An American blogger's open letter to Pinoys

[raynaputi]

Dear Pinoys,

When I was in the Philippines, a friend of mine said, "Nathan, you think too much."

Actually, I heard this from quite a few Filipinos. Really? I mean, I know I tend to analyze things, but "thinking too much" is precisely I how I dreamed up a way to (modestly) travel the country for a year – then write an in-depth article on Filipino culture (an article that, guess what, Filipinos seem to love).

Filipinos: I am asking you to think MORE.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."

Sadly, perhaps due to colonization and other factors (I'll get to these later), the Philippines may have established itself as a country full of "small minds" – people that were discouraged from being ambitious, and kept from their potential.

Those in power wanted to keep it that way, and to some extent I believe it's still the same today. The masses are encouraged to keep consuming products and stay focused on (and distracted by) trashy, mindless TV and gossip. I've seen it happen in the U.S. It's good for the economy, but bad for the culture – it makes things easier for a government to manipulate its people and keep them powerless.

Read more: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/349666/opinion/an-american-blogger-s-open-letter-to-pinoys

[fred]

Wow.. This guy sounds educated!!.. Problem is that many of the people he experienced in the Philippines were perhaps ...not.

Another thing.. Where does all this "clever thinking" get people in western cultures?

Looking at the state of Western culture just lately, I`d say, I have my doubts!