Agnes, Dan, Nathan and Juan

I know we're all familiar with Agnes Walewinder. Yes, she is the 'I would rather go hungry than eat Filipino street food again' girl who have heard so much about these past weeks. Her article became viral within a few weeks and of course, it drew a lot of negative reactions from netizens especially from Pinoys who are very keen when it comes to the local food scene. Not only Pinoys challenged Agnes; Nathan Allen, a blogger who went head over heels with the Philippines, also voiced out his reaction to Ms. Walewinder's article, to the extent of telling her to go back to the Philippines in order to prove herself wrong about Pinoy food.

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A few months back Dan Brown did the same thing in his novel 'Inferno' when he mentioned that Manila is 'the gates of hell'. Whenever he gets criticized due to his work, Mr. Brown's answer is always the same: that he worked hard doing a research for his novel (that goes especially for 'The Da Vinci Code' which, according to scholars was simply a poorly researched piece of writing and not at all a challenge to Christianity). I remember when a friend made an off the cuff remark about this "Andaming lugar sa mundo na mas malala pa sa Pinas, yung tipong araw araw may binobomba o binabaril in plain sight." 

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Whenever we hear a negative comment hurled at our country, our first reaction is to strike back. I would say it's natural. There is always this sense of 'Pinoy pride' innate in us. I don't blame those people who were offended and reacted negatively whenever our country receives a not-so-good remark. I think it only goes out of hand when they take things too personally and start swearing or use cuss words (especially what happened to Agnes Walewinder wherein her comment thread was filled with swearing and cuss words).

A friend told me that this only means one thing: colonial mentality. We are too eager to please other people especially foreigners. We always want the kano and the 'white guy' to be all praises when it comes to our country. We still want their affirmation. Why be affected with what these people have to say when in fact mas kilala mo naman ang sarili mong bayan?

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I've been working in the BPO industry for 10 months. Too young, you may say. I've had my fair share of racist customers who, at the onset of the call, would ask me  "Where are you located?" and telling them that I'm from the Philippines would usually result being hanged up on or hearing not so good comments such as "You f*****g Filipinos!" This might sound rude, but I'm way smarter than them that's why I was the one who got their call so I can assist them in something they know nothing about. I just let these things pass. At the end of the day, the not-so-good comments they hurl at me for being a Pinoy won't make me less of a person. I may talk in English for 7 hours straight, but it won't make me less of a Filipino.

"Filipinos: Don't try to be more like us, try to be more like YOU. I believe what the world needs now is more YOU, not more us." (Nathan Allen)