Colonial Mentality(Oration)

September 30, 2009

It was a very different Sunday that opened my mind to how far the Filipinos have gone. On that same day, my friend and I went shopping. While she was busy choosing the groceries she needed for her new recipe, I decided to roam around and look for my own necessities. While roaming around, I saw a mother and a child with loads of groceries. But what caught my attention was the facial expression of the mother: She seemed to be angry and scolding her child and that tempted me to listen to them in discrete manner. Would you like to know what I heard? The mother was scolding her child simply because the child did not want those imported chocolate bars and candies.H ow shameful of the mother! What was she trying to prove? Why did she have to scold her child for such a reason? What’s so nice about those imported chocolate bars? Anything so special about them? Anything so unique and different about them?

 

Yes, Ladies and gentlemen, we Filipinos cling to the fact that Foreign countries are far better than our own country and believed that  foreign countries’ products are the one’s we ought to possess and utilize.

 

Indeed! Foreign countries are better than our own country. But Ladies and gentlemen, can’t we just have that nationalism we Filipinos supposed to have? You are a Filipino and whatever your beloved country produces, you should be proud of it and be satisfied. Ladies and gentlemen, if We Filipinos, You and I will take pride in patronizing our own products, the aspirations and goals of our fellow filipino who wish and struggle to produce better goods will surely not go to waste. They will surely strive more to make better goods. We really can’t be like those foreign countries in just a short span of time, but at least we’ve tried our best and took the initiative and opportunity of improving ourselves. We have to persevereto attain our goals and keep on reminding ourselves to pursue that goal for our countrie’s betterment.

 

One more thing that we should think of…Our ancestors handed over to us a very precious heirloom, culture accompanied with values such as the bayanihan spirit, hospitality to visitors, care for those in need, faith to God and etc. Ladies and gentlemen, if only these great Filipino cultures and values would be planted deep into the very nucleus of everyone’s heart, evil things such as envy, avarice, hatred, pride, lust and corruption will surely be eliminated.

 

My dear Filipinos, how would you like to be considered strangers in your own native land?