One thing I love about this pandemic quarantine is the amount of free time one has to appreciate one's culture. We Filipinos are still so colonial minded that we cannot see the beauty of our own country, both past and present. Sometimes it saddens me but it's better to do something about it right?
No one should force others to love their own country and heritage. It is our right to like what brings us joy and appreciate anything we fancy. However, if one does not know how to love our own culture then one does not know this oft quoted statement supposedly by Jose Rizal. "Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita, mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda." (One who does not treasure his own language is worse than a beast or a putrid fish.)
Not only should we Filipinos appreciate our national language, we must also know how to love our country and culture. Often we only see the negative things in our life but why can't we see the goodness in life as well? We are too focused on trying to make a living that's why.
I would have loved to write this in Filipino too but I'm writing this for the educated Filipinos who prefer English and other cultures rather than our own. Heck perhaps even Filipino expats love our country and culture more than we who live here in the Philippines. Especially the Filipinos in the US. They always harp about being Filipino Americans or Filipinos are Asians too, discrimination and what not. Expat Pinoys still try to teach their children the language and culture to preserve their "Filipinoness". But the older generation of expats actually tried to hide themselves as Pacific Islanders due to discrimination back then. I know because I've read such stories in expat Pinoy groups on Facebook or the posts I see online.
Do you remember I even wrote about discovering the Filipino American Heritage Month in America? I never knew there's even such a thing because I live here in the Philippines. Apparently acceptance in a foreign land is a big thing in the US. (Hah! Most of them have never experienced how it is much harder to deal with acceptance in your own country when you don't look like the "natives". Only when they come here would they experience it, especially when they do not know how to speak Filipino. Also, having mixed blood/nationalities is never easy when you look different from most of the population. I want to laugh but okay, we all got our own issues.)
Anyway I'm getting too far off the topic at hand so let me just get right into it.
Old Filipino Counting Words
As I was saying, thanks to the quarantine I have discovered and found out a lot of interesting things about our culture. Four months ago I saw a post on Facebook and wrote a comment about it.
Yesterday the page owner finally replied to something I had completely forgot about. This caused me to be amazed at what I discovered all over again, so much so that I posted about it in all my social media accounts... (Ooops, I've yet to post it on Instagram though, haha.)
I was unaware of the words angaw and ati as counting number words in Tagalog (basis of Filipino, the national language). On tagaloglang.com you will see this entry for the word angaw.
A quick online search led me to a French site and book file(?) on these old or probably ancient Tagalog counting words.
It may not be fascinating to others but imagine if you are a business minded person and a nationalist then you discover something you never knew about your culture. Wow. It's just mindblowing. Count to million using angaw or billion using ati. Apat na ati for four billion or sampung angaw na piso for ten million pesos. Oh wow. I just love it.
And guess what else I learned about my country today?
The Beauty of Arroceros Park: The "Last Lung" of Manila
I live in Quezon City so I only know about several parks here like the famous Quezon City Memorial Circle, Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center and La Mesa Ecopark. The only park I am familiar with in Manila is Luneta Park. I lived along Taft Avenue in Manila in college but I never was able to travel much at the time. I was always studying and spent my free time on a computer outside of the university so I was never able to go out and about. My friends weren't the traveling kind nor the slacker types so I all I knew was home, school, school paper and going to the malls when I had to buy school stuff. Sad I know but hey I was such a good girl. Hahaha.
Eherm anyway so some years ago and last year, Arroceros Park was a hot topic because a certain president wanted to turn it into a gym or whatever. (Good lord. See how some people lack a sense of love for nature? They only know and think about money money money that they forget how nature nurtures humanity. Egads. Good thing COVID-19 and quarantine is here to make us more aware of taking care of the environment, among other things.) I think this why the people behind I-Witness created a documentary about the "suddenly famous" park. Frankly I've never even heard of it until I saw all the social media posts about it due to various hullabaloo.
I was once able to discover where it is simply by walking to find another place. Remember the time I posted about looking for the post office so I can send some One Opti Juice to London? Well apparently it was a different park, haha.
And so after watching an intriguing documentary about Juan Luna on YouTube, I found myself watching another one. (Sorry but this doesn't have any English subtitles mainly because it is a Filipino TV show episode. Just watch the visuals.)
This is how I finally discovered why it is worth saving. There's only one forest in Manila and that's Arroceros Park. If anyone would try to destroy it then where else would all the different bird species and other animals go? Where else will people go to relax and connect with nature inside the city of Manila? It's sad there are already walkways and buildings in it but what can you do when most people do not know the importance of having forests? This is why I love Mayor Isko Moreno. He officially declared it as a permanent forest park and even plans on expanding it. Hurray!
Did you know? Greeneries/Plants in the city help bring down crime rates. I read that from an online article several years ago. Well think about it, why would it not be true when seeing nature is so relaxing, right?
Anyway, from learning about city forests, I now present to you our centuries old bridges.
Old Spanish Colonial Bridges and the "Secret" Inscriptions
So hey, I'm on a roll watching local documentaries. I'm so happy they decided to release these documentaries to watch for free online. Perhaps I was just unaware they have this on YouTube but I'm glad to do a marathon on these than any other shows.
Unlike in the US it seems we are unable to monetize everything. Our TV shows do not have boxed sets for anyone to buy and enjoy at home. So many good old shows aren't shown on cable/TV anymore so how else will the younger generation know about our culture and history? Most educated people prefer to watch American or British shows plus anime and Korean Dramas.
I doubt if you will find majority of parents these days who enjoy showing their kids about Philippine stories or history lessons. We are so immersed in other countries' cultures that we do not know much about ours. How will we even share it to our children when most want their kids to learn English? Many parents prefer their kids to watch Sesame Street and Baby Shark or foreign nursery rhymes instead. Sad to be colonial minded eh? Not that it's wrong but I say it's just too much American culture instead of a balanced one.
This is why I'm spreading these documentaries for all Filipinos who can read this. At least more will discover about our own culture thru this post. A lot of people do not know about these because they do not have anyone in their circle sharing it for their awareness. Well here it is. Most Filipinos may not get to read this but at least more can be exposed to these as opposed to nothing.
An independent Philippines is such a young country compared to America and most especially first world countries that have never been conquered or occupied. However of course our history is rich in various cultures, thanks mostly to the Spaniards who named and occupied the Philippines for more than three centuries. This is why we have "ancient" bridges still existing today even if most were built in the Spanish eras.
I hope you enjoy reading this even if you are not a Filipino.
Okay so this was the next documentary I watched. The translated title says "The Secret of the Old Bridge." Sounds like a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book right? Haha.
These bridges can be found in Laguna and Quezon provinces. Based on the documentary, the "secret" is actually the masonic carvings found on the stone pieces used to build the bridges. It is probably a passive-aggressive act against the Spaniards who forced early Filipinos to build the bridges without pay.
Isn't it nice to know such things about Philippine history? We get to appreciate old things like bridges. We realize the importance of preserving old relics in order for each one to tell us all about a part of our history .
Out of everything I wrote, which one did you find most interesting? What do you think about all of these?
Originally posted on Travelfeed.io / Steemit / Hive.
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