Pinoy: ipakita sa mundo (or at least to the rest of Southeast Asia)

The SEA Games has kicked off with a whimper, and as host country we've done a bang-up job thus far. Yesterday at the flag-raising ceremony at Rizal Park, all the delegations from the participating nations were there... except the delegation from the frickin' host country, who arrived LATE and missed the flag-raising rites all together. I hope someone was singing Lupang Hinirang that morning. What a great demonstration of the infamous cultural practice of "Filipino time". I am postively brimming with national pride.

Another cultural practice which my parents frown upon (and which I sometimes find myself guilty of) is our verbal wishy-washiness. We pepper our sentences with cushion words like "parang" and "yata" and "siguro" and "baka" and "malamang"-- it's like we're not sure of anything we say. My dad says it's because we Pinoys like to play it safe (read: we're yellow-livered sissies): we don't want to offend anyone, and at the same time we don't want to say something inaccurate and be humiliated later on when proven wrong. This cultural quirk is wonderfully highlighted by the seemingly inspiring SEA Games-themed ad campaign by Globe Telecom. Along EDSA, they have lined up these banners that go, "Tapang? Posible." followed by "Pagkakaisa? Posible." then "Tagumpay? Posible." and capped off with "Basta Pinoy, POSIBLE." True, "posible" sounds more decisive than "pwede" but they might as well have used that word. "Mananalo ba tayo? Umm... pwe-deee..." Translated, the ad campaign's theme boldly declares: "Victory? Errrr... yeah, it's possible, I guess. Let's see." What does that say about our morale? If we don't have confidence in ourselves as a nation, and if we can't show the world we are a country worth respecting (we missed our own flag-raising, for crying out loud!), then it's no wonder the Philippines is where it is today: stuck in an economic, political and socio-cultural rut.

And it's no shock that no one really cares about the SEA Games. At least, not until we've bagged a decent number of medals. Only when victory is a sure thing will we be able to muster up enough spirit to cheer on the home team. Until that time, it's all we can do to manage a half-hearted "posible".