Readers Reaction

I'm not sure if you're a foreigner or a Filipino who happens to live most of his life abroad, because if you are, to follow your "suggestion" of scrapping or dropping out some cultural behaviors would be an anti-thesis to your post of "having colonial mentality" because basically, you are just imposing your "western" point of view.

In any case, I would treat your post as something innocuous and academic.

1. Colonial Mentality. After having been colonized for 333 years by Spain, a couple of years by Japan, and a couple of years more by the US, i'd say this mentality is pretty much ingrained already and probably Filipinos have the Stockholm Syndrome even before it became a concept. But I guess, this is slowly fading, and I mean slowly, with movements calling for #SupportLocal and that sort of stuff. And yeah, we hated Barazza and demanded that our Queens be dressed by local designers. So I guess we're slowly moving away from that mentality.

2. the Mañana habit was actually vilified by the colonizers if I'm not mistaken. Historically, they thought Filipinos were indolent for doing siestas or afternoon naps and thought they were procrastinating. But they failed to realize that Filipinos back then were already working in the field as early as 3 or 4 in the morning. The tropical heat also prevents them from working during midday, so they do siestas instead. Basically, I'm saying the mañana habit isn't as bad as we think they are. Filipinos are hard workers.

3. Crab mentality. I can't say that this is uniquely Filipinos. So yeah. I do not agree.

4. Bahala na Mentality. I don't find anything wrong with this, unless it means mediocrity or that we settle for less. But if it means that after all the efforts exerted, lifting everything to God (or chance) is not something negative. We just believe that there are things that are beyond our control.

5. Filipino Time. Same with Crab mentality. this is not uniquely Filipino. In fact, in Costa Rica, they also have "Tico Time". I bet, most countries have this too. So, it's time to drop the discussion on this.

6. Ningas Cogon. No comment. I don't have any historical or sociological inputs on this.

7. Balikbayan box mentality. there is no such thing. Filipinos just love to give "pasalubongs". Those balikbayan boxes are actually filled with love. in the words of Queen Pia, "I don't see any problem with that at all"

8. Kanya-Kanya Syndrome. I don't think this is entirely true. Filipinos, sociologically speaking, are a cliquish lot. We tend to do things as a group, hence, the "bayanihan". So this is not entirely true. I think we still have a sense of community unlike in the U.S. or other western cultures.

9. Onion-skinned syndrome. Where do you get all these made-up syndromes and mentalities? I never heard of this. I don't think Filipinos are that onion skinned. They may be sensitive the same way other nationalities are sensitive when they felt they're being attacked. So yeah, not uniquely Filipinos.

10. Fiesta Syndrome. Again, never heard of this. But why would you want this scrapped out?

11. Pointing lips. Why what's wrong with this? To drop this just because the "western culture" find this funny is basically your finest example of colonial mentality.