identity

You can take a person out of his country but you can't take the country out of the person. In one way or another everyone has at least a passing interest in their roots, and there are always those who want to make sure you never forget where you came from. It's a common phenomenon for the displaced to cling to their roots as an anchor of identity in a sea of anonymity, and filipinos abroad are no exception.

Strangely enough, the filipino in the philippines is often engaged consciously or unconsciously with haphazardly obliterating their cultural identity. I'm not sure if it's just me but don't people find it weird that too many of us take it as a compliment that foreigners don't think we're filipino because of one thing or another?

Go figure.

I have no beef with people who learn english or other languages to be more competetive in the workplace or because they enjoy it. Heck I grew up speaking better english than filipino (although that was a product of the martial-law era's brand of education). Neither do I have any problems with people who would like to become good at arts and disciplines learned from other countries. The question really is who do we really want to become? No one can seem to agree on any answers to this.

Anyway it's nice to know though that there are people who aren't filipino out there who are fascinated with our culture to make up for the natives who are not.