Are You Proud To Be A Filipino?

[Nate Gray]

I'm proud to be a Filipino, it's our government I'm ashamed of.

[galvatron]

Not proud but not ashamed either. There's no superior race of people. To quote President Obama, "All are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness." Just my two cents.

[holygrail_24]

100% yes

[mhim101]

I'm proud to be a Filipino

 

It's the government that I hate

[Kimchiwarui]

Proude to be one. Brown by blood. Just ashamed of our government and thw whole system built.

[***SUPREMO***]

i am very proud

[Judge Mental]

Taas noo, kahit kanino, na Pilipino ay ako!

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

Here's an interesting article from the viewpoint of a foreigner living in the Philippines about Filipino pride.

 

The

 

 

 

 

Philippines

 

 

 

 

In the eyes of a

 

 

 

 

Foreigner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Barth Suretsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

My decision to move to Manila was not a precipitous one. I used to work in New York as an outside agent of Philippines Air Line, and have been coming to the Philippines since August, 1982. I was so impressed with the country and with the interesting people I met, some of whom have become very close friends to this day, that I asked for and was granted a year's sabbatical from my teaching job in order to live in the Philippines

 

I arrived here on August 21, 1983, several hours after Ninoy Aquino was shot, and remained here until June of 1984. During that year I visited many parts of the country, from as far north as Laoag to as far south as Zamboanga, and including Palawan. I became deeply immersed in the history and culture of the archipelago, and an avid collector of tribal antiquities from both northern Luzon and Mindanao.

 

In subsequent years I visited the Philippines in 1985, 1987, and 1991, before deciding to move here permanently in 1998. I love this country, but not uncritically, and that is the purpose of this article. First, however, I will say that I would not consider living anywhere else in Asia, no matter how attractive certain aspects of other neighboring countries may be.

 

To begin with, and this is most important, with all its faults, the Philippines is still a democracy, more so than any other nation in Southeast Asia. Despite gross corruption, the legal system generally works, and if ever confronted with having to employ it, I would feel much more safe trusting the courts here than in any other place in the surrounding countries.

 

The press here is unquestionably the most unfettered and freewheeling in Asia , and I do not believe that is hyperbole in any way! And if any one thing can be used as a yardstick to measure the extent of the democratic process in any given country in the world, it is the extent to which the press is free.

 

Nevertheless, the Philippines is a flawed democracy, and the flaws are deeply rooted in the Philippine psyche. I will elaborate. The basic problem seems to me, after many years of observation, to be national inferiority complex, a disturbing lack of pride in being Filipino.

 

Toward the end of April I spent eight days in Vietnam, visiting Hanoi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). I am certainly no expert on Vietnam, but what I saw could not be denied: I saw a country ravaged as no other country has been in this century by thirty years of continuous and incredibly barbaric warfare.

 

When the Vietnam War ended in April, 1975, the country was totally devastated. Yet in the past 25 years the nation has healed and rebuilt itself almost miraculously! The countryside has been replanted and reforested. Hanoi and HCMC have been beautifully restored.

 

The opera house in Hanoi is a splendid restoration of the original modeled after the Opera in Paris, and the gorgeous Second Empire Theatre, on the main square of HCMC is as it was when built by the French a century ago.

 

The streets are tree-lined, clean, and conducive for strolling. Cafes in the French style proliferate on the wide boulevards of HCMC. I am not praising the government of Vietnam, which still has a long way to travel on the road to democracy, but I do praise, and praise unstintingly, the pride of the Vietnamese people.

 

It is due to this pride in being Vietnamese that has enabled its citizenry to undertake the miracle of restoration that I describe above.

 

When I returned to Manila, I became so depressed that I was actually physically ill for days thereafter. Why? Well, let's go back to a period when the Philippines resembled the Vietnam of 1975. It was 1945, the end of World War II, and Manila, as well as many other cities, lay in ruins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most Filipinos, when confronted with evidence of governmental corruption, political chicanery, or gross exploitation on the part of the business community, simply shrug their shoulders, mutter "bahala na," and let it go at that.

 

It is an oversimplification to say this, but it is not without a grain of truth to say that Filipinos feel downtrodden because they allow themselves to feel downtrodden. No pride.

 

One of the most egregious examples of this lack of pride, this uncaring attitude to their own past, is the wretched state of surviving architectural landmarks in Manila and elsewhere. During the American period, many beautiful and imposing buildings were built, in what we now call the "art deco" style (although incidentally, that was not contemporary term; it was coined only in the 1960s). These were beautiful edifices, mostly erected during, or just before, the Commonwealth period.

 

Three, which are still standing, are the Jai Alai Building, the Metropolitan Theater, and the Rizal Stadium. Fortunately, due to the truly noble efforts of my friend John Silva, the Jai Alai Building will now be saved. But unless something is done to the most beautiful and original of these three masterpieces of pre-war Philippine architecture, the Metropolitan Theater, it will disintegrate. The Rizal Stadium is in equally wretched shape.

 

When the wreckers' ball destroyed Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and New York City's most magnificent building, Pennsylvania Station, both in 1963, Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architectural critic of The New York Times, wrote: "A disposable culture loses the right to call itself a civilization at all!" How right she was! (Fortunately, the destruction of Pennsylvania Station proved to the sacrificial catalyst that resulted in the creation of New York's Landmark Commission. Would there be such a commission created for Manila ... ?)

 

Are there historical reasons for this lack of national pride? We can say that until the arrival of the Spaniards there was no sense of a unified archipelago constituted as one country. True. We can also say that the high cultures of the nations in the region seemed, unfortunately, to have bypassed the Philippines; there are no Angkor’s, no Ayutthaya’s, no Borobudur’s. True.

 

 

 

 

 

Centuries of contact with the high cultures of the Khmers and the Chinese, had, except for the proliferation of Song dynasty pottery found throughout the archipelago, no noticeable effect. True. But all that aside, what was here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To begin with, the ancient rice terraces, now threatened with disintegration, incidentally, was an incredible feat of engineering for so-called "primitive" people. As a matter of fact, when I first saw them in 1984, I was almost as awe-stricken was I was when I first laid eyes on the astonishing Inca city of Machu Picchu, high in the Peruvian Andes. The degree of artistry exhibited by the various tribes of the Cordillera of Luzon is testimony to a remarkable culture, second to none in the Southeast Asian region. As for Mindanao, at the other end of the archipelago, an equally high degree of artistry has been manifest for centuries in woodcarving, weaving and metalwork.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, the most shocking aspect of this lack of national pride, even identity, endemic in the average Filipino, is the appalling ignorance of the history of the archipelago since unified by Spain and named Filipinas. The remarkable stories concerning the courageous repulsion of Dutch and British invaders from the 16^ththrough the 18th centuries, even the origins of the Independence of the late 19th century, are hardly known by the average Filipino in any meaningful way. And thanks to fifty years of American brainwashing, it is few and far between the number of Filipinos who really know -- or even care -- about the duplicity employed by the Americans and Spaniards to sell out and make meaningless the very independent state that Aguilnaldo declared on June 12, 1898.

 

A people without a sense of history is a people doomed to be unaware of their own identity. It is sad to say, but true, that the vast majority of Filipinos fall into this category. Without a sense of who you are how can you possibly take any pride in who you are? These are not

oversimplifications.

 

On the contrary, these are the root problems of the Philippine inferiority complex referred to above. Until the Filipinos take pride in being Filipino these ills of the soul will never be cured. If what I have written here can help, even in the smallest way, to make the Filipino aware of just who he is, who he was, and who he can be, I will be one happy expat indeed!

 

 

 

 

[tudy]

YES I AM

[simpleman1225]

Yes! Truly I am...

[dub682]

Yes!

[glut_func]

No.

[cocoy0]

Yes, but not for the usual reasons na kesyo Pinoy yung sumkat sa kung anong dahilan. I am proud because of the unique legacy brought down by my ancestors, I am in a good position to be a global player. Yung way of thinking ko, bunga ng kultura ko, which includes my speech, history, musical tastes, my philosophy and beliefs.

[Jconcordes]

Reading the news, some days, it makes you sad to be. But proud of it always.

[pagulo]

yes

[glut_func]

still no...i just cant find a reason why i should be proud to be one.

[shamrock8691]

Proud? Pucha pano ka maging legit proud sa bansang toh? Proud siguro sa mga na-accomplish ng mga ibang pinoy sa kung ano-anong larangan. Pero yung proud maging PINOY--- as in lahat ng aspeto ng pagiging pinoy? Malabo. Eh trapik palang nga rito parang ang sarap na mag migrate. Taas pa ng tax dito mga bords... ibang klase, lumaki nga sweldo mo lumaki rin chugi ng gobyernong kung magnakaw akala mo wala ng double down sa kfc. Tapos, at dahil sa malaking gaps sa yaman at patuloy na pag prioritize ng Elitistang PINOY sa kanyang pamilya at sarili, ang social stratum ng mga mamamayan mas lalong lumalayo. Kasing layo ng pila sa LTO pag nag pa renew ka ng lisensya. Sa layo eh pati edukasyon ng average pinoy na sasakrepisyo. Kaya ganun nalang ang ignoransya ng marami sa proper hygiene, civic service, family planning, financial stability, at overall discipline. Ultimo pag tapon ng candy wrapper nasa tabi na nga yung trash can dun parin sa gitna ng kalsada tinatapon.

 

Don't get me wrong mga parekoy, proud ang bird ko maging pinoy pero sa ngayon ang utak ko, proud to be alive lang muna.

[Edmund Dantes]

First of all I am a Filipino not a Pinoy. Ano yung "pinoy"? kakanin na binebenta sa kabilang kanto?

 

Second, I won't Hide my irritation. Yung mga pinakamalakas sumigaw ng "proud to be pinoy" ay mga taong wala naman nagagawa para sa inang bayan. Unang una mga hindi naman nagbabayad ng buwis. Ni walang mga trabaho, therefore walang sariling accomplishment na maipagmamalaki kaya sumasabit lang sa pondillo ni Pacquiao. Ni hindi nga magawang masunod mga simpleng batas kalye. Nakakadismaya higit sa lahat, hindi alam ang sariling saligang batas, kahit pambansang awit hindi alam katahin ng tama. Walang kaalamalam sa kultura at kasaysayan. Komo lang nagche-cheer sila sa mga amboy sa AI, at kay Pacquiao at nakikipagaway sa mga mexicans sa internet "patriotic" daw sila. lol. Proud of something na hindi naman nila naacomplish

 

Third, if I will have the chance to be inside a classroom again, I will teach my students to not listen to the false gospel that the media preaches about this "pinoy pride" nonsense. Kasi pag lumabas sila ng bansa at dala nila ito, baka mas lalong hindi sila makaadapt. Kasi pag nasa ibang bansa ka at kasalamuha mo na ibang lahi, hindi ka dapat nagyayabang ng lahi mo. Dapat citizen of the world ka. Dapat you consider yourself no greater or lesser because of the color of your skin. You are a human being. And when you are hosted by a different culture, matuto gumalang sa kultura ng iba. Hindi yung ikaw pa yung mayabang. Just as pag sila nasa pinas, gusto mo igalang din kultura mo.

 

Parang Jose Rizal dapat ang pagdala ng pride. Adapted sya sa ibang kultura, pero mahal nya ang bayan nya.

[shamrock8691]

First of all I am a Filipino not a Pinoy. Ano yung "pinoy"? kakanin na binebenta sa kabilang kanto?

 

Second, I won't Hide my irritation. Yung mga pinakamalakas sumigaw ng "proud to be pinoy" ay mga taong wala naman nagagawa para sa inang bayan. Unang una mga hindi naman nagbabayad ng buwis. Ni walang mga trabaho, therefore walang sariling accomplishment na maipagmamalaki kaya sumasabit lang sa pondillo ni Pacquiao. Ni hindi nga magawang masunod mga simpleng batas kalye. Nakakadismaya higit sa lahat, hindi alam ang sariling saligang batas, kahit pambansang awit hindi alam katahin ng tama. Walang kaalamalam sa kultura at kasaysayan. Komo lang nagche-cheer sila sa mga amboy sa AI, at kay Pacquiao at nakikipagaway sa mga mexicans sa internet "patriotic" daw sila. lol. Proud of something na hindi naman nila naacomplish

 

Third, if I will have the chance to be inside a classroom again, I will teach my students to not listen to the false gospel that the media preaches about this "pinoy pride" nonsense. Kasi pag lumabas sila ng bansa at dala nila ito, baka mas lalong hindi sila makaadapt. Kasi pag nasa ibang bansa ka at kasalamuha mo na ibang lahi, hindi ka dapat nagyayabang ng lahi mo. Dapat citizen of the world ka. Dapat you consider yourself no greater or lesser because of the color of your skin. You are a human being. And when you are hosted by a different culture, matuto gumalang sa kultura ng iba. Hindi yung ikaw pa yung mayabang. Just as pag sila nasa pinas, gusto mo igalang din kultura mo.

 

Parang Jose Rizal dapat ang pagdala ng pride. Adapted sya sa ibang kultura, pero mahal nya ang bayan nya.

Preach brader

[escort]

Are you proud to be a Filipino ? Yes ! Kase hindi muna kayang burahin yon . Sa kulay sa isip sa gawa Filipinong- Filipino ako. Now saan ako hindi proud being a Filipino. Yong pinakikitan masama ng ating kapwa Filipino. Sad to say. Mula sa medya , batas trapiko at sa atin gobeyeno. Nakikita natin ang kawalan ng pagmamahal at respeto sa isat-isa .

 

Sabi ng iba dahil daw sa kahirapang . I don't think so ! Hindi lahat I dahil sa kahirapan. Yong iba nga dyan mayaman. At dahil mainpluwensiya iyo pa ang walang kahiya-hiya sa kabastosan. I'm sure bawat isa sa atin dito alam ang soluyon Iba-iba nga lang ang paraan . Ewan ko lang kung tama ako. Tama bang " mag "MOVE ON" na lang tayo at kalimutang ang hindi natin pinag kasuduan ? Fellow GM , I welcome and respect your comment . Thank you

[temurlenk]

I consider myself a patriot. Although I'm not proud of our county's lack of accomplishment compared to some of our asian neighbors at iba pang mga kapalpakan ng mga politiko ng ating lipunan I still love our country, our rich culture and our history and what we can offer as a people for the betterment of this world. Although I am not happy with the current state of affairs our country is going through I am optimistic that some day we will cross that hurdle and dadating din ang panahon na tuwing sasabihin natin sa mga kaibigan natin sa ibang bansa na proud tayo, hindi ito pabulong or labas sa ilong.

[gp5]

Kindness is my religion. The world is my country. - Dalai Lama.

 

So, I subscribe to the idea that we do not need to be a patriot but should simply be a human.

[temurlenk]

Kindness is my religion. The world is my country. - Dalai Lama.

 

So, I subscribe to the idea that we do not need to be a patriot but should simply be a human.

The Dalai Lama can't even go back to his own country without being arrested. Even Gandhi talked about this but he chose freedom for his people. For me this is ideal but unrealistic especially for oppressed people around the world. Try telling this to people who are invovled in deadly conflicts in Africa or refugees from wartorn Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq or the Palestinians in Gaza... Are they being saved by kindess? Are they being treated like humans? Are they proud to be in a world who seems to have abandoned them? These people are breeding hate for the world in which we live in and nothing can change that unless they have a reason to be proud of who they are as a people with a unique culture and history separate from others and most of all, gain the respect of other nations... then, only then can they start IMAGINING a world without borders. And with the Chinese encroaching on our shores, now is the time to unite and start thinking of who we are and which side we're on... Now is the time to be patriotic.

[Edmund Dantes]

Ang lahi parang relihiyon yan. Di yan pinagyayabang. Dapat isinasabuhay. At dapat marunong ka gumalang sa ibang lahi at di yung puro pagyayabang na sobra kang angat sa kanila. Nung nagtuturo ako, talagang nilabanan ko ang maling impluwensya ng media sa mga bata. Kasi kung maga-abroad sila at dadalhin nila kayabangan na ito, malamang marami sila maiinsulto.

 

Sa totoo lang, di naman nakakaproud maging Filipino yung laging pagsisigaw ng "proud to be pinoy". Nakakahiya pa nga kung tutuusin. Bakit ba kelangan natin ipamukha sa buong mundo na nakikisabit lang naman tayo sa totoo lang kay Pacquiao at charice? At karamihan ng mga humahanga kay Charice ni hindi naman alam yung mga salita sa Lupang Hinirang. Bayang Magiliw nga daw title ng national anthem natin eh.

 

What appalls me is that many of the idiots na nakikipagaway sa social media ay sa totoo lang wala naman inaambag sa bayan natin. Sasabihan pa ako na huwag ko daw tawagin sarili ko na Pilipino komo lang ayaw ko pumusta kay Pacquiao. lol. Yes I am putting my money on mayweather. But I did give service to my country as a public school teacher and at the very least I pay my taxes. Not just income but property lol

[dinibdib]

not anymore