Racial Slurs

For some time now, Filipinos have been offended by numerous racial slurs from mostly American entertainers. At first, I was totally with the masses in demanding for apologies and whatnot. I would be saying things like "WTF are they talking about? How can they criticize our culture and nation without even knowing us?" and "How dare they say those things about us? Are they perfect? They don't respect people's culture because they have none to speak of...a bunch of land-grabbers!" I am very much into studying various cultures therefore I am fond of countries with rich and ancient civilizations to speak of. In line with that, I do not think highly of countries without much history and traditions. I am not saying that the USA has a "blah" culture, but most of their habits and traditions are borrowed from other countries such as India, China, and numerous countries from Europe because of the settlers there. The rich culture of their "native Americans" have been trampled upon and treated as "idiotic."

I am one of those people who do not join the bandwagon in proclaiming their supremacy primarily because I hate supremacists and for as long as I can remember, Americans have been acting like that. (AT LEAST THOSE ON TV) I am not saying that ALL of them are like that, it's just that the BAD overshadows the GOOD.

I think it is high time that we stop looking up to them and start respecting our own culture and traditions. I hate to say this but we are also to blame for they perception of our country. The recent comments about Manny Pacquiao and the sex tourism in the Philippines is primarily because it is the image that we have somewhat projected. I resent his comment about the women in our country but the FACT is, MANY foreigners go to the Philippines because of the prevalent cases of prostitution in our country. We have a beautiful country, however perverts from other countries flock here not for the beaches and our rich heritage but for erotic entertainment. Besides, of all the things that the Philippines is famous for, why is he only aware of two-- Manny (the "idiot" a.k.a. the Fighter of the Decade) and sex tourism? It really makes you wonder what his priorities are in life. His view of Japan might be of squirming petite ladies and hentai not those of kimonos and zen Buddhism.

In order to stop these offensive racial comments, we should join each other in promoting the good in our country. Stop whipping our own culture wantonly. I am not saying to sing undue praises for our fellow Filipinos, but we should also point out the good and the beauty of our wonderful nation. The media has been bombarding us with news of rallies, corruption, deaths, and whatnot but the only achievement they are happy to share is the victory of the "pacman" over some guy who only hid his face for 12 rounds. Why not share the news of opening a new road, promoting tourism in our vast archipelago, or being champions in various competitions NOT involving boxing gloves?

I would like to think that the Filipinos are educated and intelligent. Why not give ourselves the chance to excel and be known not for sex tourism and boxer-turned-politicians?