Sunday Essays: Open your gift, Philippines

By Geunhee Lee

MANY people come to the Philippines for its beautiful nature. The white sand beaches, the green mountains, and the clear blue sky are stunning enough to attract tourists to explore.

Nature is not the only reason why people come to the Philippines. Filipinos can proudly boast about their cultures such as hospitality towards strangers or foreigners like me -- a culture we cannot experience in another place.

Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis

However, today, Philippines has adopted so many western stuff that sometimes it does not look so much like Philippines anymore but just a mere duplication of other countries.

It is actually true for most of the countries that they are absorbing the cultures and practices of different countries. And as a result, lots of fusion customs are easily observable. However, fusion itself is not what should be blamed. It's the absence of a consciousness to keep Philippines' own tradition that should be pondered on.

Philippines should preserve what is so called "Philippineness" such that foreigners cannot help but spend time here to experience it.

It doesn't mean that Philippines should stay isolated from other cultures and oppose all things that are western. It means that there should be a balance between tradition and what is foreign.

If the Philippines does not have anything special, people would definitely find other places that offer the same anyway. It is just like choosing to travel between China and Korea, my place. These two countries are both Asian countries that share the same continent with people looking so similar.

Everybody wants to go somewhere that is worth spending time and money, such that if you can't find distinctive features about Korea, you may want to go to China or vice versa.

All should remember that the Philippines is a gifted country. And through tourism, Filipinos share that gift to others. So dear Philippines, now is the time to open your gift; the gift that can never be found elsewhere.

*****

Sunday Essays are compositions by third year Masscom students of Ateneo de Davao University for their journalism class.