Martial law in Mindanao extended. Self-serving charter change. Plunderers freed. Unfortunately, little outrage. “I do not know what the majority cares for now” (link). Something I wrote as a comment in the Society of Honor, quoted by Joe America. Kaginhawaan ng bayan is defined by some as (link) masaganang ani at pagiging palaanak ng mga babae at pagdami ng mga alagang hayop tulad ng mga babuy. Annoying that baboy is spelled babuy, is somebody trying very hard to be rustical? Aside from that, isn’t that a very limited kind of definition? Sure, that is how the first agricultural communities all over the world started – with or without babuy. Food and families are the backbone of a healthy society, but that it the simplest level of being.
Defining the people
That level of being could include being completely without modern stuff like vaccines. Without modern stuff like due process, just drug lists compiled by the barangay captain. After all, they are doing it for the good of the bayan, the true Filipinos, to clean society! And about “1898 hanggang Kasalukuyan kung kailan ang mga naging elit at Inglesero ay patuloy pang binubuhay ng mga Pilipinong naging tapat sa sariling Kalinangan” – the English-speaking elite being kept alive since 1898 by Filipinos true to their culture? Alan Robles reacted to the my last article which contained the quote like this (link): Oh no, I write in English, I must be an ingleserong elitista who oppresses the masses who truly represent Filipino culture. Wait, where’s my latigo? My opulent manorial elitista estates?
But exactly that Zeitgeist or spirit of the times makes it easy for people to believe that Mar Roxas really stole Yolanda funds, which he definitely did not, or that Maria Ressa of Rappler, very Americanized, former CNN journalist, has somehow cheated with taxes. While at the same time, “true Filipinos” like Manny Pacquiao or Bong Revilla continue to be cheered by a lot of people. Sometimes – as someone of mixed race who grew up in the Philippines – I have a feeling some Filipinos with the native crab mentality would still consider Ingleseros (English-speakers), kanluranin (Westernized people) or mestizos as rich if they had money left for an espresso once a month, and too proud if they dared fight back at those who will accuse them of nearly anything. One can’t win against that.
Of cultural divides
The Philippines has its widely discussed cultural divide. Europe has the Hajnal line (link) which separates South / East and North / West of Europe, the latter being individualistic while the former is more collective. In the Balkan, one could also say that villages are like in the model of kaginhawaan mentioned above, very group-oriented and traditional. While that certainly can have the advantage of solidarity and warmth, it can also be an oppressive state of affairs. Individualistic can at times be cold, freedom is not for free. Call me biased – or maybe it just what I have gotten used to – I like the middle of the road way that Bavaria represents, not too rough and tumble like neoliberal England, but still on the Western / Northern side of the Hajnal line. There are more aspects to this.
Croatia and Serbia are both South / East of the Hajnal line, but one is less collectivistic while Serbia is very collectivistic. The civil war that destroyed Yugoslavia had aspects like the Serbians calling the Croatians way too Westernized – and themselves “braver”. One must know that the most liberal part of ex-Yugoslavia, Slovenia, was nearly always under Austrian rule, Croatia was under either Austrian or Hungarian rule, while the more conservative parts were under Turkish rule. The Philippines also has been under two colonial powers, one very liberal (USA) and one very conservative (Spain). Edgar Lores details this in a comment (link). Is this the reason why the nationalistic / cosmopolitan conflict and the overlapping DDS / dilawan conflict remind me so much of Yugoslavia?
Do people learn?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Antifragile, has written about how he and his family, Greek Orthodox Lebanese, were caught flat-footed when their country imploded and became more of a Near Eastern country, from having been a zone where Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern aspects existed side by side. Possibly, this is the way the world has been going since the 19th century when Turks and Greeks expelled one another from territories where they had been peaceful neighbors for many centuries. Don’t remember which city in Crete that was where the abandoned Turkish quarter and its mosque look like they left only yesterday. Cyprus of course has its demarcation line. Yugoslavia’s breakdown literally had in-laws going at each other, suddenly “strangers”.
The Philippines I believe never was truly more open-minded, just a bit more tolerant. Tolerant also because everybody could retreat into his own island and ethnic group, into his own clan, into his own comfort zone. An archipelago, both literally and culturally. Recent events show that there may be no more space, both physically and culturally, to continue that way – and little practice in dealing with other people and other opinions. Filipino 100%ers as described by Joe America could be “Lodis” (idols) within their own respective groups, whether it is Orion Perez in CORRECT or “President” Eli Pamatong or Pastor Quiboloy. The archipelago always had space for Tamblots, Dagohoys, sakdal groups who believed anting-anting rendered them invulnerable, to each his own belief.
Now there is a President who actively attacks Catholicism nearly 500 years later (link) and has international institutions like the ICC and UN as well as Western groups that are for human rights as his Feindbilder or bogeymen. Long-standing latent resentments of common Filipinos against Westernized elites could also be activated by his rhetoric – in order to neutralize both those who would otherwise have had the power to stop his shift towards China, and the modern, “woke” part of the Westernized Filipino elite. He cannot as easily neutralize those like VP Leni and the People’s Champions (link) since they are finally weaving liberalism into the fabric of Filipino culture, “naturalizing it”. Some might quickly try to turn the tide backwards. The Philippines is at a junction point.
Irineo B. R. Salazar
München, 13 December 2018
