples of well-run communities (a good number of them are cities) in the country. Marikina, Naga and Davao are just some of the more famous examples. Less famous examples would include Lanuza Bay municipalities in Mindanao and Pandan in Antique. Examining these cases should give us a more nuanced view of Philippine society (actually, societies) and the potential for genuine democratic politics.
We insist on using the English language, no matter how ridiculous we may sound and appear (take a bow Janina San Miguel) arguing it is the passport to success and progress, when all it has given our people are call centers and not real industrialization.
I’ve already said what I have to say on the use of English, and you have yet to respond to my point. Also, do you suggest that because the use of English has not brought us instantaneous economic success that we should abandon the endeavor to improve our command of the language altogether? That makes no sense.
14 April 2008 at 10:38 pm |
“We insist on using the English language, no matter how ridiculous we may sound and appear (take a bow Janina San Miguel) arguing it is the passport to success and progress, when all it has given our people are call centers and not real industrialization.”
Dapat tinagalog mo na lang sana!! Nag-English kapa!!
15 April 2008 at 3:39 am |
We claim to be the home of the world’s most beautiful women for having beauty contest title holders when this only speeds up further the global traffic of our women.
Please show me the evidence of a statistical correlation between beauty pageants and the trafficking of women
19 April 2008 at 3:51 am |
We take pride in having all these so-called world class entertainers who continuously ape foreign artists but we haven’t developed our own music. I would like to think of how Bob Marley and reggae music of tiny Jamaica has contributed for example.
We have tons of our own music, dude. The Philippine music scene is very much alive and vibrant. Perhaps it isn’t as globally popular as say, Canto-pop, but then so what? Zimbabwe has some brilliant musicians — this is a fact — but we don’t hear a lot of Zimbabwean music on the radio.
It’s pointless to talk about whether we have our own sound. Like it or not, the music here is what it is. It makes many people happy. _THAT_, and not any academic notion of ‘high art’ or ‘national identity’ is the _ONLY_ measure of the value of music.
6 May 2009 at 11:25 am |
The ONLY measure of the value of music is if it “makes many people happy?”
If this were truly that simple, then songs that deal with societal ills – “angry” songs that have demonstrated their power to inspire millions to actively participate in trying to change, for example, a patently abusive and repressive state of affairs brought about by widespread corruption – should be considered worthless?
Most artists in the music business may be in it for the financial returns promised (but hardly ever guaranteed for the artist) by an industry that has its audience hooked on escapist fare, but using the art form for a purpose OTHER THAN just as a convenient delivery system for the sonic equivalent of Ecstasy is by far the more relevant and pressing pursuit, ESPECIALLY given our present context. Regrettably, such music loses out to the “happy” variety when tastes and sensibilities are exposed to overt and covert manipulation from forces both inside and outside the industry.
Naivete is a dangerous trait to entrench in a culturally immature environment. It usually makes people happy at the cost of critical insight.