when i was still working in an NGO, i attended a lot of workshops with participants coming from different parts of the country. in one workshop about what reforms our country needs, there was this person who keeps on insisting that there is a need for a cultural revolution. im not sure if this was his exact words but its something to this effect: that we need to re-establish our cultural values. i agree that there is a need for such kind of revolution but how do we do it? weve been successfully colonized and our mentality as a nation probably irreversibly altered.
im not sure what Filipino culture is except its a mix of a lot of cultures, both western and asian. there's such a thing as Filipino food, the hospitality trait, the bayanihan spirit, etc but its not really fixed in a coherent whole. we have so many languages. we have separatist movements. we have an imperial manila mentality for those in the NCR. Pacquiao is the embodiment of Filipino pride. nationalism came to the forefront through Francis M and his three stars and a sun (and the collezione Philippine archipelago shirts). the way i see it, we have a concept of the form of our culture but it doesnt have substance. its like we're lost and desperate so we grab on to anything we can be proud of. we have a sense of nationalism but the ties that bind us as a nation arent really strong. our sense of identity is weak and were a nation prone to having an identity crisis.
i think fixing the cultural problem that will give us a much stronger and definite sense of identity and pride will make our political, social and economic problems much easier to solve.
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