|  There are so many things I've pondered today and some of them are things I can't simply leave without sharing. I remembered a blog being posted in Multiply about Havaianas vs. Local flip-flops (from Phil. specifically those we used to wear as a child and owned, I have many of em even used them in playing "bato-lata" and the same slippers that our parents used to slap and spank till our butts become red if we're caught being naughty LOL). Anyway, I can recall the time where Havaianas (high quality flip-flops from Brazil) is soooooooooooo "IN" and the latest trend. It is also the time when my best friend came back in Philippines for a vacation. We both love fashion so while we were both pouring in the malls and talk about the latest trends, I opened up to her about wanting to own Havaianas. It is also the time wherein these flip-flops from abroad are soooooo expensive (about 1000 plus in Phil. pesos). She asked me on why I should buy something as expensive as that when these flip-flops from Brazil were used as home slippers (the same purpose of our own local slippers in Phil.) She further elaborated that on the price alone, she can now buy an assortment of local flipflops in different colors in which she can mix and match according to her clothes colors she wears. That time, I thought she was joking. I realized how serious she was when on her last day in Cebu, she nagged me to go to Carbon to buy local slippers. Boy! She bought almost a dozen of them (LOL) I asked her what she's going to do with all those slippers, she told me that she'll use some as "Pasalubongs" for her friends while the rest would be hers since summer is also coming in their place. I was really laughing hard that time.
Thinking back, I could really say that when you're in abroad or grew up in abroad and far away from your home place, you could really appreciate the things you used to be or grow up with. Filipino preferences (not all) of Havaianas, Ipanemas, DUpe and other important brands rather than our own Islander, cheap slippers is one example of colonial mentality.
Want another example? All I did is GOOGLE them (hehehe)
* a bowl of plastic apples, grapes and pears, on the dining room buffet
* an imitation of Louis Vuitton bag and Gloria Vanderbilt jeans
* plastic evergreen trees laden with absorbent cotton snow for christmas
* the log cabin steakhouse
* broadway plays emoted in a studied New York on British accent
* the search for local counterparts to Hollywood stars or the rise and fall of Diomedes Maturan as Perry Como of the Phil.
* always saying 'ang sarap parang mansanas!'
* getting a nose lift and a bust lift
* carpets and upholstered sofas copied from Better Homes and Gardens
* shopping trips to Cash and Carry for PX goods
* putting an American or Japanese brand name on local products so that it will sell
* dyeing one's hair to auburn streaks
* insisting that the maid speak to the baby in English
Source: http//www.tribo.org/history/colonial.htm
But hey, denying that I don't possess this colonial mentalism attitude would be very hypocritical. Sometimes without even noticing it, I do these things as well. When the song "Pinoy Ako" by Orange and Lemons was a big hit back then, we hear them almost everyday blaring on our neighbor's stereos or even people singing the tune under their breath (not minding the lyrics or being out of tune heheheh). But, do we really understand the message behind the song? Sigh... I could also recall about a post on family in cinema refusing to pay respect when the National Anthem was sung (even giving a bad example to their children tsk.tsk..)
So where's the patriotism everyone?-ester-".....little by little they lost their old traditions, the mementos of their past they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems, their laws in order to learn by rote other doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking...degrading themselves in their own eyes; they became ashamed of what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible; their spirit was dismayed and it surrendered to....this disgust of themselves" -Jose Rizal, Phil. National Hero -
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