After writing my previous article about Pinoy gamers, I have to ask the question what does “Pinoy Pride” even amount to? What exactly are we proud of? And even if there are, is that pride actually ours? Indeed, Fallen Angel in one of her older articles explains why she isn’t proud of being a Filipino and good ol’ Chino Fernandez in another of his works tells us that we should learn to lower our pride as it’s proven to be more than detrimental to us than beneficial. Sure, I suppose every country has a sense of pride but I must ask, is the sense of pride that Pinoys have something solid and noteworthy or is it just plain arrogance?
I mean heck, the Japanese have a sense of pride and this is seen in how they take honor very seriously and, when their shame is too great, sometimes even take their own lives. The Germans have a sense of pride and this is seen in how efficient they make themselves, their actions and their engineering projects such as the Autobahn which is considered a miracle of engineering. The pride of the British can be seen in their “stiff upper-lip” attitude and their willingness to take on challenges that are otherwise difficult or unsavory.
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So just what are Pinoys so proud of? What does “Pinoy Pride” entail? Well, the problem here occurs when the pride we look for is external rather than internal. True pride, pride that is positive and beneficial should be sought within every individual rather than something we should look for beyond. For instance, from what is mentioned above, the Japanese sense of pride comes from a sense of responsibility, the German sense of pride comes from a dedication to their art and crafts while the British sense of pride comes from their dedication to duty and seeking adventure. However, one must ask where does “Pinoy Pride” come from?
Well, that’s what I’m going to discuss and why I think we have it all wrong…
We Take Pride In Successful Foreigners With Alleged Filipino Heritage
Okay, please put aside Lea Salonga, Manny Pacquiao and Pia Wurtzbach. Those three are more or less the exception to the rule after all. Besides, the last of the three didn’t even grow up in the Philippines to start with.
Anyway, all I will say is that why do so many of us go crazy over foreigners who make it big in the world and look for any traces of Filipino DNA in their genetic material. A good example of this is when a number of us make the claim that certain athletes, artists and musicians only make it big in the outside world because they have “Filipino Blood” in them, as if Filipinos are the most talented people in the world. We never even stop to think that these people won, not because they have “Filipino Blood” in them but because they choose to work hard to make something of themselves — a fact that is all too often lost to the lazy Filipino who just likes to make excuses on why he doesn’t bother to cultivate his own talents and sharpen his own skills.
What’s worse is that while we may cheer on foreigners with alleged Filipino blood in them, we just love to put down our fellow Filipinos who actually took the time to develop their own talents. Just take a look at common Filipino artists and thinkers are made fun of because of their dedication to their art and are called “baliw” or “halimaw”, doubly so if they aren’t graced with beautiful features that we all too often associate with European standards of beauty.
We Take Pride In The Philippines’ Natural Beauty That We Are So Busy Destroying
Now I do think the Philippines has some natural beauty to it. Unfortunately, it’s sad to note that a lot of us don’t seem to care one bit about preserving it. The natural beauty of the Philippines and its natural resources aren’t going to do squat for us if we can’t preserve it and allow the following generations to benefit from them.
Yes Boracay might still be a great tourist spot. However now, just like Baguio, it’s now becoming polluted due to the constant littering of tourists who go there. True, some of said littering tourists are foreigners but that doesn’t mean we Filipino citizens have any right to further ruin the beauty of our country. On the contrary, I think we should set the standards as local tourists and show foreigners that we love and care about our environment so that they too will find it in themselves to respect the beauty of the Philippines and not litter.
Please people, what beauty will our country have left when we go about destroying like no tomorrow?
We Take Pride In Our Alleged “Wholesomeness” And “Hospitality” That Are Contrary With Our Typical Behavior
As I mentioned in my article about Pinoy gamers, we like to scream “Pinoy Pride” when one of us is lauded in another country for being skilled, beautiful or just a plain model employee abroad. However, relatively few of us bother at all to make something of ourselves. While another Pinoy abroad might be considered nice or efficient, a lot of us are simply content with our rudeness towards each other and our constant bickering. While we take pride in the apparent good traits of fellow Filipinos in other countries, many of us stick to being crass and insulting to one another and even to foreigners we don’t like or don’t find beautiful. Note for instance how many of us went to great lengths at insulting the Iranian team when they defeated our team in FIBA.
Ladies and gentlemen, don’t you think that in order for other nationalities to respect us, don’t you think we should at least make an effort to make ourselves a respectable people first?
***
“National Pride” is a collective effort and, in order for the common Filipino to have something to be proud of, we should all lend a hand in making our country safer, better and more beautiful place for our following generations and those who will choose to visit us…
I HAVE RETURNED TO LAY WASTE TO OUR ENEMIES!
Great article, Grimwald! It’s about time somebody calls spade as spade, and not something else out of delusion.
Question: “So What exactly Are Pinoys Proud Of?”
Answer: Their aristocratic attitude and self-serving way of life that destroy a country instead of rebuild it.
These luxury condominium, beach resort, and shopping mall-hungry Filipinos–who enjoy taking selfie photos and bragging about how much fun they are having in the Philippines–are actually destroying the natural beauty of the country and raising the cost of living for the rest of the population to keep up with. The Philippines is indeed a nation full of aristocratic and self-serving people.
You’re half right. They’re aristocratic only by the image. Concepts like “noblesse oblige” do not come to this pursuit of class among the class starved Pinoys. They may look like nobles, but they certainly don’t act like one.
I wouldn’t make excuses for our aristocratic countrymen to soften the damages we’ve done to our country. Too many Filipinos have already done that–not seeing themselves as the aristocratic and self-serving types–and say it’s always the other Filipinos’ fault. I would say it’s all our fault because we are a product of a corrupt culture with a corrupt value system, regardless of our socioeconomic background; and, if given the chance, we would all be beating the same country-destructive path.
That’s a tad too pessimistic which of course doesn’t help the issue either. If anything, everyone has to do their part to compromise and meet halfway to get what they want and to work towards a better country for all. No, no one has tried that even from the well lauded “People Power One.” It was all smoke. The country needs to achieve a functional state on its own and it does start with the people and what they want for the future. Just brow beating them with names isn’t going to be enough.
Kin,
Here’s a reality check. Filipinos are not willing to compromise, nor meet halfway at any issue for the good of the country; it’s been that way since ever since. I know my comments are pessimistic, but they’re also very realistic. All these positive talks and “Pinoy Pride” chants have done nothing for the Phlilippines except make it worse. Now it’s time for some serious “brow beating” to rattle the mental cages of our people to the reality of the destructive things they are doing to their country and each other. The truth sometimes sucks, but we all need it.
Aeta
Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao and Tito tried that with colorful results. You wanna try betting it’ll work this time?
Is Aeta even implying that our country must run by communists for our country’s progress? Read his post again! It’s all about fake patriotism that doesn’t give better results. Sheesh do you have to be THAT much of a point-misser?
domo,
If Kin and I were playing baseball, I’m hitting the ball out in right field and he/she is trying to catch it from the left.
Aeta
The Philippines: a once agriculturally-rich country that fed millions of its population at an affordable price, is now a concrete and motor vehicle-riddled labyrinth that is being monopolized by foreign-interest groups, who fed the insatiably aristocratic and self-serving appetites of the Filipino people.
The Philippines has been turned into a “whorehouse” for foreign businesses at the expense of the Filipino people, who all have short-term (“One Day Millionnaire Mentality”)–instead of having long term–goals for the future of their own country. The Philippines, and the Filipino people, is doomed of ever becoming one nation, one people; and there is no one to blame but ALL FILIPINOS—past, present, and future.
You may also want to read this
The Bad Habit Of Using One’s Pinoy Identity To Justify And/Or Enjoy One’s Blunder
“We Take Pride In Our Alleged “Wholesomeness” And “Hospitality” That Are Contrary With Our Typical Behavior”
The key to that sentence is the phrase at the end: “…contrary to our behavior.”
Remember the APEC meetings last December? Do you recall how so many of the local people were put completely off by closing roads and avenues? Instead of offering alternatives, the government decided to simply make the foreign visitor’s lives great at the cost of the local population having to suffer even more than usual? Suffer greatly they did indeed!
You call that hospitality? Where you completely make your countrymen suffer for what? To impress the visitors who will hardly recall the trip here with all the other trips those people make all the time? Will the locals reap the benefits of such economic summits, as all the talking heads claim it will? Don’t think so…
What got to me was the interviews I saw on the streets and one woman in particular who was so angry and upset that she had to walk 3 hours one way to get to her job that she was shedding tears of anger and frustration! She didn’t deserve that nor did those other people walking to work just so they can earn a living! Is that something to be proud of?
I learned a long time ago that my family matters to me and that even if I’m going to make life nice for strangers, I will never put my family secondary to them! I will FIND A WAY to keep my family as comfortable as the visitors and to me, THAT’s something to be PROUD of but to kick the masses to the proverbial curb and make them suffer because it’s good for keeping up appearances? No. That’s wrong. Not to be proud of at all!
If you have no good accomplishments to show, or to talk about. You can cling to your “foolish pride”…The Pride that Mr. Grimwald is talking about is more of an Inflated Ego, of some Filipinos.
Most of the Filipinos go OFW, to earn their living. Most are treated badly, by their foreign employers; even exploited. So, the consolation of their sufferings is: “Filipino Pride”…it is like a “healing balm” from all the afflictions of being a Filipino.
There is nothing wrong with Filipinos going OFWs to take care of their loved ones, in spite of all the hardships they have to endure from their foreign employers. However, where things go wrong is when many of these OFWs start spending (and in most cases, ‘flaunting’) their money—beyond the means to survive– in the Philippines, by trying to live the lifestyle of the elitists, in the midst and envy of other Filipinos who are trying to make it on a day-by-day existence, that makes life in the Philippines that much harder.
There is also nothing wrong with embracing one’s “Filipino Pride” as a “’healing balm’ from all the afflictions of being a Filipino”; but, these “afflictions” are caused by Filipinos themselves for having such an aristocratic (“hambog/mayabang”) mentality, and leading a self-serving (“kanya-kanya”) lifestyle of showing off and toppling one another, instead of building each other–and their country–up by being more humble and less selfish.
If you use “Filipino Pride” to as a “healing balm” to overcome the incompetence and irresponsibility of our political leaders. That is another story.
Why do these leaders like Aquino have no good programs to create jobs? So that people will stay home, and not leave their families.
Why are there no programs to enforce the laws? The political leaders are the first lawbreakers.They are mostly thieves and liars.
Where the leaders go, the people will follow.
Basically, Pinoys are fond of taking pride in things that they never worked for. For example, imagine an OFW’s kid showing off the toy he got from the Balikbayan box that came from the U.S. He’ll post it on Facebook and say, “wala kayo nito, no?” That seems to be the closest analogy to what Pinoy Pride is. It has to have that “palamunin” element to it.
That is the nature of our people: to look and sound aristocratic to their own people by showing off what they have to the less fortunate. There is an old saying in the Philippines that you can tell someone with money (or without) by the way they dress and conduct themselves. Those with money are humble and don’t like to draw too much attention to themselves. Those who don’t do.
It’s like what another commenter (maybe you?) said: The empty can makes the most noise.
That’s right. We Filipinos are historically empty. Over the years we all just got a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and we all think we’re all this and that. Then we destroy our country, and each other, with “tit for tat.”
“They never told us…”
The key to understanding the excessive zeal with which certain faculty members at UP were pushing the philippinization of Philippine Studies in the last quarter of the 20th century may be found in the fact that the greatest feat of Philippine history is hushed up. Mind you, in 1898 the Filipinos were the first Asian nation to liberate itself from its colonizer. In defeating a European power, they were seven years ahead of Japan routing Imperial Russia, while inspiring hope in other Asian countries, such as still acknowledged in current Indonesian school-texts. Yet, instead of the fanfare and jubilant commemorations such achievement deserves, the honor goes to Admiral Dewey’s sinking of the outdated and outnumbered Spanish fleet in Manila Bay, which opened the way to the American betrayal of the Philippine Revolution.
Initially, the subsequent war against the Americans fired the spirit of nationalism, such as celebrated in so-called ‘dissident’ theatre plays in native Tagalog and the social-utopian novel of Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat (‘from break of dawn to broad daylight’). When the last guerrilla against American imperialism gave up in 1912, the population had been ‘quintumated’ [1 out of 5 of the population perished] and the word boondocks had become the Philippine contribution to American English. Meanwhile, however, the US steamroller was rapidly crushing history and memory, so giving birth to a nation in limbo peopled with an America and future-oriented generation “without fathers and grandfathers”.
The sleep after the lobotomy was deep and it was only in the 1950s that dawn broke again with the appeals of the politicians Claro M. Recto and Lorenzo V. Tañada, historian Teodoro A. Agoncillo, activist-author Amado V. Hernandez, and, possibly, President Garcia’s Filipino First policy, but to awake from the America-induced stupor took the Filipinos well into the 1960s. From then on, ardent nationalism flourished in full light, culminating in UP’s celebrated First Quarter Storm of 1971 that, alas, stimulated then President Marcos to set himself up as dictator in September 1972. Among UP’s nationalistic faculty, it became a point of honor to have been arrested and temporarily jailed upon that occasion! They had woken up to the call of the nation and invented anti-Western indigenous psychology (Sikolohiyang Pilipino) and foreigner-unfriendly Filipinology (Pilopinolohiya).
Whereas in certain quarters zealous nationalism remained the call of the day, the declaration of Martial Law coincided with the Third World’s call for technocratic development that is inherently averse to popular mobilization. This corresponds with the fact that the broad ideas of the founding fathers of modern states in the Southeast Asian Region—constitutionalism, democracy, education for all, social justice, rule of law—had gradually vanished from the popular imagination and been replaced by the creed of economic development, with its stress on money, technology and material success. Accordingly, ‘the Nation’ has been replaced by state and market at the same time that the ideals of nation-building and active citizenship have faded in an anonymous scene ruled by political and economic expediency. As a result, civil society ideals, such as responsibility for and active participation in a shared public world, have seemingly lost their relevance in an environment where people strive for survival, caring for themselves and their immediate dependents only.
In my view, this is still where we are. “Sir” Niels
That’s an impressive synopsis of who we are as Filipinos. In layman’s term, we’re still fucked up as a country and as a people—and it will remain that way as long as we continue with our aristocratic and self-serving ways.
Unfortunately, whilst in other societies the focus on economic development (arguably above constitutionalism, democracy, education for all, social justice, rule of law) resulted in the emergence of a strong mercantile and innovation classes which then became the engine for further economic expansion, the Philippines’ embrace of the “creed” of economic development resulted in nothing more than an expansion in consumerism fuelled by OFW remittances and unrestricted importation of non-durable consumer goods.
Basically, Filipinos are on the dangerous roads of trying to live like the Smiths and Joneses at any cost—mainly the destruction of their own country and relationships with each other.
Basically, Filipinos are on a dangerous road of trying to live like the Smiths and Joneses at any cost—mainly the destruction of their own country and relationships with none another.
@Niels,
by the sound of it, both your first and last name have a Dutch touch. Are you Dutch or in anyway affiliated/related to Dutch ancestors?
>in 1898 the Filipinos were the first Asian nation to liberate itself from its colonizer.
Err, Japan still got a head start based on your logic. The 1274 and 1281 Mongol invasions there which was the origin of Kamikaze. Just wanna correct you on that. While not a Euro power, it was still a colonizer that only the British matched several centuries later.
@ SHIN, NO, the origin of the ‘Kamikaze’ coincided with the devlopment of karate where-in the peasants threw flying kicks ‘kamikaze’ style at the emperor’s soldiers’ who were riding horse’s in an effort to de-saddle and kill the emperors soldiers.
Source or I call bull. Never have I heard such an interpretation of the term.
@ N M WHAT ? “….the THIRD WORLD’s call for technocratic development….”, this is just one of the sentence’s found here to be pure hyperbolic bull-shit.
Believe that Bull-shit if you want to but nothing but pure exploitation of the ‘massa’ by the oligarchy is more like what happened.(Furthered by laws tailored to thieving by said oligarchs.)
Another one reason on why we are so Goddamn proud is because we are the happiest people in the world but there’s a disadvantage of it for being a happiest people in the world is if we’re too happy and proud, we’re too shallow as well due to on going problems that are facing in our country right now that we’ve forgot on how to fix it like corruption, traffic, peace & order, national security, etc. Yes, the REAL PINOY PRIDE are Kalyeserye on TV, becoming more famous on Dumb… I mean Dubsmash & youtube, making “epal” during and after the election period, etc., etc. A nation’s progress from hell.
In the meantime, a bit of off-topic. I’d read this news from Yahoo.com and this one is about the unhappiness of the Singaporeans, but in spite of that I’d seen a better side of the Singaporean pride than our own pride thanks to their former leader Lee Kwan Yew who showed his political will and humbleness to his people and how he’d unite and develop his country for the past 50 years, so here’s the link:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/5-cs-actually-happy-singaporean-012052570.html
Patriotism is a thing difficult to put into words. It is neither precisely an emotion nor an opinion, nor a mandate, but a state of mind — a reflection of our own personal sense of worth, and respect for our roots. Love of country plays a part, but it’s not merely love. Neither is it pride, although pride too is one of the ingredients.
Patriotism is a commitment to what is best inside us all. And it’s a recognition of that wondrous common essence in our greater surroundings — our school, team, city, state, our immediate society — often ultimately delineated by our ethnic roots and borders… but not always.
Indeed, these border lines are so fluid… And we do not pay allegiance as much as we resonate with a shared spirit.
We all feel an undeniable bond with the land where we were born. And yet, if we leave it for another, we grow to feel a similar bond, often of a more complex nature. Both are forms of patriotism — the first, involuntary, by birth, the second by choice.
Neither is less worthy than the other.
But one is earned.
How about this news? it does not spread like miss universe?
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/salvadoran-filipino-student-scores-perfectly-ap-calculus-exam-n506071
What a dumb article. Filipino pride? I never once heard of anyone succeeding in sports claiming to be part filipino. I never heard of a successful athlete being filipino. They have no olympic medals to their name.
Last I heard filipinos are losers who are worthy of nothing more than carrying trash or washing dishes in civilized socieites. I work with them in the medical industry and they are useless human beings due to their cultural programming. Too arrogant and stubborn to be worth anything in a civil world. IMO the Philippines is a nice piece of land to visit or maybe live on but over time it becomes unbearable due to the people who live there. Filipinos. Their cutthroat back biting proud mentality makes the place unbearable for most foriegners. Over time you end up building a wall to separate yourself from the filipino garbage living all around you. Filipino blood? No such thing. I have a high position in the medical industry and scientifically there has never been anything remote to be considered as a filipino blood. There are only blood types with traces of DNA. Filipinos however are a mixture of a number of different nationalities from across the globe. From Africa, to Asia and now European. The whole arrogant notion of filipinos being somehow being better (total laughable when looking at facts) than other nationalities is built on proud arrogant lies that stems on racism and narcissism. We look at them and just cast it off as cute because ultimately they are just emotional monkeys looking for a banana. Homeless, can’t keep the lights and water on in their own country, Very primititive human beings. Every been to the country? The women are not more beautiful than anyone else. After thirty years of age they swell up to fat porked out pigs with false teeth. MOST of them have false teeth before the age of thirty. They have flat noses by nature, with many moles on their face and bodies. Small short squat stature. This is the true filipina beauty.
@jay man your comment gave me an aneurysm. it’s one thing to give constructive feedback to improve the country but it’s another to be straight condescending.
Nakatira ako sa US, sampung taon na. Kahit mga Pilipino dito bitbit bitbit pa rin yang ‘Pinoy Pride’. Halimbawa na lang pag tuwing napunta ako sa isang Filipino Grocery store, yung mga ale na nakasukbit ang kanilang mga LV, Coach, Michael Kors kung makaasta eh kay susungit at mayroon pa silang “tingin” na tila mga alta sila pero sa katunayan mukha lang silang tanga. Sana mabasa ang article na ito ng bawat Pilipino. Wag na nating lokohin sarili natin na kesyo napakahusay at the best tayo. Dahil hindi. Look o, third world country pa din tayo. Pinoy pride is the biggest joke ever.
I THANK MY PINAY GF for transalation … Like my Pinay GF, she buys hacked LV Coach Michael Kors. She wears Breitling that is fake.
PILIPINO GROCERY STORES are Tai-Chi (Thai-Chi) because majority of what they sell are from Thailand and China. What is Pilipino there are the grouchy un-smiling cashiers and rude men manning meat sections. (Of course, they smile at me because I am pure unadulterated white american BUT THEY DO NOT SMILE AT MY BEAUTIFUL PRETTY BROWN-SKIN FILIPINO GIRLFRIEND)
Those Pilipino grocery store employees may not have seen or interacted with white Americans. THERE THEY TREAT ME LIKE A KING !!!
***I have gone to Canada, Australia and Philippines FILIPINOS ARE NOT SMILEY PEOPLE except to Whites***