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This is something my History professor shared to us in class. Hinde ako magaling magkwento pero I think you'll get the gist somehow.

Kasabay nung celebration ng 100th year ng Phil-US friendship something, nag-conduct ng survey ang ilang professors ng UP Diliman sa Estados Unidos para malaman kung gano nga karami ang alam ng ordinary Americans about Filipinos. Sila mismo ang pumunta sa US for that.

Turns out that some Americans don't even know their geography kasi may ilang nagtanong kung sa Africa daw ung Pinas. Tapos ung iba sabi do Filipinos live in trees? at Ung iba parang nangaasar na tinanong ung nagiinterview sa kanilang pinoy kung pano daw sila natutong mag ingles. Hala, kamusta naman yon?

Ang saktong sagot lang nila ay ung mga tanong na may kinalaman sa mga unggoy, saging at manga. Hmm..

Friend daw nila tayo pero karamihan naman ng citizens nila zero ang alam sa atin; samantalang tayo bawat galaw at kilos nila updated tayo..even the commonest of the common updated. Kakatampo naman.

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They're not an empire, it's more of a hegemon.

And let's not typecast americans like that. I've been to the states and I have lot of good and sensible friends there. You're acting the same way as some of those americans who don't know s**t about the world. let's not think locally, let's think globally. It's like saying all muslims are terrorist.

That friendship is for diplomacy's sake it is not meant to be understood in the personal level. We also alot of other friend nations, do you know any of them? I think not.

And please no country is benevolent they all rational utility maximizers.
The more we recognize this fact that more that we can move on. The administration keeps ties with the americans for the country's interests though some choices are forced. But the point is that if you want this country wants to suceed in needs to learn how to play the game.

The Game

Well that is the reality of the world. World politics is a game and to deny it is futile.To get too emotional would only perpetuate the cycle of retribution. International Relations should not be interpreted on how a layman sees a relationship.friendship in International relations is simply having nation friends with strings attached, conditional friendship. Do not see it on how we normal people see friendship.

Those Evil Americans!

Anyways, why americans ar evil;
You know why? Because you only see a small part of that population. News and stuff which often than not only potrays a small part of what is truly happening. Americans, the typical suburbanites are the most helpful people I've seen. I've been to their donation drives and how they cared for people during the tsunamis, katrina and africa. Americans also are active in efforts to end poverty in the world. Do you think that the people in america during the vietnam war are bad? They pressured the government to stop that war. And even the war in Iraq today most people in america disagree with it.

The point is that majority of its people are not evil- perhaps only those who control U.S' policy directives are the ones at fault.

On Monkeys

Is it an american's problem that they don't know our culture? You know why we know so much about them- it's because they actively promote it. It's simply about marketing our own culture. The Malaysians, Thailanders, Koreans and Singaporeans are actually practicing this concepts. The responsibility of promoting our culture does not rest on americans since it is not their culture- we should promote it because it is OURS! Not them! Institutions like Allianz, Goethe etc promote their cultures actively. Our media should focus on getting more spotligh in international media and son. The solution in educating them falls squarely on us. So if an american conceives filipinos being monkeys then we are at fault since we do not promote our culture and society to them. (When would we stop blaming other people and look for the solutions within ourselves? )

(But it's good the DOT is slowly promoting our country to the world, we just need funds)

On Benevolence

True enough not all of them are good but to say we filipinos are benevolent is fool hardy. We are also like them. The point is that we are all humans, we share the same classification as a species. As I quote Nietszche we all have the will to power. We dominate other people. If filipinos were given the same powers as the americans would we be like your ideal vision of humanity? I think not.

Arrogance is everywhere and learning is a key to bridge people together not to disband them. That is why we need to educate peoples of the world about other cultures and their histories and even their own. Not for the purposes of fanning flames of hate but to let people understand how cultures became and flourished and how one stepped on the other.



and lastly

Goverment or the People?

My friend you confuse its people with their government.

Who's Responsible?

And anyways its good that you know our history but too cling to it too much would only trap you in that state. The problem with pinning all the blame of the filipinos plight to the americans is that we don't hold ourselves accountable to what is happening now.

We do nothing about it since americans are the ones who are responsible.
This would lead us nowhere.


And there I end it, nice discussion btw, ingatz