Pride.
A couple weeks ago, after the win of Pinoy boxer Manny Pacquiao, my feed reader was flooded with declarations of Pinoy pride. Suddenly, everyone and their mother was connected to Pacquiao because of shared nationality. Oh, yes, he's excellent at what he does because he is Pinoy, therefore, we are excellent in what we do because WE are Pinoy. Suddenly, we are not so ashamed of our nationality, and we announce it to the world (of Facebook, I guess).
After this came the terrible killings in southern Philippines when about a hundred armed men attacked a group of people on their way to file a candidacy, and the media people covering the event. These same proud Pinoys decried and condemned the massacre, they expressed their anger towards what happened. It's a horrible, horrible thing.
Be proud, Pinoy, for they share your nationality, too. They are terrible people capable of evil acts to destroy other human beings, therefore, so are you. Take responsibility for the things you are proud of.
One of the people on my list said something about how upset she was that this happened right after her announcements of Pinoy pride, that now, in fact, she is ashamed to say she is from the Philippines.
This has nothing to do with our Pinoy pride. Who gives a shit about the Filipino people's image? This is a violation at the very basic human level, Pinoy or no. People were brutally murdered.
Let's avoid further stereotyping people. What can we do to right this? How can we help?
If nothing else, we can start with ourselves.
Hey you know,this reminds me again of a talk I had with people at work. One of them said, "Of course we're ashamed, but we have to admit that it happened in our backyard!" Maybe it's just a matter of being proud to be Pinoy for the right reasons. Well, who shouldn't be proud that pacman is a Pinoy? But sad enough, especially in our pocket of the world, our countrymen seem to be proud to be thieves, hecklers, and the like. What makes it even more sickening is that outsiders take these goons at face value and think that we're like this and that.
ReplyDeleteI think the killings are a stark reminder that we have to change as a people and as a country.
CORALBEAD: I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that if I were to be proud of Pacquiao, it wouldn't be because he was Pinoy. It would be because of the hard work he put into becoming as successful as he is in what he does. Merely "being Pinoy" had nothing to do with it, just as with the massacres, their "being Pinoy" had nothing to do with the evil things they did.
We should change as people, as human beings. Only then can the country change.
I agree. In my case, I'd say, "be proud of being Pinoy whether or not there is Pac-Man and whether or not the Maguindanao Massacre happened in the Philippines or not." These are part and parcel of being Pinoy, but the thing is, who really gives a shit anyway? Que Pinoy or not, sa Pinas or not, we condemn what should be condemned and be proud of what we should be proud of. Melagi-lagid den oto na di ta bo maphagema so ped o di na sompat sa kaoyagoyag ta.
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