I want to share my opinion about the modern Filipino,

There comes a time when I doubt if there were really Filipinos. I remember My uncle told me that we are like mongrels or asong kalye with no definite race, ibat iba ang lahi,, tigalahati. Hes right, there are the batanes , north ilocos , and cebu that has a lot of half-spanish guys, and visayas and manila has a lot of Chinese people, but thats just way back mahomas generation., today we can really notice a lot of half-americans, half-brits, half-japanese, half-africans and just recently, half-koreans. Its in their regular drinking session with my mom that they discuss what they think about being Filipino.

For some time I believed them, I even told my classmates that Id rather to be classified as Chinese than pinoy, but it all change when my mom started working abroad, I mentioned what I think about OFWs and their families. And I would still stress that theyre heroes and not deserters. Anyway, we learned that our ancestors came from I think 3 major races, the negritos(black dudes), indones(yellow dudes) and malays.
Now, we all know these so ill skip the descriptions, it was mentioned that the japs, Americans and the Spaniards (and brits) have occupied us in our history, true, they could have been nicer to us but looking at the bright side, we have adapted their culture as well. The good ones and the bad ones. After the karambola of races and values, can we really say that the product of yesterday are true blue pinoys?

That would be a yes. Scientifically speaking, the mixture of 2 pure elements will result into a brand new substance. Come to think of it, wala namang ibat ibang race, if the theory of evolution will be used, we all came from a single continent and diversed as
Time goes by, that would mean we came from a single source of a specific place.
Going back to pinoys, we were asked what traits Filipinos have, most (including myself) answered being hospitable, kind, hardworking, good family ties and happy people.
Being hospitable I believe is a natural traits of ours, when the Spanish came with the mission of christianism, they were welcomed in cebu. (theyve met resistance when they crossed the line). But believe it or not, it was given more attention because we became aware and conscious of ourselves, we bring our best foot forward towards our guest. and that we should thank the Spaniards for. Hardworking because we love our families so much that we wouldnt want them to have a hard time in the future, family ties coz they are the first one we run to in hardships, and being happy? we were conquered, abused, and were humiliated, undergoing those, our scientist-like ancestors thought what the heck? Atleast were alive! were together thats a reason to be happy about. No use in sulking.

Then comes Pinoy 2000.. kinda sad really, weve embraced the American way of doing things. I remembered that people wont buy stuff if its not made in japan or the US. A lot has changed. Our dads are too busy, our mothers cant be found at home, ramil is hiphop maria is emo and junjun is playing dota. Maybe im just conservative or just being nostalgic, but I miss the days when basketball is the national pastime. Children play out side and chismisan with the kapit bahay is still in.

The good side of pinoy 2000, we became more aware, if it were realized earlier, we would have been greater(we are already great). We wouldnt be stuck in the 3rd world category. Its inspiring to see that a lot of our everyday heroes are trying to straighten up the now misled pinoys. Yes some of us are misled. Whatever we do reflects who we are, after killing and fighting still we are Filipinos, winning the Nobel prize or making a pope will never take away our nationality. If I can tell my uncle this, I would. If I could take back what I said to my classmate about being Chinese, I still would. We are original coz we are what we do. We came from where we should and our values came from what history and ourselves made.

I was thinking of this recently: How come we Filipinos just wuuuuvv to embrace other Filipinos with foreign citizenship like the celebrities who made it in Hollywood and man,we just love to adopt them like we still trying to figure out if David Archuleta has Filipino relatives; i mean,they're Filipino by a percentage of blood but goodness sakes,when it comes to the legalities of the law(as Sen. Miriam Santiago would pointed out heh),they're called foreigners not Filipinos.Has Panatang Makabayan gone to the dogs?Sa isip,sa salita at sa gawa,helloooo.... Jose Rizal will you please stand up?IMHO,Flipinos are not just by race or culture alone but mind,heart,body and soul that works as one,makes as one, and terribly not a fashion statement or a delectable cookie.

Happycat wrote:

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I was thinking of this recently: How come we Filipinos just wuuuuvv to embrace other Filipinos with foreign citizenship like the celebrities who made it in Hollywood and man,we just love to adopt them like we still trying to figure out if David Archuleta has Filipino relatives; i mean,they're Filipino by a percentage of blood but goodness sakes,when it comes to the legalities of the law(as Sen. Miriam Santiago would pointed out heh),they're called foreigners not Filipinos.Has Panatang Makabayan gone to the dogs?Sa isip,sa salita at sa gawa,helloooo.... Jose Rizal will you please stand up?IMHO,Flipinos are not just by race or culture alone but mind,heart,body and soul that works as one,makes as one, and terribly not a fashion statement or a delectable cookie.

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thanks for reading mr. cow


uhhmm..are you sad that some pinoy by percentage claims to be legit filipinos? some of our country men dont even want to be one...i mean, if they really want to be pinoy with no other bad intentions or what so ever, and they have a reason to be one(by blood, by culture..etc..)why not let them?if its what they want.. id rather have a half-breed pinoy trying oh so hard to speak tagalog than a kababayan whos denying his roots...atleast the former one is really eager (or just doing business).

pero im not a fan of foreigners.(read the 1st page of this thread)..im just being fair to their right of being what they want to be.

-- Edited by polskie at 12:01, 2008-06-05

i do agree on the part wherein we Filipinos loves music and that most of us are really musically inclined people. aside from the fact that there are a number of Filipinos out there who are being praised by the foreigners, giving the said certain people that tenk has said above. other foreigners who are not that huge in their own country are being praised here on the Philippines too( i.e david pomerance and the likes)

yes the filipinos make great music. Meron din tayong kundiman at iba pa na ginagamit pang harana o mapa kasal man o holy week, pagkanta o sa musika pa rin ang nangunguna.. Marami ring nakikilalang mga kompositor tska mga mga mangaawit. may iba rin na sa larangan ng paghawak ng instrumento nakikilala. isa na sa maipagmamalaki natin eh c levi celerio ang leaf-player.

tska sa tingin ko kaya gumagawa ng mga novelty songs ang karamihan ng mga local composer eh kasi ito yung pumapatok sa "masa", kumbaga e "marketing" strategy nga ang dahilan. Ngunit sa kabilang banda e mayron pa rin nmang mga compositor na lumilikha ng mga kantang hindi nman novelty pero pumapatok pa rin sa panlasang pinoy tulad nila ogie alcasid. kung tama din pagkakatanda ko eh yung kantang kinompose ni Mike Velarde eh prang naisalin na ibang lenguahe at kilalang kilala kasi maganda ang pagkakagawa nito pati ang mensaheng dala ng kanta, tama naman di ba?(got this from bob ong's book) sa ganyan ata tayo magaling gumawa eh pagcompose ng mga kantang may mga pintig or kurot sa puso mayron ding about sa mga kabiguan (mga kundiman e about sa mga gnun tma?)

well some of those remakes are good pa rin, para kasing kinocompare mo na yung mga napapakinggan mo base sa mga nakasanayan mo na. i think it not like a remix ang pagkakaintindi ko kasi ng remix eh yung mga tipo n ginagawa ng mga hippoppers jan na nilalagyan ng beat yung mga classical songs (like the ones you hear sa mga jeep) its like their own rendition/version of the old one, it may sound nearly the same pero maririnig mo pa rin ung kanikanilang signature -uhm what term can i use??prowess?? singing specialty na lng for you to know na yep *artist here* sang that rendition.
for the acoustic singer's part (i.e jimmy bondoc, paolo santos and the likes) who do remakes of classic acoustic senti/mushy songs e i think they do it cause they were just starting out , and since most of the good stuff e classics na talaga so people can relate to it more. pero on the long run, gumagawa din or nagrerelease din sila ng mga original compositions nila na nagugustuhan din naman ng iba. sa ganito din kasi nagsimula e ( i for one follow this formula, i am in a band so i know how it works...well kinda) we used to play cover songs from foreign and local artists but after a while we now do and play our original compositions specially kapag may gigs (though madalang na nakakapag gigs sa ngayon) and yeah some people tend to like our songs.
Dun naman sa mga actors/actress na gumagawa ng remakes e sa tingin ko e strategy nila yun para iahon ang nawawala nilang career or plainly for the "marketing" reason din (since they are known why not make an album making them a complete package).

I'm going to digress for a while...

Look, artists need to eat. I don't care how crass and unromantic that sounds, but in the real world, you either make compromises or you die. I've been to both sides of the fence, so to speak, and there are elements on both sides I could care less about. In mainstream, you've got that "trabaho lang", money-talks mentality. In Indie, you've got artistic snobbery and practitioners who refuse to listen. They can have it. I'm perfectly content to sit in the middle of the fence, laughing at both sides, and squeezing out a decent living.

So, to wrap it up Cat, I couldn't care less about all these remakes, and I do agree that all the original stuff are due to the band scene. Still, you have to understand that the music scene is still a business, and the quick and easy way to get a rep (and money) is to do remakes. Some people can afford to be snobbish. They probably can't. And you know what, there's nothing wrong with that.

PS: I don't know how the HELL you can listen to Canto-Pop. I was subjected to that HORRID music during my stay in HK almost everyday, and I SERIOUSLY wanted to kill someone. It sounded like Hello Kitty being scraped with shards of glass. Utter crap.

(waves hand)

I've been listening to them whenever possible. They're a rarity, even over the Internet. Call me a pirate, but I've even been looking for that Sampaguita song (the one played by the rondallas, not the songs by Sampaguita) in mp3 form.

J-pop = Japanese. Cantopop = Chinese (Cantonese). I remember that most if not all radio stations in Hong Kong played Cantopop and very little American songs... Maybe we can do that here?

psychoCOW wrote:

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Newsflash: We already are. Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?

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Nakalimutan ko i-memorised yung radio station na me ganyang slogan.Anong station ba yun?Sorry,i usually listen to online radio stations from the web where they played one genre or two specifically,24/7,lesser to no talk at all and few commercial breaks.

 

Well said.

Waah!! So nice. :) Something that I've always wanted but didn't have the time and funds is to go around Manila just to take pictures. :D

I thought it was like a spin off of what Claire Danes said eons ago.

psychoCOW wrote:

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Newsflash: We already are.  Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?

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Ack, now I remember. Puro balita sa AM radio lang ang napapakinggan ko kasi eh.

Nice preview, by the way. I hope to see how the project looks like soon.

CONGRATULATION Mr. B