Fil-Am "pride" in being "Filipino": Where's the substance?

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The venerable owner of AntiPinoy.com, BongV made this status update on Facebook just a few minutes ago...
o yung mga noypi na nasa merka - kung proud na proud kayo sa pinas - umuwi kayo sa pinas at doon kayo manirahan - tingnatin hanggang saan aabot yang pride nyo

Roughly translated it goes something like this...

Hey all you Filipinos in America who keep crowing about being "proud to be Pinoy", why don't y'all go back to the Philippines and try living there. Let's see how far this "pride" will get you...

Indeed, the question with regard to this "pride" in being "Filipino" is under any circumstance subject to this simple counter-challenge:

Pride in what exactly?

For me, real and sustainable pride is one that is substantiated by real achievement.

So in the context of Manny Pacquiao, Charice Pempengco, and our dear President Noynoy Aquino who happens to be in the U.S. as I write this, perhaps ask yourselves:

Are you proud of them? Or are you proud because of them?

The earlier can at least remotely make sense. But the latter is a real head scratcher.

How does the individual achievement of a Filipino rub off on the rest of his/her compatriots by virtue of mere shared ethnicity?

There is no sense in that notion and therefore nothing in it that can substantiate pride asserted on those bases.

Comments

  1. Fabrice Santoro2:41 am, September 24, 2010

    I am "in awe" of how manny got to where he was and am "amazed" at charice's whitney houston copy cat singing voice for a little girl and I am "envious" of noy noy's rise to power. And Pride? I'm proud to be where I am despite being filipino...but also proud of how filipino's generally care about relatives as opposed to westerners...I grew up in the states and am living in canada but I now realize how heartless I am to my relatives compared to everyone else...hehe

    ReplyDelete
  2. Proud Pinoy4:21 pm, September 25, 2010

    Fabrice,

    Ask yourself: How many groups of people have the honor of referring to themselves after a great monarch? You should be proud of that!

    ReplyDelete
  3. benign08:43 pm, September 25, 2010

    Yeah a "great" monarch that is great for the wrong reasons, :-D

    ReplyDelete
  4. jigger4:31 am, September 26, 2010

    am proud im pinoy, im proud of manny and charice... we should all filipinos be! we maybe a poor country, but we are also home to great people such as Rizal, Paeng, Bata, pacquiao and now charice. what is so wrong of being proud? we are being bullied by others, and being proud is the ist step in letting them know that we stand! if you cant stand with us,we dont mind, nobody ask you to! whos having fun living in a foreign country and being discriminated on a daily basis? we all just need to put food on our families table..
    whats to be proud of? pilipino ako!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Proudpinoy7:54 pm, September 26, 2010

    Jigger,

    We have lots to be proud of indeed.

    Let me also add a few more names: Vanessa Hudgens, Rob Schneider, Phoebe Cates, Lou Diamond Phillips, Nicole Scherzinger, Black Eyed Pea APL, Gold Medalist Natalie Coughlin, Cheryl Burke, Monique Lhuillier, Angela Perez Baraquio, USMaj. Gen. Edward Soriano, USBrig. Gen. Archine Laano, USBrig. Gen. Antonio Taguba, Gov. Benjamin J. Cayetano, Cristeta Comerford, etc, etc, etc!

    Ano? Tameme na sa Benny so I will stop na.

    ReplyDelete
  6. kikay4:31 pm, November 04, 2010

    Yeah... except that those you named were either born or grew up in the states. Where do you think these people would have been if they or their parents had not uprooted themselves and migrated to another country?

    ReplyDelete

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