I'm not calling Filipinos to be anti-American. It's good to have allies. Japan and the U.S. are allies. I use some stuff from American brands (but most of them were Made in China or in other Asian countries) or stuff born out of American influence. I still watch a few American shows though I usually prefer Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Japanese or South Korean shows. I hate to admit it that I do have the temptation to go anti-American (never mind most of the girls I find attractive are whites) because of the fact that some Filipinos tend to overrate everything American.
There's a difference between buying American products or availing of American services vs. relying too much on America. There's nothing wrong with the Philippines buying military equipment from America. There's nothing wrong with receiving American foreign direct investors to produce their goods in the Philippines as long as they comply with taxes and the necessary legal requirements. Nothing's wrong with receiving American aid for disaster victims. Nothing's wrong with asking some tips from the American army to help improve the Philippine Army. What's just so wrong with the Philippines for some time is relying too much on America to help them solve their problems.
How is the Philippines relying too much on the U.S.? The Philippine military relies too much on American reinforcement when it could get help from neighboring Asian countries or learn from the American military on how to modernize their army. Many Filipinos seek to go to America for jobs instead of liberalizing the economy to provide more jobs for Filipinos where foreign investors are must submit to the Philippine government's rules. The Department of Social Welfare and Development kept soliciting donations from America rather than releasing abundant local aid when it arrived. These are but a few examples that anyone can raise up to address with relying too much on America.
The result of the Philippines' overly relying on the U.S. is that it becomes America's lapdog. Like it or not but the U.S. does have its bad reputation of meddling in other countries for several decades from the Vietnam war to the Iraqi war just to name a few. Some Americans are even acting like as if they're experts of the Philippines or even the whole world. Sad to say but Americans also feed on the anti-American sentiments people may feel. I don't even fully blame Filipinos who tend to feel anti-American especially when they find out how anti-intellectual American society is or how American shows usually suck compared to what they want to watch. I don't blame Filipinos who develop an anti-American attitude overtime especially those who see nothing more than overabundance of anti-American media.
What Filipinos need to do right now is accept foreign assistance whenever it's needed but not become a foreign moocher to any country. The Philippines should focus on pursuing an interdependent policy. Interdependence means a mutual alliance between one or more group of countries. It's best for the Philippines to pursue an interdependent policy with not just the United States but also other countries and to resolve conflicts like the Spratlys conflicts by diplomatic means. This means that the country should stop relying too much on foreign aid (while still accepting it when it arrives and give aid to countries that are in need when possible) and engage more in international marketing. Get rid of 60/40, allow more foreign investors to legally invest in the Philippines, have competent Filipino companies invest abroad to attract more foreign investors and that way the Philippines can improve for the better.
Comments
Post a Comment