3/20/2023 0 Comments Filipino psst![]() ![]() Thanks to Mother America, Filipinos became literate, healthy, democrats, and citizens of the modern world. The teaching of history should emphasize 19th century nationalism and the Revolution against the oppressive Spaniards, even as the American rape of the First Republic has to compete with the new coloniser’s munificence. Since then, first graders must study the legal complexities of citizenship, the panoply of national symbols, and a long list of beauty spots and other geographical features of the country. ![]() At the same time, textbooks were developed that should instil self-conscious pride in being Filipino (e.g., Mulder 2000: ch. As a result, in 1972 the Marcos dispensation proclaimed the Educational Development Decree that, among other things, should remedy the “problem of nationhood.”ĤSubsequently, school teaching became bilingual, the soft subjects, such as social studies, history, and civics henceforward to be taught in the vernaculars and Filipino, and arithmetic, mathematics, and natural science in English. As a “modern”, American-educated nation, people should face forward and be progress-oriented, basically agreeing with Henry Ford’s dictum “history is bunk.” Even so, with or without history, certain circles recognised that the depth of the colonial impact had led to the “mis-education of the Filipino” (Constantino 1966) and a “colonial mentality” that kept inferiority feelings alive while blindly accepting the superiority of anything Stateside. Even so, many places have been renamed after certain national heroes and many more after not-so-heroic presidents, among whom the name of Quezon leads the pack in obfuscating the history of provinces, towns, villages, and streets.ģWho cares? The very cultural imperialism that thwarts nation-building also destroyed historical continuity, and so the sense of Philippine becoming was erased. ![]() In the Philippines, however, the Grant of Independence is still celebrated with the lowering of a conspicuous American flag on the current hundred-peso bill, and the names of Taft, Harrison, Lawton and the like live on. In a country like Indonesia, the erasure of the humiliation of the colonial past was not so much a priority as a matter of course, and it is inconceivable that Indonesians would invoke Dutch imperialism to explain the history and shape of their present nation-state. The problem of nationhoodĢThe depth of American cultural imperialism is demonstrated by the listlessness of nation-building. Even so, the colonial history of the Islands must be deeply understood if we want to appreciate the present, distinctive Filipino ( Pinoy) way of life, and the festering problem of nationhood. If this is so, history has been most parsimonious in giving the Philippines its share, as the first state on its soil was the result of Spanish imperialism. Next to this, the authors even assert that no nation can survive without knowledge of its historical past (2010). Since they were fully aware of the emotional appeal of Majapahit, they claimed it as the forerunner of a united Indonesia. Haut de pageġAccording to Gomperts et al., Indonesia’s pre-war nationalist leaders understood the need of historic symbols for legitimating a nation-state’s cultural and national identity. Comme il est souvent attendu qu’une société civile enracinée dans les classes moyennes émergentes ait le potentiel de combler l’écart et de produire le leadership culturel modelant la nation, l’évolution des idées des membres de celle-ci – d’un idéalisme militant à l’actuelle moralité nombriliste – sera mise au grand jour, à l’opposé de la dynamique de l’économie politique ainsi que d’une culture de plus en plus séparée de la vie quotidienne. ![]() Tout se passe comme si la sphère publique de l’état et la sphère privée de la vie quotidienne n’étaient pas coordonnées, ce qui – en pratique – est renforcé par l’exclusion systématique du citoyen ordinaire d’un processus politique de type oligarchique. Tout en étant bien présents, le nationalisme diffusé par l’état et les rituels associés sont incapables de renvoyer à un sentiment d’appartenance à un monde civil partagé. Cet essai relève de « l’histoire des mentalités » et trace l’évolution du génie spécifique liant l’état et la nation aux Philippines. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |