The #OFW: the #Philippines' modern-day heroes are its most powerless citizens! #puso

By -


OFWs as heroes my ass. I have heard countless testimonials from OFWs who have been thoroughly harassed, abused and inconvenienced whenever they're back home in the Philippines. Call them heroes while treating them like crap.

What's worse, OFWs have little to no political clout in their home country. They should have at least some say in the way things are being run in their home country, because after all they're the biggest sponsors of the palamunins back home, while the phrase "OFWs are heroes" are constantly being used in every propaganda piece.

There's an extraordinary amount of self-delusion and hypocrisy going on in the Philippines, moreso than in any other country, more than I daresay Republican America or Putin's Russia. At least they have something real and concrete to brag about, to be proud of. In this country the word pride and achievement is as hollow as the next popular fad craze that they happen to see and mimic on social media or as hollow as a politician's promises.

If George Orwell's 1984 accurately describes contemporary North Korea, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World describes the Philippines with precision.

Filipinos as a whole are people desperate for achievement and self-affirmation. And how low their threshold for achievement has become. They will cling to any sort of tiny triumph, that when examined and looked at against the bigger picture, will seem small and inconsequential to most, but to these desperate people it will look like a giant leap, like an enormous accomplishment, and they will describe it as such.

Think "World's Most Mentos and Coke Fountains", "Most Breastfeeding Simultaneously", "Largest Flaming Image", "Most People Walking on a Catwalk", "Longest Basketball Game", and the list goes on. Reported all over the national news. Small, trivial and pathetic to most, but to Filipinos these may as well seem like the first walk on the moon.

Think Gilas who lost all their games and won none (despite already having non-native Filipino imports); yet they are still being celebrated. Hell I remember when the "Fall of Bataan" was being celebrated, a wartime defeat being celebrated for some inscrutable reason only Filipinos and their loser mentality are privy to.

-----------------
This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion!
http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/09/winning-heroism-and-the-palamunin-mentality-in-philippine-society/comment-page-1/#comment-681320

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular this week

Filipinos are taught by their parents to flush at public toilets with their feet. Is this RIGHT??

By -
Image
Public toilets in the Philippines are seen to be dirty. As such many Filipinos are taught by their parents to use their feet to operate the flush lever after using a public toilet. The prevalence of this practice was confirmed after a tweet from a Filipino Netizens describing the practice attracted wide approval... Is this the right way to solve the problem of unsanitary public toilets in the Philippines? By teaching kids to use their feet to operate such facilities? It's more like teaching them to be inconsiderate and rather than be good members of the community. No wonder public facilities in the Philippines suck. It's because their users suck.
Read more

The slow steep decline of Camp John Hay in #Baguio under #Filipino management

By -
Image
Camp John Hay (Baguio) is a perfect example of this. Back when the US bases were still existing it was touted as the best R&R facility for US military personnel in the Pacific. Unfortunately, much of Camp John Hay now, despite its purported "corporate care," is mired in stacks of intricate court cases. Hotels which are supposed to bring in cash to Baguio are still closed due to litigation. Around a dozen old bunk houses have been bulldozed for faux-log cabins nobody uses anyway. The corporations which supposedly take care of Camp John Hay's well-being refuse to pay taxes to the government because they think they have some sort of "special privilege." At the center of this all is a lawyer-politician under the Liberal Party banner who has plans to become Baguio's mayor. Furthermore, his SJW wife turns her back and keeps silent over John Hay's wanton environmental degradation, and rather be more vocal against the earthballing of trees at SM Baguio
Read more

The sound of a #Tagalog convo: 'like chickens and hens cackling in unison'

By -
Image
While I'm not sure the language should totally go the way Latin did, one can't deny the limited use of Tagalog. As it is now, a sentence can't be done without two or three borrowed words in English which makes it redundant in academia. Somehow you gotta address the technical jargon but there really is no equivalent to it in Tagalog so the English term just ends up jammed in between the local vernacular. Nevermind the fact that reading Tagalog online is cringey no matter who wrote it. Add the fact that it just doesn't sound pleasing to the ear. Normal conversation with Tagalog is like chickens and hens cackling in unison to the uninitiated. It's the peasants' language through and through. ------------ This is a GRP Featured Comment. Join the discussion! http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2014/06/kudos-to-the-commission-on-higher-education-ched-for-finally-junking-tagalog/comment-page-1/#comment-544143
Read more