I found something in my mailbox this morning that I thought might help provide a few folks who are in the business of noisily proclaiming what amounts to no more than a hollow pride in “Being Filipino” with a bit of perspective.
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
“You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
“Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”
The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”
“Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !”
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ‘Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.
You could have heard a pin drop.
Since time immemorial, stories abound about how this and that Filipino was subject to incidents of being talked down to in a condescending manner. Whether our susceptibility as a people to this kind of treatment is fair or unfair is beside the point. The more interesting question is this:
Do we have some kind of achievement to speak of that we can draw upon to respond to such condescension (whether unfair or not OR perceived or real) in a dignified and understated manner?
Note again how (as always) I choose the words I use insightfully. We need not look hard to see instances of Filipinos going off on silly warpaths at the first sign of a perceived slight against our cherished “national pride”. It’s all over the news, in our politicians’ hollowheaded sloganeering activities, and infests the Filipino blogosphere. Indeed, this onion-skinnedness of Filipinos is so very well-observed and cannot be denied. Unfortunately this cultural condition of ours is so rarely documented. The last treatise of consequence on the subject is Clarence Henderson’s seminal work, A Savage Journey to the Heart of the Pinoy Dream written waaaay back in August of 2002.
The solution is quite obvious.
When we reflect on what it means to be “proud to be Filipino” we only need to ask ourselves a simple child-like question:
What specifically about “being Filipino” should we be “proud” about?
Only when we can answer the above question with quiet understated dignity can we truly consider ours to be a great society.
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benign0,
one of the variations of your passionate thesis of Pinoy culture of simple-mindedness and their being low-life creatures that can evaporate anytime on the face of the earth without being missed except perhaps by some european perverts and western tourists looking for cheap fun and flesh…
ironically, you were right and this is tragic too.
Pinas claim to fame? It has to be pe-yop-le Power and respect for the constitution :smile: :grin: :evil: and abilidad.
in that story you quoted, do you think the american was right for saying that to the french immigration officer?
or was he just an ass?
gabbyd, of course the american was right if he was indeed a former soldier who helped liberate france in 1944.
the first time i was in paris, i did not have to show my passport either. why? because i was in transit on my way to milan. i only stayed at de gaulle airport for a few hours.
anyway, to address benigno’s topic, i also think over-sensitivity is a unique feature of pinoy nature. i’m not a psychologist but it seems to me that the syndrome is an obvious cover-up for insecurity or “inferiority complex”. it doesn’t matter if the subject is wealthy, educated, famous or a legend in his own mind. remember the stink that was raised when frank drilon was asked to remove his shoes at a u.s. airport on a visit after 9/11? how about that “desperate housewives” episode that was perceived to have made “derogatory” reference to pinoy doctors? I think the problem is we take ourselves too seriously more than we deserved to be taken seriously by others.
a clarificatory question:
“I think the problem is we take ourselves too seriously more than we deserved to be taken seriously by others.”
the problem is we take ourselves more seriously, more than we deserve?
what is the level of seriousness that we deserve to give ourselves then?
i don’t know the exact “level”, gabbyd. but i bet it’s less than what we want others to “give” us. maybe, we can cope better globally if we can only learn not to give ourselves too much importance. well-adjusted, self confident people usually are not perturbed or bothered by slights, real or imagined. perhaps some may fight or sue (if the insult is palpable and malicious) but not cry like a baby in public.
i am just thinking if our over-sensitivity is related to our being clannish. we surely would not protest if a filipino would spew the most vitriolic comments about our attitude, but would certainly be slighted if a foreigner makes the same pejorative remark about us. its like a quarrel between a husband and a wife. they can call each other the worst adjective but would be slighted if a neighbor would but in and says each of them was right in the description they have ascribed to each other.
“What specifically about “being Filipino” should we be “proud” about?”
Well, I’m a Filipino citizen, that alone is enough reason to be proud about “being Filipino”, just as the Kano are proud being American, the Intsik (including those living in Ongpin esteros.) of being Chinese, the Indonesian, the Thailander, the Fijian, so on….
I don’t know how to do a Gravatar, but if I do I will not have my head hung in shame for being a Filipino like BenignO did in his Gravatar.
You always like this?
Wants some jokes, I got some fur ya. Theme is about hearing the things we seldom listen to.
Ourselves. So have fun.
Guy comes home, sits to have dinner with wife and kids. Then announces at the dinner table the bad news “I was fired today” Everybody heard the wife and her gears churn. Wreeeowree eew.
Try this with a .357 Magnum, no not on your ear, but waive it inside BPI Taft Ave, and say “Holdup to!”
I guarantee you will hear everyones thoughts. The teller says OMG WTF. the faggot paying a Merlaco Bill says hmm wonder how he looks like with only the mask, the loan officer said is that about the car loan? The Bank Manager thinks..is he joking? The Guard had invectives.
Heard that Vilma Santod is Governor of Batnggas, and Sarah Palin is Governor of Alaska, and that both are fond of wearing glasses, and are milfs.
Heard that Sarah Palin has been tagged, and released into the wild.
Enough.
Filipinos have already invaded France. Cava? Tes bien.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAdal53PKmk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49LBrMmJU4c
Try watching a couple of episodes of South Park and you will cringe at how they directly ridicule Canadians, Mexicans, Jews and even Jesus Christ. But I haven’t heard any Canadians, Mexicans Jews and even the Catholic Church complaining.
It is the epitome of being proud to be Filipino when you are able to let these things pass knowing they are not true and knowing that no one will believe them.
It is because of utter shame that we protest so vehemently at the slightest offense. Because we know there is truth in what was said. And because we fear that the whole world will know that truth.
well if i could hear the pin drop, i’ll pick it up and prick the immigration officer with it.
wake up. it’s an american joke. the condenscension is made on french. you know, world’s savior.
right! however, benign0 (i think) believes that there is a deep lesson here that he wants to share.
The deep lesson Benign0 wants us to share is that Filipinos are condescendingly elitest ignorants who has no accomplishments in life-altering inventions.
Imagine, to my dismay, this papered-Filipino from America came down to Pilifinas and explained to my white consultant that FLOURESCENT was named after the Filipino inventor Mr. FLORES.
Puta! Kakahiya!
TIP OF THE POST: To know the solution is to know the problem. Filipinos cannot know the problem because they shoot down the messenger.
renato,
With less vitriol and spelling horor, I am getting to admire you now. :)
JCC and all bloggers and commentators,
I’m aware of my attrocious spelling and syntax errors. My fingers cannot type as fast as my mind.
If I go back and proof-read, my post would lose steam and essence. :)
in that case, go on with whatever is comfortable with you. :)
An interesting segway of Philippine bashing from an anecdote about D-Day.
Well, you can’t really expect much from disaster-prone country and what you call a string of ‘volcanic islands’ in the Pacific, could you?
I dunno. Those who stay may or may not have a sense of pride, but we like it here. You know: our own place to trash. Can you do it there, Aussie boy? :)
Or, probably we are just plain masochists. Or maybe, we cannot get a visa to leave the country. :)
Well, a converse question could be: what has the Philippines done to you to make you so bitter about the country?
Down with Chinese Chauvinism!
In the mid of furor, may we also pause and contemplate why
our country was branded as “A Nation of Servants”? Why millions
of us have to leave family behind and work abroad?
Apology from HK Magazine is not enough. We should press further for the personal apology of Chinese Chauvinist Chip Tsao. On our part, we must also stop throwing all racial invectives against ALL the Chinese in general, otherwise we will be seen as behaving barbarously the way Chip Tsao does in the eye of foreigners. Obviously from the responses, there are also Filipino-Chinese who stand up to attack Chip Tsao and defend our maids in Hong Kong. Amid the furor, we should also pause and ponder why our country was branded as “Nation of Servants”. Why millions of us have to leave our family behind and work abroad subject to the discrimination and oppression of foreigners. This does not happen only in Hong Kong. Frequently reported are news of Filipina being raped by Arabians so forth and so on. And even our medical practitioners are being degraded in the dreamland of Filipinos that is USA! Cool Please!
There is mob anarchism in the webs. Many are hurling invectives at the Chinese in general like chinks, yellowrace, Intsik Beho Tolo Laway (I thought this libretto has been stored in the museum), just because of that one Chinese Chauvinist In Hong Kong called Chip Tsao spoiling the broth. Even Lucio Tan and Henry Sy were not spared from this tirade. Suffice to say that anti-Chinese sentiment is still deep-seated in the Pinoy’s psychic which has its historical root in the Divide and Rule policy of the Spaniard. Racial hatred, when provoked, runs wild and irrational. Pinoy nowadays are everywhere in the world. Their perspective of Chinese should have been global, but sad to point out that many of them still can’t distinguish Chinese of many ramifications. There are Chinoy, HongKonger, Taiwanese, Singaporeans, Malaysian Chinese, Mainlanders, American Chinese etc which are of different cultural up-bringing albeit their ancestral origin is Chinese. Please don’t attack ALL Chinese with One Single Stick. With that you are mounting the same racial slur you have chosen to lambaste and yet we can not earn respect as a people in the international community by the same way Chip Tsao is inflicting upon us. Our image deteriorates further by doing so!
Erichan,
You would want Cheap Taho treated with kid gloves after insulting our nation? He started this brouhaha with his foul-mouth, why be parsimonious with our own full foul-mouth in return? Are you Chinese?
Our maids went to Hongkong to work and they worked well. They did not go there with a parapernalia of “shabu-making” to make money by ruining the future of these Chinese kids. Your Chinese compatriots came to the Philippines put up shabu factories in some parts of the country and tried to make money the most vicious and cabal ways.
Early Chinese got foothold in the Philippines by exploiting the locals. They morphed into successful businessmen centuries later and with their newfound money they bribed corrupt Pinoy politicians and judges to continue their domination of the country and the economy. Pinoys have their own share of fault, that I can be sure of.
Shit, you can shove your “judicious temperament” right your own ” a _ _ but I shall continue my tirade.
DOWN WITH FILIPINO CHAUVINISM!!!! Liberate the housemaid from virtual slavery! Liberate the Filipinos from the light-skin, whites and foreign looking Filipinos!
THEN AND ONLY THEN IS THE TIME TO BASH HONG-KONGESE!!!
DUH! HOW OBLIVIOUS, BLIND AND IGNORANT! Filipinos are nothing but stuck-up, degenerate, low-iQ-3rdworld-asian-reoigious trash!