NICK Joaquin’s 1966 essay, A Heritage of Smallness, analyzes the Filipino psyche. While Quijano de Manila looks back to our culture and history to support his arguments, I have more thoughts at how this Lilliputian mindedness can be taken seriously to redefine ourselves.
Anything and everything sachet. We buy in small packets and sizes. From shampoo to milk, to toothpaste, to toyo, to vinegar, to everything that is good for repacking. We repack!
Imagine if there are more than half-a-million Kagay-anons taking a shower every morning using a sachet of their favorite shampoo. What about that toothpaste? If you do the math, Cagayan de Oro will have almost a ton of sachet garbage in a month’s time alone. Ask yourself, how much is your average monthly sachet footprint? Why can’t we buy in big portions and big bottles? Just get rid of that freaking sachet.
Why can’t we do away with the “motorela”? The city is growing. It is growing so fast that a minor vehicular accident in one corner could mean a disaster to the entire city. It’s time to rethink our little public transport system. Why are there no buses running around the city? We have small streets and small corners. Or better yet, why can’t we start walking around the city? There are a lot of things to appreciate while strolling Cagayan de Oro City. Don’t mind the spaghetti wires, though.
Sidewalks are for pedestrians. We pay our taxes and yet we don’t demand from our government. We have to take back what is rightfully to the taxpayers. The right to walk securely in street sidewalks. Come Christmas season, we forget. We let vendors rule the world.
Cinemas should have more Filipino films. The cinemas that we have are ruled by aliens. Mindless and senseless of the Filipino identity. What do we do? We do nothing! We don’t watch Filipino films - regardless whether it’s quality or not. We think it’s bakya and baduy. In this globalized world, the one who gets the most attention is the grounded one. The person who knows his culture very well takes the trophy home. And still, we continue to watch crass foreign films.
Travel more. Millennials can now afford to travel. The more we travel, the better understanding we have of the world. Can we really travel? Yes. Why can’t we?
Rethink the barangay talks. There’s nothing wrong with barangay meetings. But are there really good outcomes of these meet-ups? Do we attend because they have snacks to offer? Are we not just wasting our money on these meetings? It’s time that we go bigger. Let’s have town hall meetings. Let’s talk ideas. We have great minds after all.
Whatever happened to research? We have four universities in the city and we still experience flooding year in and year out. It’s time we share our results. Yes, we have the data. Who is not sharing the data? Surely we have the plans. But what’s taking us so long to pinpoint where should we focus our attention on?
These are things that we all can do collectively as a society. It will not take rocket science to show us where to start. We don’t need Jonathan Swift to tell us that we are a great race.