Proud of the Pinoy
Proud of the Pinoy
Updated 11:17pm (Mla time) Nov 12, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE FILIPINO consumer's tingi or super-retail mentality, the bahay na bato whose adaptability to our tropical clime contemporary architects and homeowners seem to have forgotten, the "balikbayan box" and what it says about our relationships and aspirations, the all-too-Pinoy fondness for karaoke and song in general, even the popularity of soap operas on radio and television. What do all these have to do with Filipino culture?
Well, if your idea of "culture" has to do with elitist art and refinement, with established art forms like the opera, concertos, classical drama and ballet, with hoity-toity audiences and limousines pulling up the driveway of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, then perhaps you'd say: Why, nothing at all! But then you're probably the type who thinks culture is, as a friend once put it, "kool-chure," an arena of life accessible only to those who have had higher education, good breeding, social pedigree and exposure to the finer things in life.
But if your idea of culture is of a way of life, the sum total of habits, beliefs, behaviors, superstitions, preoccupations, history and heritage that make a people and a nation, then you might concede that anything uniquely and quintessentially "Pinoy" deserves to be included in a study of Filipino culture.
What is it that makes us, Filipinos, Filipinos? How do we explain ourselves not just to ourselves but also to our children and to the rest of the world? Most importantly, how can we be proud of our identity as Filipinos?
* * *
SCHOLARS of Philippine culture, history and society have long recognized that pride in the Filipino identity cannot be imposed but must evolve from an awareness of who we are and why we are that way. Nations with a strong identity, whose people are proud to be who they are and don't feel they owe foreigners any favors or obeisance, did not become that way by accident. Their institutions, especially their schools, systematically created a sense of nationhood by educating their citizens, from childhood, in their history, heritage and identity, thereby giving rise to a sense of shared destiny, a vision that everyone could take part in fulfilling.
That's where our institutions and leaders have failed us. Given the breakdown of the public school system, and the amazing persistence of the colonial mentality exacerbated by the emergence of overseas employment as the highest aspiration of most Filipinos, is it any wonder that there's little evidence these days of a sense of pride in being Filipino?
If we took national pride and Filipino greatness for granted, why then the proliferation of public service ads exhorting us to display the national flag, to be proud of our fellow Filipinos but especially those who have made good abroad, to bring out the best in the Filipino by doing our individual best?
Then again, some might argue, how can we be proud of being Filipino if we have yet to recognize what it means to be Filipino? How can we honor our culture as Filipinos when we know so little about it?
The debate could go around in circles until, as the native saying goes, the crow turns white. Instead of wringing its hands, though, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts decided to "bring" culture to Filipinos by way of a free publication called Tipong Pinoy, which comes out twice a month inside an issue of Libre, the free tabloid published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer for passengers on the LRT and MRT.
* * *
TIPONG PINOY bills itself as "Ang Dyaryo ng Masang may K," translated roughly as "the newspaper for ordinary folks with class." With articles written mostly in streetwise Filipino, with a dash of Taglish and English, it comes across as a breezy, hip, with-it publication (though its layout and appearance could stand some jazzing up) that tackles fairly serious, if not scholarly, matters.
Thus we have an article on the Filipino skill-or rather, gift-for what one scholar called "creative coping." Coming out in the middle of the storm over our "fiscal crisis," the article takes the reader back to past crises and then interviews sociologists and culture historians to explain how we have managed to lurch from one crisis to another without committing "mass suicide."
Ateneo professor Soledad Reyes, interviewed by writer Ces Rodriguez, attributes the Pinoy's resilience to our "sense of romance," to an abiding belief that life's problems will resolve themselves in the same way they work out in our stories, novels, movies and soaps: "good always triumphs over evil; a champion always emerges to defend the dispossessed; love conquers all; purgation rids the spirit of moral baggage; life is a cycle of sowing, reaping and above all thanksgiving."
It may not help our financial executives, legislators and number-crunchers find their way out of our economic mess, but such insights do soothe the anxious Pinoy soul.
* * *
ELSWHERE in Tipong Pinoy are articles on Filipino artists of note, traditional artists and craftsmen who are themselves living national treasures, and tidbits of our past. It even has a section called "Pinoy ka kung..." that presents superstitions and practices that only other Filipinos would recognize and understand. For instance, you are Filipino if: you don't want to have your picture taken when there are only three of you, because you believe the one in the middle will die ahead of the other two; you don't sleep with your hair wet because you might go blind; and you cut your nails only on Mondays, because to do so on other days of the week would bring on a toothache!
We laugh at such foibles even as we recognize them. But we accept them as simply part of being Filipino. And that is really where pride in one's own begins.
Updated 11:17pm (Mla time) Nov 12, 2004
By Rina Jimenez-David
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A15 of the November 13, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE FILIPINO consumer's tingi or super-retail mentality, the bahay na bato whose adaptability to our tropical clime contemporary architects and homeowners seem to have forgotten, the "balikbayan box" and what it says about our relationships and aspirations, the all-too-Pinoy fondness for karaoke and song in general, even the popularity of soap operas on radio and television. What do all these have to do with Filipino culture?
Well, if your idea of "culture" has to do with elitist art and refinement, with established art forms like the opera, concertos, classical drama and ballet, with hoity-toity audiences and limousines pulling up the driveway of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, then perhaps you'd say: Why, nothing at all! But then you're probably the type who thinks culture is, as a friend once put it, "kool-chure," an arena of life accessible only to those who have had higher education, good breeding, social pedigree and exposure to the finer things in life.
But if your idea of culture is of a way of life, the sum total of habits, beliefs, behaviors, superstitions, preoccupations, history and heritage that make a people and a nation, then you might concede that anything uniquely and quintessentially "Pinoy" deserves to be included in a study of Filipino culture.
What is it that makes us, Filipinos, Filipinos? How do we explain ourselves not just to ourselves but also to our children and to the rest of the world? Most importantly, how can we be proud of our identity as Filipinos?
* * *
SCHOLARS of Philippine culture, history and society have long recognized that pride in the Filipino identity cannot be imposed but must evolve from an awareness of who we are and why we are that way. Nations with a strong identity, whose people are proud to be who they are and don't feel they owe foreigners any favors or obeisance, did not become that way by accident. Their institutions, especially their schools, systematically created a sense of nationhood by educating their citizens, from childhood, in their history, heritage and identity, thereby giving rise to a sense of shared destiny, a vision that everyone could take part in fulfilling.
That's where our institutions and leaders have failed us. Given the breakdown of the public school system, and the amazing persistence of the colonial mentality exacerbated by the emergence of overseas employment as the highest aspiration of most Filipinos, is it any wonder that there's little evidence these days of a sense of pride in being Filipino?
If we took national pride and Filipino greatness for granted, why then the proliferation of public service ads exhorting us to display the national flag, to be proud of our fellow Filipinos but especially those who have made good abroad, to bring out the best in the Filipino by doing our individual best?
Then again, some might argue, how can we be proud of being Filipino if we have yet to recognize what it means to be Filipino? How can we honor our culture as Filipinos when we know so little about it?
The debate could go around in circles until, as the native saying goes, the crow turns white. Instead of wringing its hands, though, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts decided to "bring" culture to Filipinos by way of a free publication called Tipong Pinoy, which comes out twice a month inside an issue of Libre, the free tabloid published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer for passengers on the LRT and MRT.
* * *
TIPONG PINOY bills itself as "Ang Dyaryo ng Masang may K," translated roughly as "the newspaper for ordinary folks with class." With articles written mostly in streetwise Filipino, with a dash of Taglish and English, it comes across as a breezy, hip, with-it publication (though its layout and appearance could stand some jazzing up) that tackles fairly serious, if not scholarly, matters.
Thus we have an article on the Filipino skill-or rather, gift-for what one scholar called "creative coping." Coming out in the middle of the storm over our "fiscal crisis," the article takes the reader back to past crises and then interviews sociologists and culture historians to explain how we have managed to lurch from one crisis to another without committing "mass suicide."
Ateneo professor Soledad Reyes, interviewed by writer Ces Rodriguez, attributes the Pinoy's resilience to our "sense of romance," to an abiding belief that life's problems will resolve themselves in the same way they work out in our stories, novels, movies and soaps: "good always triumphs over evil; a champion always emerges to defend the dispossessed; love conquers all; purgation rids the spirit of moral baggage; life is a cycle of sowing, reaping and above all thanksgiving."
It may not help our financial executives, legislators and number-crunchers find their way out of our economic mess, but such insights do soothe the anxious Pinoy soul.
* * *
ELSWHERE in Tipong Pinoy are articles on Filipino artists of note, traditional artists and craftsmen who are themselves living national treasures, and tidbits of our past. It even has a section called "Pinoy ka kung..." that presents superstitions and practices that only other Filipinos would recognize and understand. For instance, you are Filipino if: you don't want to have your picture taken when there are only three of you, because you believe the one in the middle will die ahead of the other two; you don't sleep with your hair wet because you might go blind; and you cut your nails only on Mondays, because to do so on other days of the week would bring on a toothache!
We laugh at such foibles even as we recognize them. But we accept them as simply part of being Filipino. And that is really where pride in one's own begins.
posted by Dante at 10:15 AM
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