Why do Filipinos act like kept harlots?

The Lance Corporal Daniel Smith custody issue triggered rallies in the vicinity of the United States (US) Embassy in Manila against the VFA (Visiting Forces Agreement). Many of these anti-VFA rallies were violently dispersed by the police.

As seen on primetime television, these rallies involved young men and women and it is hard to fathom how the police can perceive them as threats to peace and order. Why then do the police have to disperse the young rallyists with such brutality?

Considering that the Cpl. Daniel Smith custody issue involves Filipino pride in the face of an obviously one-sided VFA, we wonder if there is a tinge of nationalism at all in the Filipino hearts of these policemen.

How come we as a people seem unable to recognize the real damage that the opportunistic foreign superpowers are doing to our country. Instead of protecting our country, how come many of us are stupidly inclined to fight fellow Filipinos instead?

How come we can only see the corrupt practices of fellow Filipinos? But when it comes to superpower exploitation — far more damaging than what all the Filipino plunderers steal — we are indifferent and apathetic.

How come over here it has become legal and popular to protect the interests of foreigners (like passing the Mining Act that promoted foreign development of Philippine ore) and illegal to question these acts of betrayal (like when anti-Mining Act demonstrators are jailed).

Of course, for the majority of Filipinos, that attitude stems from ignorance or what the eminent Professor Emmanuel Q. Yap calls IDIOCY — the inability to know the truth. But then, considering Filipino reaction to the corruption and murders tagged to the government — we wonder if awareness of foreign exploitation will merit any reaction from Filipinos too.

Is it therefore a question of lack of awareness or to be brutally frank about it - the lack of patriotism and nationalism? Is it a case of surrendering to a superpower even before a good fight is fought?

If the SWS or Pulse Asia surveyed Filipinos whether they would be willing to fight exploiting superpowers and their reason for answering YES or NO, will it surprise you if a majority of the respondents will answer NO and state that it is pointless to fight a superior force?

Can nationalistic natives win over a superpower that is attempting to dominate and exploit their country? Of course, they can. It has been done. Over the last four decades, there have been nationalists who fought superpowers and won.

Recently, the Iraqi resistance to the US-led invasion of their country is a good showcase of nationalists who drove away a superpower-led occupation. The US-led coalition is set to leave Iraq.

Not too long ago, the North Vietnamese defeated and expelled the mighty US and before that, the French. After the Vietnam War, the Afghans expelled the hitherto undefeated Red Army of the now defunct USSR.

The Vietnamese and Afghan victories were attained with the support of other superpowers. The North Vietnamese were supported by the USSR while the Afghans were supported by the US. The Iraqi nationalists are said to be supported by Iran and Syria.

It is a fact of life that when natives are fighting a nationalist war for independence and sovereignty against a superpower — a superpower rival will tend to support the nationalists. This is what proxy war is all about.

If the Filipinos decide to fight US domination, especially its sinister agenda in Mindanao and the Spratlys, expect China and Russia to want to help Filipinos wage that war. The big question is: Do Filipinos have the nationalism, the heart and the resolve — like the Iraqis, North Vietnamese and Afghans — to fight the US?

Maybe those Filipinos who are suffering the most from the exploitation — assuming that they finally know the historical truth — will rise and expel the exploiting superpower. But will our leaders have the same resolve to fight?

Going by their track record, don’t you think our leaders will be the first to betray the nationalist cause in exchange for favors from the superpower? They did that before. From all indications, they are still doing it. So how can we expect them to suddenly change their stripes?

In the era of colonization, when the natives win a resounding military victory, the foreign superpower will call it a massacre. Such was the case in the Battle of Little Big Horn and the Battle of Isandlwana.

The superpower also has the habit of branding the natives as ‘savages’ and then uses that to justify genocide. Such was the case of the genocide of the native Americans and the Aztecs of Mexico.

It is not suggested that we recklessly declare war on the US. Considering how we’ve become the biggest fan of anything American, the whole world will likely laugh at us if we suddenly do that.

However, unless Filipinos demonstrate a united national resolve to correct the long lop-sided US-Philippine relationship, unless we produce real leaders who will fight for our national interests, unless we as a nation prove that we are willing to fight and die for our country — we will remain a vassal state of an exploiting superpower.

We will never be accorded the dignity we deserve and will continue to be treated like a kept harlot.

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Chair Wrecker e-mail and website: [email protected] and www.chairwrecker.com