Last night we celebrated Jason's birthday at a Korean restaurant, but before the celebration we had a crash course in Philippine "culture", which according to Frank Rivera, is the "best in the world." Who owns this culture? Filipinos. As long as Filipino "blood" courses through your veins, you own this culture. Apparently the nation, culture, and blood are synonymous terms. Moreover the problem with Philippine culture now is that the people who own it, for example, Filipinos, are mahiyain (ashamed) to show their culture. So they bury it or deny it, eg: Lea Salonga. Anyway, I'm surprised that academics in the Philippines seem to run parallel in thinking to Fil-Am academics in the United States, especially when it comes to culture (which has a limited usage here, and only holds currency for activities such as music, dance, acting, poetry, fiction etc.). The main concern here for academics is the concept of "colonialism" or "globalization" in which we deny our "true" selves in order to copy what the imperial others propogate as the best. If one is ready to reduce this thinking, one can easily see the way this process of cultural colonialism and "globalization" derives itself from what is commonly referred to in the U.S. as identity politics, a politics that is itself embedded in the liberal individual. I'm not saying that this is good or bad, but rather surprising. Some questions that never seem to be answered by Philippine academics that I've met so far. First, can their concept of "globalization" and "colonialism" move beyond the physical analysis of "diaspora" studies in regards to "Filipinos" living and being raised abroad (for example us)? And second, culture and colonialism's etymology are so similar, it is hard to think of one without the other. Is it not possible that one needs some form of colonialism in order to produce and keep alive culture?
Anyway, deep thoughts by Jack Handey aside, below are some pics taken within the last week.
Lake Taal at night
Lake Taal at night
That's Ambeth Ocampo in white!!!!! Through a really foggy lens
That's Frank Rivera, giving us a pep talk about drama. (In other words, we better do some fucking drama)
Rica taking a picture of drama in action.
Matt looking up MMMbop for the eighteenth time
everyone's feeling total eclipse right about...now.
4 comments:
"matt looking up MMMbop for the eighteenth time"
this blog is BOOKMARKED
who are those fine ladies in the dyip? yayas?
Yes those are yayas. I never leave home without them. BL (biro lang) Those are my classmates Carmel, you salbaheng bata! As for Matt looking up MMMbop for the eighteenth time, I'm just joking, it's actually for the seventeenth time.
salbaheng bata? pshhhh, who says that in manila these days? ikaw po lang kuya. ano bang mobile number mo?
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