FOR YEARS NOW, we have been urging our dear readers to acknowledge, confront and conquer our nation’s collective Colonial Mentality, which in our view has limited our emergence and growth as a people.
At its core, colonial mentality is our “deathless” and rancidly enduring “gift” from “serial waves” of colonizers, who have brainwashed us into thinking that “foreign” is intrinsically “better” than “local.”
Many Filipinos continue to subliminally think, feel and act this way, but heatedly believe that this is not the huge, seminal problem it is. Thus, the effects of colonial mentality continue to fester “with consent,” and we’re all the poorer and weaker for it.
Potent
At no other time of the year is this “deathless” colonial bondage more evident and potent than during Valentine’s month, when veritable droves of foreign entertainers edge Filipino singers and musicians out of the spotlight that by rights should be their home turf—and thousands of local music fans pay hundreds and even thousands of pesos for the expensive “pleasure” of hearing and seeing their “world-class” musical idols perform live and “in the flesh.”
The onerous situation has gotten so bad that our artists are hurting—and are crying out for more equitable treatment from their countrymen. But, many music fans dismiss their plaintive pleas as peevish sour-graping.
In the global marketplace that we all inhabit, they say, you have to compete in order to survive, and if “knowledgeable” music fans like the imports’ music better than yours, tough.
The “global” argument may be trendy, but it’s sadly wrong-headed. It blithely presumes that our five centuries of colonialization and oppression never happened, so we’re inherently at par in terms of cultural integrity with other countries.
Alas, this is tragically not true, and our “serial waves” of colonizers have made sure of that, blinding us to the potential richness and rightness of our own musical arts in vivifying our unique wellsprings and psychic power as a people.
Unique richness
If all we love to do is sing other cultures’ music and go ga-ga over “international” and “global” faves, how can our nation benefit from that unique richness and rightness? —It can't, and we really are the poorer for it.
Unfortunately, many of us still don’t see how our colonizers have warped our values, standards and preferences, and “gifted” us with the “damaged culture” that other, more objective observers have perceived to be our major psychological and psychic disability as a nation.
Seeing the light
If this piece has helped make you see the light in this regard, what can you do to rehabilitate and reorient your own thoughts, feelings and actions?
First, our collective mantra should radically up-end our colonizers’ insidious claim that “local” is poorer than “imported.” We should all declare: Filipino first—and best!
And, even if in some instances it isn’t (yet), we should persevere and give “local” the care and feeding it has missed all these years. It took centuries to reduce us to what we are now, so don’t expect overnight miracles. Give the rehabilitation and restitution process the years it needs to make up for the deadly sins and lies of the past—and, start now.
Of course, our “musical colonialism” is just a small part of our general cultural subjugation to western countries’ standards and preferences, but it can be a good, seminal start.
Instead of favoring foreign acts, let’s consciously and decisively support our own musical artists by watching a Filipino show this Valentine month.
For their part, our artists have the responsibility of not taking our support for granted, and giving us the best performances of their lives.
—Fair exchange? Great. Start now.
When in Cebu City, please visit gregmelep.com for your real estate and retirement needs.
Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
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