Our Colonial Mentality,Damaged Culture and Their Roots

Our Colonial Mentality,Damaged Culture and Their Roots

Then and now, an American -who has replaced more subtly, efficiently and effectively the Spaniard- seems to reside in the mind of each Filipino in each generation since the US conquest and occupation of the Philippines. Consequently, the Filipino has been conditioned to -knowingly or unknowingly- think and analyze economic and political issues in our homeland from the American point of view.
To change this way of thinking, the American in his mind need to be removed to arouse Filipinismin his heart and mind in matters of national interests; for Filipinism to take over when dealing with the American government/transnational corporations (for that matter: any other foreign country, people or entity.)
The primary task for Filipinos is to raise their nationalistic consciousness, either through self or formal/informal education, beginning with a recognition and appreciation of their colonial mentality and exerting a conscious effort to discard it. It is only with Filipino nationalism, a nationalistic consciousness in his mind and heart will the Filipino be able to fight, deal and work with utmost determination for his own betterment and those of his children and grandchildren.
Below is an excellent article, quite dated but still extremely relevant, written in 1984 by Leticia Constantino (wife of the great Filipino nationalist of recent history - the late Prof. Renato Constantino). In the Foreword to her book from which I extracted the article, Mrs. Constantino wrote that while her husband's tasks were to analyze Philippine Education Today and other impediments to realizing Filipino Nationalism, her task was to answer the question "What Is To Be Done?"
NOTE: All her thoughts before journalist James Fallows visited and wrote his popular piece about our "damaged culture," i.e. absence of Filipino nationalism, in 1987. Fallows must have read this essay by Mrs. Constantino. Again, we Filipinos due to our colonial mentality would tend to appreciate and pay attention to what foreigners, i.e. mostly Americans like Fallows, say. In contrast, we Filipinos would tend to ignore, belittle and argue vehemently against what our own nationalist intellectuals already knew and understood, said or wrote about (in certain issues our Americanized minds, consciously or unconsciously, make us more American than Americans -repeatedly demonstrating to the world our mendicant/servile attitude).