Sa lahat yata ng iba’t ibang kultura sa mundo hindi maiiwasan meron itong mga bahaging salungat o puedeng ituring naghahatakan o nagbabakbakan. Dahil seguro dala ng panahon, ng hindi maiiwasang pagbabago habang lumilipas ang mga buwan at taon. Ang tao at kapaligiran ay binabago ng panahon. Sa ganitong pagbabago ang kultura lang ang pangmatagalan, hindi nababaklas kundi nadagdagan pa.
Dahil ang kultura ay isang uri ng pamumuhay basi sa kaugalian, sa wika, sa sining, pamahiin at sa relihiyon at sa kabuouan ng kustombre at tradisyon merong yatang sumisibol na likas na tunggalian na siyang nagpapasigla sa pagtahak ng kani-kanyang buhay.
Kung ilalahad sa Ingles, walang paligoy-ligoy, maigsi lang sulatin:
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ”BAKYA” AND COLONIAL MENTALITY if there is any.
Certain elements of world culture have built-in conflict brought about by changes inevitably occurring in time. The passage of time changes people and the environment. But culture seems to remain impervious and resistant to drastic change.
Because culture is a way of life defined by beliefs, language, the arts, and religion or by customs and traditions, the complexities of what cements its many parts together usually bring conflict if not friction to and between each other.
Manifested Filipino culture as sourced from Pinoy psyche has evolved over time to two ways of thinking we may call tentatively as “bakya mentality”and “colonial mentality.” These are observed and often commented on as ways of behaving. We always think and act in accord with our preferences and choices. A kind of sub-culture in action.
We think and act in accordance with our “bakya” or“colonial” mentality or according to their combined essence, creating a sort of a dual personality. Some of us straddle both sub-cultures. We are ”bakya” by our ways but our preferences and choices are colonial. Dolphy may be an example,”bakya” in his public image but colonial in his choice of his fair skin women.
It is inaccurately hypothetical to say that our mentality is either”bakya” or colonial depending on our economic status in society: saying the poor are ”bakya” and the rich are colonial. It is not as simple or unequivocal as black or white. The shades of gray or dirty white are plentiful enough as to confused outward appearances. To many people, este Filipinos at home and abroad, it’s like being a chameleon. The shift from colonial to ”bakya” and back to colonial behaviour is dictated by one’s surroundings and the people in them.
To a great extent the ”bakya” people prefer and choose to watch—instead of imported ones—locally produced movies, local singers, local telenovelas, eat native delicacies, fruits and drinks. To the adolescent Fil-Ams and Fil-Canadians, unlike their old folks to a great extent likewise, instead of watching imported“home” shows, their preference is to watch western shows, dramas and movies.”bakya”and colonial preferences seems to thrive well without serious conflict in Filipino homes overseas.
To figure out the underlying reasons behind, to conjecture answers to the question why the”bakya” crowd have such preferences is to plow deep into national sensibilities of the country’s majority. It can stretch credibility and belief even just to claim ”bakya” sub culture is at par or better than the mental colonials and vice versa. It is so Filipino if one must avoid to offend despite underlying truths.
To say that “bakya” things are cheaper but superior than those of foreign origins will be lost in a Forbes Park party where ladies wear patadyongs, where the food served is mostly native like papaitan, adobong kangkong, kare-kare, tahong and tilapia, etc. The quandary is enlarged to imagine a party held in Payatas where two-minute noodles, pagpag and pangat, are served. McDo burgers, Popeye or Kentucky Chicken, even Jollibee and Chow-King seldom find their way to squatter hovels. Where exceptions seldom occur to beat the rules, conclusion are hard to form.
I think we (baby boomers and our parents) are born to them—to our ”bakya” mentality and or colonial proclivities and their variants like the emerging still undefined multicultural adaptations. Our children and their children if they are not yet born to multiculturalism as in Canada and elsewhere, will then likely to grow up under this global culture of the moment. Multiculturalism is likely to absorb our rare hybrid sub-culture of combined ”bakya” and colonial orientation. Which will give us distinction as global citizens.
Indeed, the global Filipino of the future, a modern diaspora of unique sophistication and traditionalism is likely to stand out among other races.
But to go deep in comparing these two sub-cultures could lead to a cul de sac. Much much better to be superficial and shallow. And safer too to stick to the “what is” of the sub-cultures than dig into their ramifications, their reasons for being.
Majority of Filipinos have some understanding of both ”bakya” and colonial mentality in their everyday common usage. ”bakya” refers: to something (if not most things) provincial and parochial; to goods of local and greater availablility; ethnocentric taste and preferences. While“colonial” means foreign; sophisticated, quality tested, pricey and durable, not so common or ordinary; seemingly exotic; tantalizing to local folks; and of recent vintage.
Bakya is more folksy while colonial is more elitist. The former tends to check the excesses of the latter. On the other hand the latter ensures species survival of the former by re-invention, by change and adaptation. By those points, it seems there is no built-in conflict between the sub cultures, between old fashion and the new “fashionism,”: sa biglang tingin, wala naman palang bakbakan ang”bakya” at isip kolonyal.
Ang bakbakan kung meron man ay makikita seguro sa isang Pamilyang Filipino na hindi sagad na mahirap o saksakan ng yaman. Ang dalawang kaugalian ng bakya o kolonyal ay kalimitan nagpapanagpo lamang sa gitnang pamilya o “middle class family.” Gusto ng kabataan ang makabagong bagay, samantalang ang matatanda naman sa mga konserbatibong bagay. Salitan lang ang bigayan sa isa’t isa. Kaya naiiwasan ang away. Papano pag nawala na ang mga matatanda. Unti-unti segurong mababawasan na ang “bakya” at ang mangingibabaw ay “isip moderno” sa halip na kolonyal.
Iconic One Pro Theme | Powered by Wordpress