(On False Pride and Ideas of Grandiosity)
Maraming Filipino, nabanggit lang ang Pilipinas sa isang news segment sa local Canadian TV, e yumayabang na agad, na kesyo sikat na sikat daw ang Pilipinas sa buong mundo.
I’m speaking as someone who has been living in Canada for almost 10 years and having been in interaction with people of various nationalities:
For the most part of it, every time the Philippines is in international news for whatever reason, most of the non-Filipinos I know simply get interested in the news only for that fleeting moment. After watching the news or learning about the news, about after a day or two—or even a few hours after—the news about the Philippines has faded away from their attention.
Most often, only Filipinos living here are the ones who get affected and get caught up with such news about their homeland—of course, it’s their country! In fact, Filipinos who were born and raised here no longer have a strong affiliation or affinity with the Philippines. They are more attached to Canada. Of course, this is their country now.
I notice too that this issue applies to other nationalities.
For example, I have a coworker who immigrated to Canada from Egypt; when the international news last year was ripe with news about the state of affairs in Egypt, that coworker of mine was the one who was really interested in the news—talking about it every now and then for a long time. Of course, he’s from Egypt, so he’s more attached to it.
Bottomline, when Filipinos in the Philippines claim that the Philippines is really becoming very popular even in other countries, this is partly delusional and illusory. They think that the whole world is looking at the Philippines. I think, they are not. People in other countries, especially those from other races, have other more important and pressing things to think of and mind on a daily basis. To many of them, the Philippines is just another country in some corner of the world. And I am saying this without sarcasm.
Let’s put it on the opposite perspective: What if I point to the fact that there are lots of killings in Sudan, and news about this are also on international news, do you think many Filipinos would spend hours thinking about it? I don’t think so, simply because the state of affairs in Sudan doesn’t directly concern them, unless a certain Filipino has a family member or a relative working there.
The whole issue here is what, in Psychology, we may associate with delusion of grandiosity, in which an individual assume that, just because he himself is very much attached or affected by a certain issue, all the other people are also affected by it in equal measures. This is a kind of delusion that involves also a false sense of personal or national pride.
Sa Madaling Salita
Huwag masyadong maging makabayan. Huwag isipin na ang sariling bansa o kulturamo lang ang kailangang maging sikat. Huwag mong isipin na porke nabanggit ang Pilipinas sa isang balita e sikat na agad ito sa lahat ng tao.
Or, in Simple Words
There is a fine line between nationalism and discrimination. Many overzealously patriotic people fall in the folly of assuming that their country or culture is the best in the world, failing to acknowledge that every nation has its own good and bad. One should maintain a good balance—promote the good aspects of one’s own country and recognizing its faults while taking the time also to look at the beauty of other cultures.
