Debate over ‘imported’ vs ‘homegrown’ rages on

SWIFT. Colonial thinking draws attention away from what’s significant.

People who live in caves and think that our national colonial mentality is a thing of the past have been rudely shaken into belated awareness of its continuing and “deathless” existence by reports that Filipino fans of One Direction and Taylor Swift have been all too willingly and even happily paying thousands of pesos for the great privilege of being able to watch those “imported” stars’ concerts in this country. In fact, the “1D” show has added a second performance—due to popular demand!

In glaring and telling contrast, if patrons are beseeched to spend a thousand pesos on a local musical or concert, these same people would hedge and hesitate! Why do they so overwhelmingly favor foreign acts over local? Because they have been “carefully taught” by our past and present cultural colonizers that “imported” is inherently superior to “homegrown.”

Why are we so “down” on ourselves and our own capabilities? Because we have been, oh, so successfully and effectively “mentally colonized!”

There are those who believe that all the “colonizing” happened in the distant past and is no longer relevant today—but, they’re wrong. After all, both Swift and 1D are young contemporary stars, so their fans’ great desire to “support” their shows means that the bane of colonial preference persists to this day.

Importance

—This, despite all of the postwar nationalistic movements that have urgently sought to make Filipinos prefer their culture to the imported sort, because it speaks of them and gives importance to and much-needed focus on to what’s directly relevant and significant to our collective national life and consciousness.

Some of those movements have prospered for a time, but it’s sometimes been a dismaying case of one step forward, two steps back.

But, we can’t afford to give up the struggle for freedom against “mental colonialism,” because it weakens our faith in our own capabilities, which we need to truly come into our own as a proudly self-actualizing and independent nation.

If we still think that “foreign is best and local is second-best,” global observers will continue to see us as an inherently unfocused, “fractured” culture that “borrows” its essential paradigms from “superior” foreign models.

So, if you’re one of those who paid P5,000 or P10,000 for a ticket to an “imported” star’s show, do balance the unfair equation by also buying a ticket to a homegrown production that speaks of, to and about us. —That also deserves our attention and “support,” don’t you think?