Ever since I became politically ‘aware’ I have been trying to dig deep in my personal search for reasons WHY we Filipinos are what we are, and HOW most of us came to be the scatterbrained negativistic assholes that, thank God, NOT all of us are! Rather than be proud of being Pinoys some of us have gone to the sad extent of identifying more with the Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and other Asians! Some have even ‘out-slanged’ their counterparts so much so that nobody seems to understand them anymore! We see cars and ‘jeepneys’ proudly proclaiming I LOVE N.Y.! I LOVE HAWAII! CHICAGO BULLS, L.A. LAKERS, ‘Katas ng Saudi’, and so on and so forth! I knew some guys during my High School days, who would willingly ‘break a leg’ for a pair of genuine U.S. KEDS, LEVI’s 501, and CHUCK TAYLOR’S U.S. CONVERSE canvas shoes! Sosmaryosep! You should’ve seen our Ateneo de Manila H.S. campus in the late 60s! It was literally swarming with Paisley clad ‘AmBoys’ (or Pinoy teens ‘trying hard’ to look like Americans!). In fact, I had a hard time then trying to break the ‘English Rule’ as almost everyone sounded like glib tongued Americans, and ‘Tag-log’ was seldom spoken! I almost wished I was back in Naga talking ‘trash’ with my ‘B.N.G.’ and ‘Amamatak’ friends!

        Just how on earth we Pinoys have managed to shed our Pinoy Identity and put on this ‘Western Skin’ has been bugging me ever since. Not that I believe we ever had a Pinoy Identity to start with, but how this obsession with things ‘UN-Filipino’ crept into the Filipino Psyche is, indeed, something worth studying formally and at length. But for starters I would like to venture into some ‘shallow reasons’ of my own:

        We were NEVER given the chance to be able to establish our very own Filipino Culture. When Lapu-Lapu slew Magellan in 1521 we were as diversified and dis-united as our 7,100 islands! Consequently, we had no other choice but to swallow King Philip’s Spanish ‘Manana Culture’, given the 3 CENTURIES that we were under their rule! So talk of a Pinoy Pride or a truly Pinoy Culture is ‘wishful thinking’ at most! It was the Spaniards who taught us how to read and write, hence our ‘recorded’ history only started then. After the Conquistadores and Friars, we then played host to another totally different group of ‘Aliens’, the very genial and diplomatic Americans. The Japanese just had to spoil everything later on, though, with their Pearl Harbor Sneak Attack, Kempetai rape and tortures, and their infamous and unforgettable Bataan Death March! As for the Chinese, well, I guess, whether they came first or last no longer matters, because they have always been and will always be here! Almost everyone, including even my grand daughter, Isabela, who, they say, I look like, has ‘Chinky’ blood in their system! Those who don’t may have come from the moon or somewhere else!

        Amidst this veritable collage of clashing Cultures we now find ourselves at a loss as to what we can indeed be proud of! And stuck in this web of confusion we have been helplessly bombarded by a daily barrage of politically tainted NEGATIVE NEWS and VIEWS aimed, not at getting at the Truth, or constructively criticizing and suggesting some worthwhile changes, but at simply REMOVING the people in Power, just like changing costumes to fit the occasion! Sosmaryosep! Newsmen, Radio and T.V. commentators have long been having a field day with their ‘negative research’ in their obsession to come up with news ‘scoops’ on personalities whose celebrity status as Politicians, potential ‘wannabes’, or just plain newsworthy citizens, constitute the ‘icing’ of the cake with which they hope to ‘sell’ a lot of Ads and Airtime and be declared ‘The Champ’ in the Ratings Game! It really seems like it’s the Negatives that sell, so the Positives just, perhaps, have to be considered ‘impotent’ news!

        With all the daily negative news and views that we read and hear it really isn’t surprising how most of us have come to develop a negative attitude towards our leaders, in particular, and the Philippines, in general! Barely has a newly elected Leader taken over the reigns of Government when he or she is subjected to such a paranoid scrutiny of his or her public and private life! No wonder most Pinoys either want to leave the Country ‘by hook or by crook’, or go on ‘Get-Rich-Quick’ binges for the simple reason that they read or heard it on the NEWS that everybody else is doing it anyway! Besides, didn’t their Idol, Pres. ‘Erap’ easily get an Absolute Pardon, just at the wink of an eye, even for ‘Plundering’ about a BILLION pesos?! How much is the going price of Shabu? Easy, just read the news, divide the total amount by the number of kilos raided, convert to grams, and you’ve got how much the Police must have stashed away as part of their UNDECLARED CATCH! ‘Por Dios y Por Santo!’ Hearing or reading about the almost daily Killings, Rapes, Robberies, Plunder, and Corruption IN and OUT of Government really instills in our SUBCONSCIOUS mind so many negatives to the point that this Subconscious mind has become so immersed and bathed in Negative thoughts that any Positive thoughts are, unfortunately, drowned out! As a result of this Media ‘Negative Brainwashing’, POSITIVE PROGRESS has been held at bay, as clearly seen in our supposedly august halls of Congress where most of the Legislative Time has, sadly, been wasted in fault-finding ‘Cosmetic’ Hearings and Investigations, in aid of some people’s Political Ambitions, and the obvious Network Ratings ‘War’! Indeed, a Subconscious Mind swimming in a sea of Negative Thoughts has no other choice but to be attracted to and churn out nothing else but NEGATIVES! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve, but in this Negative Socio-Political clime what else can we do?

        I have read some other broadsheets like the New York Times and I have observed that even if Politics IS the hot topic most of the time, Crime, Corruption and most Negative News are played down and given less space and detail, perhaps, because our brother Americans refuse to GLORIFY CRIME! Doing so just might really tend to make ‘folk heroes’ out of these crazed killers and rapists, and Corrupt Plunderers (as in our pathetic case!).

        And so as 2007 comes to a sputtering but ‘Glorious’ end, may I kindly suggest that, if it would be at all possible, the Media in the Philippines, in the coming years, should try to regulate the manner that they gather and report the NEWS, so as to be able to minimize the NEGATIVISM that has long been the bane of our Society. The Philippines is such a beautiful Country and the Filipinos such a promising People! Let’s all try to LIFT EACH OTHER UP into the Light of Positive Hope and try to avoid bringing each other down, even if: “For most folks, no news is good news; for the Press, good news is not news”- Gloria Borger. G.K. Chesterton hastens to add: “Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is dead!’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive”! HAPPY NEW 2008 TO ALL!!!