Colonial Mentality In The Philippines

“Tangkilikin ang sariling atin.” is a cliché heard quite often, but not lived by. Such is true with one of the undesirable attitude of the Filipinos which is colonial mentality. Royeca (2010) defined colonial mentality as the preference for all things foreign over our own. It is a widespread disease of Filipinos that should be healed. First, it is a burden and a barrier for the progress of the Philippine economy. Moreover, it has damaged the Filipino culture. Lastly, it is slowly killing the Filipino ties that they were once proud of. So, this distasteful mindset has to be eradicated because of its grievous economic, cultural and social effect to the Philippines.

Every problem has its own roots, thus there is a reason behind everything. Prior

Thus, Filipinos often choose foreign products over the local ones. According to Gabornes (2010), Nike, Havaianas, Converse and Crocs’ sales in the Philippines reach hundred millions a year while the Marikina Shoes industry remains an underdog. Also, a kid prefers to eat Hershey’s Kisses rather than enjoy Goya chocolate. In addition, The Hunger Games and other Hollywood films attract more audiences than Ang Babae sa Septic Tank and other Filipino movies. On the other hand, some Filipinos prefer to work abroad than serve their own country, and their usual reason is because of better opportunities and higher salaries. Last 2014, the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) was estimated at 2.3 million. Evidently, with such actions, Filipinos contribute to the economy of the other nations more than our own which is what makes colonial mentality a strain to the Philippine

Hofstide (1997) described culture as a way of life of a group of people – the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next (as cited in Li & Karakowsky, 2001). Regarding this, one of the practices of Filipinos is the kissing of hands or pagmamano to the elders, but such gesture of respect is not being appreciated by all anymore. Based on a personal experience, during a family gathering, I kissed the hands of my grandmother, uncles and aunts; however, when I was about to “bless” to my godfather who came home from New York, he gave me a “beso” instead because according to him, kissing of hands is already out of trend and even called it corny, thus such practice is not conducted by Americans. In addition, Filipinos’ choice for foreign music hurts the OPMs. Arcangel (2015) articulated that despite the wealth of musical talent in the Philippines, foreign artists and composers still took the lion’s share of royalties from the use of their songs by radio stations and other businesses in 2014, an artists ' group said Monday. Moreover, Mark Alciso, general manager of Filipino Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Inc. (FILSCAP) revealed, "out of FILSCAP’s total local royalty collection (in 2013) which was distributed in 2014, 75% (or about P35 million) was distributed as royalty