Misplaced Filipino Pride

There was a time I was a constant user of terms like "Proudly Pinoy" or "I'm so proud to be a Filipino!". I would post them around Internet sites whenever Pacquiao would win or I watch YouTube videos of Lea Salonga's spellbinding audition for Miss Saigon. Today, I actually cringe whenever I see hundreds of them cluttering a single comment thread about, say, Charice or Arnel Pineda. It all now seems superficial, like a child boasting to an adult about how high he can jump.

For whatever reason, I cannot write what I feel without seeming to be an antagonist to my own country. Fortunately, I've stumbled upon an article which mirrors my sentiments exactly that I could not bare to ignore the opportunity to showcase it here. I know a lot of people will disagree, but I do believe that this is the unspoken truth we Filipinos have been trying real hard to ignore for the longest time now.

The time I'll be proud to be Filipino

By: Iya Justimbaste

It has finally dawned unto me that there is something clearly erroneous with the circumstances in which Filipinos believe they should be proud about.

Arnel Pineda, Charice Pempengco, and boxing champion Manny Pacquaio, these are the few world-renowned Filipinos who have instigated a sense of so-called “Pinoy Pride” among the attention-seeking Filipinos who, after realizing within themselves that as a state, we have achieved practically nothing, would bask in to the achievements of the individuals mentioned in order to feel some sense of self-worth. However, I do not blame people like Pacquaio for precipitating a false sense of pride among the Filipinos. After all, it’s not their fault their “kababayans” have a distorted culture.

When Filipinos showcase this tremendous pride, they would do it excessively as if a single person like Charice Pempengco can save the entire Philippines from its mayhem of unfortunate events. They would completely delude themselves that the Filipino race is superior among others without actually taking in to consideration that other countries like the United States of America also have their fair share of talented people without actually rubbing it in to the international community’s face.  I find it rather gloomy when I come across Filipinos with unwarranted pride for I believe the reason behind this is that we no longer have other more important things we can be proud of hence, people mentioned earlier in this article serve as the only excuse we have for having such “pinoy pride”.

Such great is this pride that when people like Claire Danes dare say something about the unruly condition of the country and how dirty our surroundings are, we would bash them incessantly, forcing them to make a public apology. It’s hilarious at times since majority of these Filipinos who bash other people for stating the truth, would say something bad against the person not accomplishing the fact that in order to come up with a good rebuttal, the ideas of the person should be attacked, not his or her personality. Then again, it is hard to defend why our country’s environment is dirty anyway. Apparently, it doesn’t occur to them that in order for people to stop saying negative things about our country, we should be very wary of our actions. Instead of doing that, we would just further humiliate ourselves to our country’s defense by making ourselves look low by making sorry excuses for our country’s downfall. Why don’t we do something in order for people like Claire Danes not to be able to say something horrible about us? We can do extreme measures like keep our environment clean and instil a sense of discipline among ourselves as to not make our country look like a dumpsite. Without a doubt, too much pride does harm us in so many ways we can’t imagine.

Another thing I realized about this inappropriate pride Filipinos have is that our people have very low self-esteem. It’s actually contrary to what I stated before but then I acknowledged the fact that if we do really have something going on for us, we wouldn’t bank on popular figures like Pacquiao and Charice Pempengco. We would just let the whole world realize how great we are as a nation not by exploiting such personalities but by just keeping mum about it and letting it speak for itself. Furthermore, if the criticisms we received are so untrue like what most Filipinos claim them to be, they wouldn’t be enraged by it right? The saying “The truth hurts” really is applicable to the uproar created by Filipinos when facing criticisms. That is probably the reason why we have never progressed as a country. We can’t take constructive criticisms because it hurts our ego despite the fact that we really need to change our wrong practices which consume us day by day...

Full article can be found here:

http://www.thepoc.net/commentaries/8011-misplaced-filipino-pride.html

Turns out, Adam Corolla was right. We wouldn't be crazy over a mere singer or a boxer infiltrating the international scene if we have a lot of things going for us. We don't need to shove in the face of the whole world our achievements if we really are confident that the said accomplishments truly warrant admiration. 

We wouldn't boast to other countries that Jasmine Trias, Enrique Iglesias, Chris Judd and even Nicole Scherzinger all have Filipino blood (purposely leaving behind the fact that none of them has ever been to the Philippines before nor speak the language) if we thought we, as a nation, are significant enough without these minor links to our race.

Being proud to be a Filipino is not bad, if expressed in a right way and is focused on the right things. Instead of allocating all our energy on bringing out the pitch forks and torches on anybody who happens to not like the way Charice sings or wants Manny Pacquiao to lose a fight or says our country is polluted, let's channel it to making our country a better place and our people with a stronger sense of self worth. Maybe in that way, maybe in the future, we wouldn't care what other people say about anything because we have already built this powerful bubble of confidence around ourselves, as a country, as Filipinos. What they say won't even matter.

That is when I will truly believe that we have the best kind, the right kind of Filipino Pride.