HammedOnline's Article on Pinoy Culture

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I found this blog from my BlogCatalog visitors. Hammed, the author, has found a pretty interesting article that might cause some people, especially Pinoys, to react negatively.

I read one of his blogs about a British journalist's article, Matter of Taste (the Filipino Culture from a Foreigner’s Perspective). It was funny to read a foreigner's perspective of different parts of our culture as Pinoys. It was written by Matthew Sutherland.

Let me share with you my thoughts on it.

Matter of Taste (the Filipino Culture from a Foreigner’s Perspective)
In this article, he talks about what he has observed in Pinoy culture, particularly in Pinoy food and Pinoy names and nicknames.

Balut - This is one food that Pinoys are very popular for. It takes great courage, my friend, to actually eat it. If you've watched Fear Factor or even Survivor, you've seen how Americans were overly disgusted by this food. It's not for people with high cholesterol or blood pressure, though.

I laughed while he described other weird delicacies (yes, kababayans, let's admit that we do have weirdness going on but that's okay) like adidas, bagoong (which I miss with my nanay's kare-kare!), patis (almost in every meal), etc. If I was a foreigner in this country, I'll be grossed out, too. But, only Pinoys and foreigners who have completely embraced our culture will enjoy these food.

I was LOL (laughing out loud) when I read the part on Pinoy names. He mentioned that if there were kids nicknamed "Honey Boy" in the UK, they'll be beaten by other kids. Well, here, they're not because BULLIES are not that rampant in our schools, unlike in the US and UK. And, it's acceptable to have nicknames like that. Although I don't know anyone nicknamed Honey Boy. LOLz.

With the naming "system" that Pinoy parents use, I am actually not ashamed of that. That's one of the things that I actually love about our culture. Our families here are closer than any foreign families that we give each other nicknames or pet names. Some parents do use name/nickname patterns with their kids and for me, it shows how much they want everyone to be equal. That might sound funny but it's true. So no one will tease the other for being named "Apple Joy" or Bing-bing.

And the random inserted "H". Hahaha. I'm guilty of this. My nickname is MHEL. And whenever I introduce myself and tell them my nickname, I always say "with an H". It was my choice, really. I don't want others to think that my real name is "Melanie" or "Melissa". I don't like girly names so I got used to being called MHEL. And I also observed that in our culture - Bhong, Lhen, Jhun. But, I'm proud to say "ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES!" when I think of that.

I read the comments from different readers of this article. Most of them liked and laughed with him. Some Pinoys were offended. Me? I actually liked this article. I enjoy reading foreigners' views of our culture.

He maybe made fun of some parts of our culture but we wouldn't be Pinoys if we don't enjoy balut, rice in every meal, patis or bagoong, or we don't have nicknames. The way he compared his culture in the UK with ours was acceptable, for me.

In my opinion, he didn't really degrade us by his comments but he merely shared and compared what he got accustomed to in the UK with our culture. I would do the same if I was in a different country.

I believe we Pinoys have higher tolerance than any other culture. This is something that I'm really proud of because we don't get too upset by little things. We don't need therapists to solve or get us through our problems. Our ties with our families are close/tight so we know we got their support.

There are a lot of things that we Pinoys should be proud of, things that people from other countries might laugh at. But, that's what makes us PINOYS! We're different, and I'm proud of it.