Colonial Mentality and the Lack of Patriotism in the Philippines

“Where are the youth who will consecrate their golden hours, their illusions, and their
enthusiasm to the welfare of their native land? These are the words written by our national
hero, Jose Rizal, in his novel, "El Filibusterismo". Though this words are over 126 years ago, it
seems that these words are still pertinent today, and what’s more is that, most of our fellow
Filipinos have lost this ‘touch of Filipino culture’. Are we truly okay with this deteriorating
patriotism towards our homeland? Youths, are we really just going to let this case go? Is this
just it?

Let’s start with colonial mentality. Colonial mentality is defined as the mindset of
thinking that anything foreign is superior to one’s own. Throughout the years, we can clearly
see its effect on our society, the colonial history of the Philippines may be the primary factor to
blame. People, especially the youths, barely patronize their own country’s products and if you
were to offer them the locals, they would say that it is “cheap” or “low-class”, despite not
trying it yet. If you just walk out on the streets, you can see local products being advertised by
foreign people. Are we the strangers in our homeland now? Philippine music and culture are
being underappreciated and ignored because of this behavior. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to
listen to foreign music, but can’t we just take the time to support our own? Nowadays, people
who ignore the locals are regarded as “retards” and the one’s not giving a concern are “cool”.
Moving on to patriotism, I admit that being a Filipino, our country is full of flaws, but as
indigenous peoples' rights advocate Lourie Victor says, “Being a Filipino means accepting the
beauty and the madness of this nation.”. Leaving the beauty alone, we should learn to accept
that we are a part of this nation’s whole, let alone its madness. As part of the youths, we often
hear people say that we are the future of this nation, but are we trying to do this right, when
most can’t even patronize their own country? It always dejects me when Filipino youths prefer
to be associated with the other prosperous countries while debasing their own. Being a Filipino
is more than just a race we belong to, its culture is embarked on us, we must nurture it and be
seen in the way we talk and in the thing we take interests in, but as we can see nowadays, its
opposite is much evident to our society. Although our youths are marked with these idealism
and colonial mentality, we must take steps, slowly and trust that our fellows will do the same.

We can never truly get rid of our colonial mentality, if we do not get rid of the doubt
towards our country and learn to patronize it first. We should accept the madness of our
nation, at the same time, perceive its beauty. Through this, we can learn to take part in
improving matters and other issues our country’s facing and once we accept that progress will
definitely take time, it’ll be much easier to go forward, for the better of our motherland.