My column for today is Happiness is a ham .
On a more serious note, Newsstand first brought it up: its been two decades since James Fallows wrote A Damaged Culture: A New Philippines?
I was supposed to speak at the Asian Institute of Management on the subject but the symposium took place at the time I got sick.
My Arab News column, How Fallows’ Essay Gutted Morale of the Filipinos, contains my initial thoughts, originally for the paper I was going to deliver. This is a work in progress, but I thought I’d put the ideas forward, now.
N.B. James Fallows blogs at The Atlantic.com.
And Conrado de Quiros on the endurance of feudalism.
Technorati Tags: ideas, philippines, society
“what if the origins and the enduring ability of that mentality is because, prior to western colonization, asian colonization here brought slavery and it endured, because the slaveholders have endured, too?”
Manolo, this was 400 years ago.
tonio,
I guess there are places where that’s a problem and places where it’s not. So I don’t think we can make a generalization about the whole thing.
After reading James Fallows’ essay, it seems very little has changed; in fact, some things have gone from bad to worse. “This is a country where the national ambition is to change your nationality” is truer today than it ever was. And this sentence, “Still, for all the damage Marcos did, it’s not clear that he caused the country’s economic problems, as opposed to intensifying them” can easily be updated to “Still, for all the damage GMA did (and continues to do), it’s not clear that she caused the country’s economic, social, and political problems, as opposed to intensifying them.”
tonio,
as you know, we are a very multi cultures, culture within a culture. so, we have all kinds of groups among ourselves, like the Circulo Ilongo, the Negrosanon, the Ilocanos, etc. and within the Ilongos, there are the Miaganon, Alimodiananon(ours)and Passinon,and about a dozen more. Too many parties to attend to. But in short we are doing fine in the most diverse city in Canada…and Filipino stores and restaurants everywhere, now you pick your favourite.
Notice lot of newcomers, especially the family class of independent immigrants. and a lot of tales and stories, some i already have some idea, some i must confess, truly ignorant. learning a lot from them.
But maybe one good thing that can come about with GMA’s “intensifying” (see my above comment) is that these problems are being more exposed; the sheer brazenness of this administration’s misdeeds is forcing more people to look at things more closely and see things more clearly: a sort of “awakening” if you will. Maybe we’ll finally get to the root of some of these problems. (Of course, GMA still has to go and be held accountable.)
Then again, a lot of people see the rotten situation and conclude that the situation’s hopeless, better just pack up and leave, or if you can’t, then every man for himself, why even bother trying to change the nation’s bitter fate, again, when it is, again, already hopeless. So… sigh.
‘I guess there are places where that’s a problem and places where it’s not. So I don’t think we can make a generalization about the whole thing.’
It’s not location but generation. Older Filipinos usually can’t get along. The younger ones are usually ok.
here is the british definition of hate crime:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-victims/reducing-crime/hate-crime/
and there is a pretty extensive list of how various countries have defined hate crime in their laws:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime
essentially, the need for a specific category of crime was inspired by the wholesale persecution of jews, gypsies, and homosexuals by the nazis and ethnic cleansing in more recent years.
Of all the unethical things Butch Dalisay has done to me, this must be the worst. If for some reason I get a virus or a death threat in my email, I’m going to sue him immediately. This person underestimates me based on my rather flagrant lack of grace (my own description).brian
Brian,brod,i have read you blog entries in Manolo’s blog.They make sense to me.BUT,relax lang,it’s full of angst and bitterness.ateneo days?
brian, it doesn’t matter if it was 400 years ago. the british are still exploring the effects of the norman conquest 900 years ago, in terms of the class system in britain and their language, etc.
my main point is, you have to go beyond the spanish conquest, because the more people study our society, the more it seems a tremendous amount of our culture survived that conquest. which is not to say the spanish conquest didn’t inflict its own evils, but in the case of your particular antipathies, it would seem to me productive to look into how things may be more deeply-rooted, particularly because by no means were the mestizos as thoroughly entrenched here as they were (and are) in latin america, where only now, 200 years after independence from spain, are places like peru and venezuela emerging from mestizo dominance.
here at home, world war 2 and the marcos years essentially destroyed mestizo influence and the wholesale migration of mestizos began at the end of world war 2. the revival of prominence of a few mestizos under the present government is not a wholesale restoration.
mlq
thanks for the links on hate crimes
BrianB,
Did Mr. Dalisay wrote that?
Re: F. Sionil Jose. I agree on Jose’s point of view that the oligarchs have fucked up this country. In short, I agree with his politics. But right politics doesn’t automatically translate to TRUTH as we know it in art or literature. Jose for all his literary efforts (bejesus, I’ve bought and read all of his Rosales novels and his short stories) could never equal the grace of say, a Nick Joaquin or the simplicity of truth in Gilda Cordero-Fernando or the wit of an Adrian Cristobal. All his novels combined, sadly, would be trumped by even a single chapter from Noli-Fili. What ails Jose’s works? I don’t have any problem at all with his English — I find his realist style with the absence of modernist and post-modernist ek-ek very reader-friendly. It’s basically this: He lets his ideology gets in the way of his literary vision. It’s just like saying that Gary Valenciano’s music suffered because he took his being a born-again Christian as the sole end of his being an artist. True artistic vision is singularly free of any ideology. When you read or listen to a music that’s ideology-driven it doesn’t feel as freeing, but rather, you feel weighed down in the mind with no outlet, which is different from feeling weighed down when you read Greek drama or Shakespeare’s tragedies, because after a while, there’s a sense of catharsis, or freedom. That doesn’t mean that an author must renounced his political beliefs or values. Consider the Russian author A. Solzhenitsn’s work whose One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch and Gulag Archipelago were written as indictment of Stalin’s communist rule in Russia and compare it with Jose’s. The Russian author’s topic was singularly political, but they came of as works of art, because the author was not ideology-driven, but simply, human truth-driven. Also, I could almost always sense Jose’s bitterness in the tone of his novels. His works are almost always depressing especially — and seriousness of topic doesn’t mean that the reader must end up depressed. An exception though! — his novel Poon, especially the last chapters where he masterfully created the Battle of Tirad which was neither sentimental or bitter. I loved that!
Cat,
“I believe you misunderstood Maslow’s theory
Really, so educate me.”
Try reading Maslow again. Maybe self esteem is a greater motivator than the need to belong.
MB, under the criminal code of Canada, Hate crime is defined from this copied and pasted CBC on line news…
NDEPTH: HATE CRIMES
What is a hate crime?
CBC News Online | June 2004
The Criminal Code of Canada says a hate crime is committed to intimidate, harm or terrify not only a person, but an entire group of people to which the victim belongs. The victims are targeted for who they are, not because of anything they have done.
Hate crimes involve intimidation, harassment, physical force or threat of physical force against a person, a family or a property.
Sections 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada address hate crimes.
Under Section 318, it is a criminal act to “advocate or promote genocide” – to call for, support, encourage or argue for the killing of members of a group based on colour, race, religion or ethnic origin. As of April 29, 2004, when Bill C-250, put forward by NDP MP Svend Robinson, was given royal assent, “sexual orientation” was added to that list.
Section 319 deals with publicly stirring up or inciting hatred against an identifiable group based on colour, race, religion, ethnic origin or sexual orientation. It is illegal to communicate hatred in a public place by telephone, broadcast or through other audio or visual means. The same section protects people from being charged with a hate crime if their statements are truthful or the expression of a religious opinion.
The law (subparagraph 718.2(a)(i), to be specific) encourages judges to consider in sentencing whether the crime was motivated by hate of: the victim’s race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation or any other similar factor.
The act itself have many sub sections, but general definition is covered under the above headings..
so far not many, less than half a dozen been charged and convicted, usually the preachers of Genocide and those who until now denies the Holocaust.
I don’t know if the U.S. has similar Hate Laws, but I believe it has…
mb, my reply to your last question is under moderation..pls be patient…thanks
Madonna, yes:
pardon my wrong grammar folks, i.e. wrote = write; came of == came off
If you mean the quote above, yes. Go to his blog penmanila
This guy also defamed me in one of his columns, titled “Manners.” He didn’t publish my entire letter to him but instead took it apart and called me a wannabe and worse.
Here’s my response to “Manners”:
To tell the truth, I was friendly when I first wrote to him, usually just exchanging links. But he turned really opaque when I asked some tough literary questions. I suppose being the patient guy that I am I did what I culd to elicit a true response to my questions, ie. “Why are prominent Filipinos, with the exception of Jose, not published abroad?” I thought this was an important question, give that most Filipino writers use English with an instant access to a worldwide audience.
Huh, please explain yourself. Ateneo days?
MB, following the definition of Hate Crime (still under mod) a crime committed against a homosexual is a crime committed against the whole group, the same if the court found that the crime is hate motivated, a crime against a chinese or a japanese or a filipino could be considered a crime against the whole race or group. so consider the ramification if after the criminal proceedings, the civil suits follow…
BrianB,
Hmm, interesting. I’ll do check out Mr. Dalisay’s blog. Maybe, he’s sensitive to “tough literary questions” because he’s a bondafide academic, complete with a Ph.D. Y’ know… can’t bear us literary peasants doing the asking. In short, BrianB, perhaps he got rather intimidated with your questions.
I agree with you — “mannered style of writing” is for amateurs, not for the real writers — except of course when this style has come to be distinctively personal or unique to the writer.
I also believe that we should own the English language, much like Indians has owned it (lo and behold, many, many Indian writers are getting published in London or New York) and this perverse debate on whether writing in English necessitates mastery of the language must stop. Funny, how in the academia (esp. in UP) this is still a source of paralysis, where literary theories run amok among say for as you brought it up, the more relevant aspect of writing about the “Filipino soul”.
dear manolo et al.–so sorry to intrude on a more interesting discussion of “fallowship”, but having seen my name brought up here by (hay nako) brian brotarlo, apparently a regular visitor of yours, i feel obliged to share a message i just sent him. this will be the first and the last time i will be posting on this subject here.
for the record, i don’t know mr. brotarlo, have never met him, and am quite amazed that he can be so attentive to my writing 😉 i have a feeling this won’t end here, but since this way off-topic, i suggest that anyone who wants to say anything to me (good, bad, whatever) can write me instead at [email protected]. here goes–and again, my thanks and apologies (i’m usually a nicer guy than this–i think–but it must be the lateness of the hour…. 😉 )
Dear Brian,
I will do you the one courtesy of this one personal letter, which you can circulate all you want wherever you wish–I’ll even consider that a favor. I’m not sure why I’m spending time on this when I’m up to my gills in work, but then I think I owe it to you–and more than that, I owe it to me.
You speak of “ethics” like you owned the word, but you have consistently misrepresented and misread what I have written since you started e-mailing me many years ago. I don’t know if that stems from a lack of intelligence or plain malice, but it’s become a bad habit of yours, and I want no more part of it. Instead of conducting what could have been a genuine and fruitful discussion about vital literary issues, you choose to foam at the mouth and revile people whose work–despite all the names you drop–you simply don’t understand. You once even went off on a tangent accusing me of saying something that, er, my good friend Mr. Yuson did. What kind of scholarship is that? I have your letters, Brian (sorry, I’m an inveterate pack rat). I’d like to delete those, too, but I think not yet.
You make it sound like you treat literary prizes with Olympian disdain (and I can respect that stance of people who’ve kept their hands clean of the Palancas and such), but you whined like a dazed puppy about perennially losing the Palanca–or did the disdain come from the disappointment? What was it exactly that you said? (Or maybe, again, it wasn’t you, but someone masquerading as [email protected], in which case, please accept my apologies.) On August 26, 2002: “I think more important for Filipino writers is to get beyond writing for the Palanca. Unfortunately for me, most of my work is not palancableâ€â€there is such a thing. Something to do with sex, sex, sex, and this age’s ‘dynamic morality’â€â€yes, there is such a thing. I end up writing one month in a year solely for the Palancas. (My main work goes to the New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly’s trash bin.) It also looks like I didn’t win again this year, and, honestly, this confounds me…. All the winners in last year’s short story in English are awful.†Really, now?
You claim on Manolo Quezon’s blog (poor guy) that you and I “move in the same circles,” but how come I’ve never met you, nor heard your name mentioned even once–whether positively or negatively (not even negatively? what does that say?)–in all the seminars, workshops, courses, and conferences I’ve attended? Of course I don’t read everything and can’t know everyone (and as Charlson Ong and I like to remind ourselves with a laugh over beer, we’re all “legends in our own minds”)–but how and why is it that there seems to be a whole new and lively generation of young writers just writing cheerfully away and getting published not just in magazines but in books, and you’re not one of them? Why am I hearing about published writers ten years younger than you? If I’m not writing creatively today as much as I’d like to it’s because I’m punch-drunk trying to earn a living (and so I can buy my toys) and teaching others how to write; what’s your excuse?
So you got published in Story Philippines and in a Hong Kong magazine called Dimsum–congratulations, and may you publish more. Why can’t you be as gracious when other Filipino writers–even those not quite to your tastes–find larger audiences than yours? Is this about them, or really about you and your personal failures and stored resentments? We all fail sometime, Brian–the difference is most of us move on and just try harder and better; others stew in their misery and seek to drag others down to that same rut. Back when it meant the world to me, I lost four Palancas in a row after winning my first one; it’s a silly thought now and real heartache then–but I didn’t let that embitter me and drive me to find some poor sod I could hang my bad vibes on, or to go off on an “I hate Nick Joaquin and I love F. Sionil Jose” binge. (Remember what you said about Frankie Jose? I don’t think he’d mind, he’s a big boy–he confronted Danton Remoto last week and said “You don’t like me!” before giving Danton a smile and an avuncular hug. You wrote: “Maybe I feel the same way you feel about Jose’s work–I can definitely do better, if only people would see it my way…”) You definitely can do better, Brian–by writing more stories, quietly, and spending less time on these tiresome and confused harangues.
So let’s keep this simple: call me any name you want–coward, rascal, hack, hypocrite, loser, liar, old fart, whatever. I don’t care; just do it in your own space, on your own time. I’m really sorry to say this, Brian, but you can’t piss on my doorstep, not anymore. If Manolo remains kind and patient enough to host your comments, fine. But don’t sulk if I keep you out of my blog, because, well, I don’t think I deserve you. My blog isn’t Hyde Park; it’s my happy little fiefdom, and I intend to keep it that way. I opened a blog to relieve the stresses of everyday living, not to add to them (nor, certainly, to add to yours or anyone else’s).
Tell you what: go to http://www.blogspot.com and open your own blog. How difficult is that? Ten-year-olds who’ve never heard of Elfriede Jelinek (boy, how you drop those names) can do it. There, you can rant against me, against Mang Nick, against every teacher who ever gave you a failing grade, etc. etc. seven days of the week, without anyone summarily cutting you off in the middle of a hearty diatribe. And trust me, Brian: the readers you seek will come–if you build it, they will come (as will a troll or two, but alas, it’s the price to pay). Just remember to write more stories, novels, poems, and plays than blog entries–not to mention blog comments.
Now see what you’ve done: I was supposed to write another mindlessly fun piece on technobabble, and here I am at 1 am, frothing like a skewered Grendel. All the same, have a happy Christmas and a productive and hopefully peaceful New Year!
Sincerely,
Butch Dalisay
PS / Join me in a poker game sometime. Should be fun.
“To tell the truth, I was friendly when I first wrote to him, usually just exchanging links. But he turned really opaque when I asked some tough literary questions. I suppose being the patient guy that I am I did what I culd to elicit a true response to my questions, ie. “Why are prominent Filipinos, with the exception of Jose, not published abroad?†I thought this was an important question, give that most Filipino writers use English with an instant access to a worldwide audience.”
My comment in Manolo’s blog. This explains my letter to you about Sionil Jose. It was a provocation, and if you’ve even read but one of my stories in the Free Press or Graphic you know I’ve written more about religion than sex. That was mere provocation to someone who keeps avoiding the issue. I never misread you, dear Butch. I take my opinion of you from your writings, both from your novel and your column. Still, I insist that poem in Asia Pacific Poetry is not mine. Want an embarrassing poem of mine, go to realpoetik.com
About the Palancas. You said it yourself, the Palancas is bound to miss a lot of talents out there. You also said the Palancas are rather predictable in its price giving. So, you know the prize is imperfect but, as you admitted it many times, you remain its supporter. Do you really think the Palanca is the “Pulitzer” of the Philippines? Let me tell you something: Pulitzer judges are often criticized for their choices and winning a Pulitzer does not mean your award-winning novel will survive the test of time. That’s because Americans take the Pulitzer winners with a grain of salt. Here, the Palancas are everything. Heck, only Palanca winners get published. Palanca winners and really, really old writers. And you keep supporting the Palanca. Tell me something. Knowing that the Palancas are not perfect, have you ever done anything in your capacity as a prominent writer and professor to compensate for its imperfection? Knowing that the Palancas award derivative writers (other prominent writers have said as much), do you as a professor promote worthy non-winners? You, Butch, live in paradoxes. I know you are not a lawyer but I expect a consistency of thought that reflects your education and literary standing. Isn’t it obvious from my letters to you and my comments in your blog that I know a thing or two about literature? Read this letter, carefully. Doesn’t it show a steadfast mind and a good grasp for the English language?
As for moving in the same circles. Huh, maybe that’s the wrong way to put it, but I think it was a response to someone who suggested I was being resentful because I am underprivileged. I suppose I only meant to correct him that I am not, and my anti-elite stance is not mere resentment.
As for other writers who got a book under their belt. Are you implying that every writer who publishes is worthier than a writer, like me, who hasn’t? Read the links I sent you and judge for yourself. This is what I honestly think. I have more originality and talent than some of these youngsters that have published a book. Hell, read my Dimsum (I’ve published twice in this publication) story or read my stories at the Graphic. Other young writers get a book with barely a couple of stories out in magazines. It’s just their Palancas and a good word from their professors (I am assuming). Did you know Butch that I had a New York literary agent two years ago? Then she mentioned about that poem you are fond of mentioning and a couple of months later opted out of my book (yes, a novel). That poem, which wasn’t mine as I kept telling you, cost me an agent.
FORGIVE ME FOR THE ALL CAPS AND LET ME JUST REMIND YOU. YOU BROUGHT THIS LITTLE SPAT OF OURS PUBLIC. IT WAS YOU, NOT I. I SENT YOU PRIVATE LETTERS. PRIVATE, BUTCH BUT YOU HAD TO WRITE ABOUT ROBIN REGALO, YOU WILY PROFESSOR YOU. MY FRIENDS RECOGNIZED ME IMMEDIATELY.
It is the conceit of people like you to assume that every Filipino you haven’t heard of is a kind of social climber. That is so stupid, if you know me.
Butch, welcome to the world of EMO!
Brian B:use your angst/bitterness to write the great Filipino story waiting to be written.I mentioned about the Ateneo days coz everytime you mention “ateneo”,you bring out some angst .Everybody had one such experience particularly as “iskolars”.Forget them and move on.Love.
And Butch, doesn’t take me much time at all writing these comments. They are all sincerely felt, even the jokey ones. This is not a deposition.
“Forget them and move on.Love.”
I actually had too much fun while I’m there. Hung out at the conyo bench up until a dormer told me they pee on it at night.
BRIANb:cave quid dicis, quando, et cui
Whatever
Sorry missed this one, Butch:
Yeah, you don’t know me two years ago, but since you published that Robin Regalo column (imagine this guy devoting an entire column in the lifestyle section of the star on someone like me) we have become the bestest of friends. If we were in the US or Europe, I’d have sued you already for a lot of money.
this only shows filipinos, wherever they go, adapt to the culture of the host country. some retain their bad habits but majority try to bring out the best of both worlds. the moment na umalis sila ng pinas, their hearts and minds are ready for change. no ifs no buts. they’re ready to embrace a new CULTURE.
Probably true in your case but not in mine. When i moved here to Singapore, i brought with me the culture of excellence that i learned back home. BTW, a good number of my colleagues with whom i shared that professional culture are still locally-based which is a good sign.
what came first, the chicken or the egg? why compare a hard-working fish vendor to a corrupt BIR official? what if i compare an honest BIR official to a cheating fish vendor? haven’t you heard about tampered wheighing scales? it is so easy to blame the authorities when we ourselves are law-breakers. sure, we may rationalize breaking the law during the spanish rule seemed nationalistic but the attitude now, like for example to exaggerate – ‘pagtatapon ng kalat sa kalsada, dumi sa estero para mahirapan sila sa paglilinis’ – eh tayo rin ang na a-apektohan. ang mgas mahihirap ay walang pakialam. ang hindi nila alam, sila ang mas nahihirapan dahil sa dumi ng ginagalawan nila.
that’s right, you brought with you the GOOD culture but i’m pretty sure you abandoned the bad ones. if you don’t have one, then you’re one of a kind. best of both worlds – that is why filipinos are considered one of the most successful immigrants.
Dinapinoy, thanks for acknowledging that Pinoys also have good culture. That’s something many Filipinos, especially emigrants, tend to forget.
cvj, what does culture of excellence mean?
I have only one prescription:
class war.
hell. you know me by now. that is the only way out of this rut.
let the fires of change burn everything down.
dinapinoy, in my experience, it is the bayanihan spirit that we apply in our work. it’s a combination of teamwork plus individual competence and a can-do attitude.
cvj, that is one of the problems MOST filipinos have. they tend to forget and in the process, whenever someone points out the BAD in us, specially from a ‘kabayan’, we tend to forget it is also a form of SELF criticism. if you have lived your life in the Philippines for years (37 years in my case) you have acquired, or maybe in your case, ‘exposed’ in one way or another to a lot of not so good traits. even benignO i guess.
cvj,
when you said ‘work’ i assume you are talking about what you do for a living. i guess the ‘work’ environment is different because you have to do your part in a spicific way. it’s your duty. the ‘bayanihan’ spirit to me is voluntary in nature.
i think the ‘bayanihan’ spirit can also be found in other cultures.
cvj,
come to think of it, any other good traits that we have other than the ‘bayanihan’ spirit? we must re-enforce/re-introduce them i guess.
“But, as Fallows observed, Filipinos are instant successes once they leave the Philippines. So culture is not the problem”
On the contrary, this simply highlights that Filipinos are better off apart than together. We excel in foreign societies and muddle along in mediocrity within and among our own.
I can relate with what tonio said here:
“the less Filipinos interact with each other, the better it is, the more objective they are”
The Pinoy community “organisations” in foreign societies are creepy dens of gulangan, inggitan, and pasiklaban. Nothing much is achieved other than a tacky showcase of collective pretensiousness, false humility, and campy bourgeuois tastes.
Gulangan is not even necessarily a counterproductive thing. Bill Gates and John D. Rockefeller built their empires by mixing pang-gugulang with shrewed business sense. In fact, European colonial expansion was a monumental exercise in gulangan.
But who are the winners and who are the losers in this globally-universal game of gulangan?
With Pinoys there is ONLY the gulangan, with not much else. No results. Nothing built. Nothing gained. Nothing accumulated.
Pinoys have earned the world-renowned distinction of turning gulangan into a SINGULAR cultural trait that defines us as a people.
“Dinapinoy, thanks for acknowledging that Pinoys also have good culture. That’s something many Filipinos, especially emigrants, tend to forget”
It’s easily forgetten because the good aspect of Pinoy culture is UTTERLY DWARFED by its more distasteful aspects.
vic:
that’s what i mean sir, look at the proliferation of “provincial associations” in the Fil-Can diaspora. Isn’t that a reproduction of this culture and all its internecine animosities in miniscule?
but then again in the “mosaic” that is Canada, things might be different. 🙂
benignO,
“It’s easily forgetten because the good aspect of Pinoy culture is UTTERLY DWARFED by its more distasteful aspects”
you may want to link up your web site with the web sites of immigration consultants. or so you can earn money, immigration consultants should post banner ads in your site.
it will help pinoys who have already made the emotional decision to migrate to a first world country but are still looking for a rational justification to support it. after they view your site, the decision to migrate will be finally made!
Appearing like the Philippine eagle poised for flight, the ultra-modern and deluxe Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 is now ready for take-off as the world’s newest OLDEST international air terminal.
The problem is :will NAIA 3 ever take-off?
Construction on the NAIA 3 began in 1997.
It was supposed to have been fully operational since last year. The opening of the terminal is being stalled by legal obstacles, including arbitration cases in the United States and Singapore, as well as worries over the soundness of the airport’s physical structure.
In the meantime,it has become another “Tambayan” (resting place) for the idle in the neighborhood.
“…particularly because by no means were the mestizos as thoroughly entrenched here as they were (and are) in latin america, where only now, 200 years after independence from spain, are places like peru and venezuela emerging from mestizo dominance.
here at home, world war 2 and the marcos years essentially destroyed mestizo influence and the wholesale migration of mestizos began at the end of world war 2. the revival of prominence of a few mestizos under the present government is not a wholesale restoration.”
By mestizo do you mean creole, i.e., insulares? Full-blooded Spanish born in the Philippines? I.e., those to whom the name “Filipino” originally and exclusively applied. Well-known creoles today are Zobel, Razon.
In the Spanish period mestizo was a strictly-defined term referring to someone with mixed racial parentage. The largest and most influential mestizo group back then were the Chinese mestizos. These included Rizal as well as the local landlord class (e.g., Cojuangco). However, the intelligentsia (ilustrado), which largely came from this group, so successfully appropriated the term “Filipino,” that the perception of Chinese mestizos as a distinct group is now lost.
From what i observe, what many Filipino emigrants do is beyond self-criticism but something that borders on pathological behavior that i still have to understand. That seems to be part of your [sub]-culture. I can only contrast it with how you Fil-Ams instinctively jumped to the defense of George W Bush and the American electorate in a previous thread when EQualizer [rightly] pointed to him in an unfavorable light.
I used the term Bayanihan to highlight the culture of going beyond the call of ‘duty’ even when at work. I can tell whether someone is merely doing his/her duty.
I agree, which is why i was able to transplant it to my team (of mixed nationalities) here in Singapore. In the same way, dysfunctional cultural traits can also be found among foreign nationals. That’s why i consider James Fallow’s characterization of our culture being ‘damaged’ as a false distinction.
Others i can think of is pagmamalasakit and pagka-masayahin especially in the face of adversity. I do accept that this may be considered good or bad depending on the context.
Since DNA analysis was not available to the Spaniards, i take it that their determination of ‘mixed racial parentage’ is based more on language & cultural origins as opposed to biological markers.