Goodbye colonial mentality
April 17, 2005 | 12:00am
Colonial mentality is dead. We can kiss it goodbye. Sociologists and historians blame colonial mentality as the devil incarnate who instigated our inferiority complex, lack of racial integrity and proclivity for thinking small.
Surprise! Nationalism, which raged for decades in front of the US Embassy and in the halls of Congress, did not kill colonial mentality.
Globalism did it! This new business and financial order delivered the death blow to colonial mentality.
Globalism is the new economic "ism" born of the cost of doing business which created a critical mass of manufacturers and consumers on a global scale so dominant the "ism" became the paradigm shift. Globalism cuts forcibly across country barriers and boundaries.
Coaxed by the speed and reach of the all-encroaching information technology, the needs for food, convenience, leisure and pleasure of people all over the world are undergoing a fast-track journey toward consumer homogenization.
Against globalism, nationalism seems nitpicking.
We must admit, though, that our lifestyle change and tastes upgrade happened during the decades of American rule (1900-47).
As a bratty kid in the late 1930s, I demanded for pasalubong from my mother only Hershey’s Kisses from New Jersey and Wrigley’s chewing gum from Chicago.
My appetite for branded and packaged confectionery from the US of A sidelined maruya and palitaw, made fresh daily by little old ladies in my hometown.
On the household level, everyone enjoys either a can of sautéed Libby’s corned beef from Chicago, or Portola sardines in tomato sauce from Monterey, California.
To push colonial mentality to a ridiculous extreme, the Dumagat tribe in Sierra Madre used the fishy-can smell as status symbol by rubbing the oily sauce on their hair to signal scent allure.
The hermetically sealed can was the fantastic ready-to-eat food in households where the refrigerator was nonexistent and the palengke day for fresh fish and meat needs limited to a once-a-week occurrence.
On a personal status level, I recall my uncle Guillermo’s new Florsheim shoes bought in Escolta in the early Forties. He wore them going to Sunday Mass and the shoes were the talk of the town: Florsheim yata’ yan!
Another uncle, Elfren, was reprimanded for watching a Greta Garbo film at the Ideal Theater while the wake of his father was in progress at Funeraria Nacional. Uncle Elfren fantasized about Greta Garbo’s silky white skin, blond hair and matangos na ilong.
On the hacendero level, the chug-chuging Model T Ford left dust on the hoi polloi, making a statement on the gap between the rich and the poor and demonstrating the superiority of engine-run automobile versus the slowpoke karetela.
Remember 1945, when the American soldiers, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, liberated Manila. The streets were lined with people, haggard and hungry from years of food scarcity and deprivation. They yelled jubilantly, "Victory Joe! Victory Joe!"
From their six-by-six trucks and Eisenhower jeeps, American soldiers showered the crowd with American goodies – Hershey’s chocolate bars and Wrigley’s chewing gum and Lucky Strike cigarettes.
From army surplus food depots flowed canned corned beef, luncheon meat, pork and beans, and sardines to satisfy the terrible carvings of Filipinos for American canned foods, after being deprived of them for five hungry years of Japanese rule.
In the Sixties all the way to the Seventies import control heightened the desire of American brands. The PX goods business thrived in Dau, Pampanga, courtesy of US servicemen from Clark Field making palusot.
In the Eighties shopping for imported goods at the Duty Free Shop was the ultimate pleasure a Saudi worker could give his wife and children.
Today a balikbayan box is still filled with American buys from K-Mart bargain bins as pasalubong.
Consumerism, however, is not the main cause of colonial mentality.
Power politics is.
The seeds of colonialism were planted during the age of exploration, when the advanced civilizations with great maritime power went on a a search for knowledge and adventure beyond their shores.
These explorers took it upon themselves to plant their systems for the idyllic natives in distant lands deemed in need of social and political civilizing.
The exploitive acts simply followed and greed reared its ugly head, no matter how the colonizers sugarcoated their unfair trade practices.
In the Philippines, US colonialization was double-edged, because the adaptation of the American system of education was first on the agenda. The moment we started to write, read and speak English our affinity with the United States developed. Our English-language skill gave us access to the language and structure of democratic governance, efficient civil service, practice of trade and commerce, and arts and literature. We became the only English-speaking country in Asia and the first to adopt a democratic government, patterned after the American model.
A few of our nationalist politicians, however, were outspoken in defending Philippine sovereignty. Our Commonwealth president Manuel Luis Quezon, piqued at American bully tactics said, "I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans!"
Another brilliant nationalist, Senator Claro M. Recto, condemned in the hall of Congress exploitative treaties which violated Filipino rights.
What about migrants, green-card holders and TNTs? Are they afflicted with colonial mentality? Not quite. A poor economy and lousy governance are the main culprits. The lack of equal opportunities and next to impossible access to middle-class lifestyle (a suburban home with a two-car garage, a double door ref filled with Walmart shoppers list, travels for the whole world to seek better lives for their families in America.
Nationalism has one impracticality. You can’t eat it.
On the bright side, Philippine brands have emerged as genuine global brands because of their world-class quality, the most famous of them all, Jollibee and San Miguel Beer. Other brands such as URC’s Jack & Jill chips and Créme-O are now Asian brands available in Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Bench and Kamiseta, brands of casual fashion, have made inroads in China. Mandaue-crafted furnitures are the toast of interior decorators in North America. Mindanao’s bananas and pineapples and Guimaras’ mangoes are favorites in Japan, China and other European countries.
I still enjoy Hershey’s Kisses. But with global economy my repertoire of delicious eats has widened since then to include Thai kwi tiew, Indian tandoori, Mexican fajitas Vietnamese rolls, Mediterranean shawarma, Italian panini, Japanese sushi and other delectables at Santi’s Delicatessen. And, of course, puto bumbong and pichi-pichi.
Hence, I’m now a globalist consumer. Not (pardon the pun) a mental colony.
Surprise! Nationalism, which raged for decades in front of the US Embassy and in the halls of Congress, did not kill colonial mentality.
Globalism did it! This new business and financial order delivered the death blow to colonial mentality.
Globalism is the new economic "ism" born of the cost of doing business which created a critical mass of manufacturers and consumers on a global scale so dominant the "ism" became the paradigm shift. Globalism cuts forcibly across country barriers and boundaries.
Coaxed by the speed and reach of the all-encroaching information technology, the needs for food, convenience, leisure and pleasure of people all over the world are undergoing a fast-track journey toward consumer homogenization.
Against globalism, nationalism seems nitpicking.
We must admit, though, that our lifestyle change and tastes upgrade happened during the decades of American rule (1900-47).
As a bratty kid in the late 1930s, I demanded for pasalubong from my mother only Hershey’s Kisses from New Jersey and Wrigley’s chewing gum from Chicago.
My appetite for branded and packaged confectionery from the US of A sidelined maruya and palitaw, made fresh daily by little old ladies in my hometown.
On the household level, everyone enjoys either a can of sautéed Libby’s corned beef from Chicago, or Portola sardines in tomato sauce from Monterey, California.
To push colonial mentality to a ridiculous extreme, the Dumagat tribe in Sierra Madre used the fishy-can smell as status symbol by rubbing the oily sauce on their hair to signal scent allure.
The hermetically sealed can was the fantastic ready-to-eat food in households where the refrigerator was nonexistent and the palengke day for fresh fish and meat needs limited to a once-a-week occurrence.
On a personal status level, I recall my uncle Guillermo’s new Florsheim shoes bought in Escolta in the early Forties. He wore them going to Sunday Mass and the shoes were the talk of the town: Florsheim yata’ yan!
Another uncle, Elfren, was reprimanded for watching a Greta Garbo film at the Ideal Theater while the wake of his father was in progress at Funeraria Nacional. Uncle Elfren fantasized about Greta Garbo’s silky white skin, blond hair and matangos na ilong.
On the hacendero level, the chug-chuging Model T Ford left dust on the hoi polloi, making a statement on the gap between the rich and the poor and demonstrating the superiority of engine-run automobile versus the slowpoke karetela.
Remember 1945, when the American soldiers, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, liberated Manila. The streets were lined with people, haggard and hungry from years of food scarcity and deprivation. They yelled jubilantly, "Victory Joe! Victory Joe!"
From their six-by-six trucks and Eisenhower jeeps, American soldiers showered the crowd with American goodies – Hershey’s chocolate bars and Wrigley’s chewing gum and Lucky Strike cigarettes.
From army surplus food depots flowed canned corned beef, luncheon meat, pork and beans, and sardines to satisfy the terrible carvings of Filipinos for American canned foods, after being deprived of them for five hungry years of Japanese rule.
In the Sixties all the way to the Seventies import control heightened the desire of American brands. The PX goods business thrived in Dau, Pampanga, courtesy of US servicemen from Clark Field making palusot.
In the Eighties shopping for imported goods at the Duty Free Shop was the ultimate pleasure a Saudi worker could give his wife and children.
Today a balikbayan box is still filled with American buys from K-Mart bargain bins as pasalubong.
Consumerism, however, is not the main cause of colonial mentality.
Power politics is.
The seeds of colonialism were planted during the age of exploration, when the advanced civilizations with great maritime power went on a a search for knowledge and adventure beyond their shores.
These explorers took it upon themselves to plant their systems for the idyllic natives in distant lands deemed in need of social and political civilizing.
The exploitive acts simply followed and greed reared its ugly head, no matter how the colonizers sugarcoated their unfair trade practices.
In the Philippines, US colonialization was double-edged, because the adaptation of the American system of education was first on the agenda. The moment we started to write, read and speak English our affinity with the United States developed. Our English-language skill gave us access to the language and structure of democratic governance, efficient civil service, practice of trade and commerce, and arts and literature. We became the only English-speaking country in Asia and the first to adopt a democratic government, patterned after the American model.
A few of our nationalist politicians, however, were outspoken in defending Philippine sovereignty. Our Commonwealth president Manuel Luis Quezon, piqued at American bully tactics said, "I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans!"
Another brilliant nationalist, Senator Claro M. Recto, condemned in the hall of Congress exploitative treaties which violated Filipino rights.
What about migrants, green-card holders and TNTs? Are they afflicted with colonial mentality? Not quite. A poor economy and lousy governance are the main culprits. The lack of equal opportunities and next to impossible access to middle-class lifestyle (a suburban home with a two-car garage, a double door ref filled with Walmart shoppers list, travels for the whole world to seek better lives for their families in America.
Nationalism has one impracticality. You can’t eat it.
On the bright side, Philippine brands have emerged as genuine global brands because of their world-class quality, the most famous of them all, Jollibee and San Miguel Beer. Other brands such as URC’s Jack & Jill chips and Créme-O are now Asian brands available in Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Bench and Kamiseta, brands of casual fashion, have made inroads in China. Mandaue-crafted furnitures are the toast of interior decorators in North America. Mindanao’s bananas and pineapples and Guimaras’ mangoes are favorites in Japan, China and other European countries.
I still enjoy Hershey’s Kisses. But with global economy my repertoire of delicious eats has widened since then to include Thai kwi tiew, Indian tandoori, Mexican fajitas Vietnamese rolls, Mediterranean shawarma, Italian panini, Japanese sushi and other delectables at Santi’s Delicatessen. And, of course, puto bumbong and pichi-pichi.
Hence, I’m now a globalist consumer. Not (pardon the pun) a mental colony.
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