The Philippine Nation-State, Minority Culture and Globalization
An essay by Leslie E. Bauzon, Ph.D. What is globalization to the members of the minority groups in the Philippines? How does globalization affect our ongoing struggle for unity among the Filipino people? And, as a whole, does the Philippines benefit from globalization when it comes to nation-building? These are the implied questions that the essay is imposing onto its readers. What is globalization? According to the essay of Josef Blahoz, Political Culture and Globalization,
“Globalization means that all important social processes become universal due to the ever more intensive interconnection of social events. Their causes and effects condition one another.” With this, Bauzon’s essay expounded the “barrier-less” globalization which exploits every possible way to earn capital in terms of natural resources and cheap labor. In this process of acquiring wealth, there has been an annihilation of cultural practices and tradition which greatly affect the minority groups. With this being said, let us examine the situations presented in the said essay on how globalization specifically affected these groups. Such were:
1. Discrimination of the Christians towards the Muslims especially in Mindanao that is leading towards its desire for separation from the Philippines.
With the Christianization of the Philippines since the time of Spanish occupations, the Christianized lowlanders think lowly of the Muslims because according to them, they are not part of the Philippines because they do not submit themselves under the reign of Spain. Furthermore, at the present time, the media instinctively brands muslims as terrorists hence, almost all of the non-Muslim people also think the same, hence, a further discrimination towards the group.
This unfortunate history of the Philippines plus the globalized media lead the stereotype of Muslim Mindanao as fearsome, warlike, treacherous, filthy and
Bibliography: Bauzon, Leslie E. The Philippine Nation-State, Minority Culture and Globalization. Political Culture and Globalization. International Federation of Social Science Organizations: Philippines. 2002. Print. Blahoz, Josef. Political Culture and Globalization. Political Culture and Globalization. International Federation of Social Science Organizations: Philippines. 2002. Print.