The "unpatriotic" mall--where is our blue and red?

I usually hang out with my girlfriend in a mall, that claims to be one of the biggest in Asia.
I have to admit that I like the place, very much like the place. Other than, it is being so near the sea, actually on top of the seabed, the mall is relatively cooler and spacious than any other mall I know in the Philippines. In fact, the Mall has the widest range of choices in terms of restaurants, shops and stores. Usually you cannot feel being crowded there, because the mall is so vast it could even pass for a small city.

But this July while malling, I noticed that the mall has a promo for "US citizens and nationals", that on July 4, all Americans will have special gifts they can claim at the Mall. Not bad, for a Mall that give freebies to their alien customers. Actually, if you find your way there, you can see a lot of foreigners shopping around--from our neighbor Asians to Europeans (actually I do not know, if they are Europeans, English, Americans or what). But what disturbs me is the US flag displayed on mall shops and on the mall premises, especially on the walls of the second floor. So, wait a minute, what are these US flags doing in our own malls, our own businesses, our own shops, and our own country? Why did the Mall administration allow this utterly unpatriotic act?
I understand, that July 4, is the Filipino-American Friendship day, but this event is not national holiday nor a red letter day in our country. I also agree that US has substantial interests in our economy and people but even assuming that these interests subsist, why in all the life of me, display an American flag in our malls?

What's the pain and harm of such act so benign of displaying a foreign flag? Let me explain. Malling is now ingrained in the culture. So many Filipino families go to mall for bonding, shopping or dining. The act of uneccessary display of foreign flags in our country will impress a wrong signal to our children that our country favorably honors other nations in such extent that we can proudly display their emblems in our spots. This is soft-teaching our children unpatriotism. We had enough of English billboards, US products, foreign goods, and why come to the extreme of allowing foreign flags hang around our places of purchase? These seemingly inoccuous actions will slowly destroy our sense of identity and familiarity with our own culture and system. Have they not realized that Filipinos no longer know what our flag symbolizes? How do we teach children patriotism, if we hang flags not our own? What if a kid ask her mother, "Nay, yan po ba ang bagong bandera natin?", the suprised mother may reply, "Hindi anak, sa Amerika yan kasi...." and now what? what justification can the mother give? Would you just give the alibi, "because it is the Filipino-American friendship day?". What reason can you give a child who is just beginning to form his ideas in his own native land? No wonder why Filipinos, have the colonial mentality, manifested in ways like cramming to go to the US, piling the US embassies, and even other consular offices and embassies like Japan, Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, among others.


Going back, it is needless to say that the display of such flag clearly manifests our self-perception as a nation. It mirrors the quality of our idealism and patriotism. I doubt, if one can find, a foreign flag being hoisted alone in any country except in one's embassy premises. But, lo and behold, we allow foreign symbols hang around so proudly in our place of rest.

I have seen foreign flags being hoisted in poles around Baclaran whenever a foreign dignitary will pay a state visit, or whenever an international convention will be held here in Manila, but those flags will be alternated by our own Flag along the streets. The DFA office in Pasay for instance displays foreign flags of the countries we have strong diplomatic ties, but the highest flagpole in the line is the Philippine national emblem. I would accept the justification of Philippine-American Friendship day if the Mall administration displayed both the US and Philippine flag side by side. But, no Philippine flag was displayed beside the American, just plain and simple, star and stripes...where is our blue and red?

I have the sentiment that, we had so much of alien products, services, businesses, even practices here, why add insult to injury to the weakening sense of nationality by displaying a foreign symbol in our own native land?

History taught us that our ancestors fought hard, giving up their very lives, their families and dreams so that our flag can waive proudly in our native soil. Raising the flag in Kawit, Cavite in 1898 is not a vague act of waiving it before a crowd. Before that flag was raised in the balcony of Aguinaldo Mansion, so many lives, thousands of them had to be sacrificed for the cause of one symbol. So many blood have to be toiled and poured out before our own national emblem was raised proudly by no less than our own people. It was an arduous battle to declare independence, to the point of sacrificing their very souls. And now, have we forgotten the lessons of history? Have we neglected the sacrifices of our people to keep the flag raised?

Our flag is our identity, the very representation of our people, our land, our pride. Whenever we display it, we show to the world, to our own kin, our wholeness as a nation. It symbolizes our aspirations, our history, our very own Philippines. Displaying flags of foreign countries alone in our land so much of an unwelcomed act before. But now, it seems to be very much acceptable. In this thought, I will not accept friendship and comity as a reason. Now, where is our sense of national pride? Where is our sense of wholeness? Have we been so fragmented to the thought of taking our country and her symbols for granted?

I do not claim to be heroic. Like many Filipinos, I also have relatives in the US, and to other countries, to whom they had been citizens. I too, wanted to work and live abroad, if given the chance. But that must not eradicate the idea of "Filipino idealism" in me. We have done adulterous acts against our motherland, let us not all the more, prostitute her, by allowing such simple acts to perpetuate, fossilize and pass on to generations unnoticed, unguarded. Remember, a simple hole can sink a ship.

The problem is not actually the population, the unemployment, the corruption. Our problem is that, we no longer want to identify ourselves and to contemplate our own nationalism, or to cultivate our own pride as "Filipinos". I am not saying this in vacuum or with blindsfold on, I am aware of rampant poverty, indolence of many, greed of our politicians, high rate of unemployment, lack of decent housing, want of quality education, the list is endless. But come to think of it. For us, who may not have the luxury and opportunity to leave this country, have we asked ourselves what can we do, or what have we contributed to make this ship stay afloat? What have we done for our own country? We rant like cry babies, pointing to the government their unnumerable mistakes, criticizing everyone to the point of being unreasonable, but how about us? Have we done something for the nation? I must agree, the government may epitomize a corrupt system, but what contribution have we made? I remember, John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural speech, "Ask not, what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country..."

If we cannot respect to the very least our own emblems, what more the deplorable totality of our nation. If we can take simple acts unobserved, what more the real and larger picture of the pititiful conditions of our countrymen. What have we done so far?

Let us look and internalize our symbols, relive the lives that had been offered for us to freely recite our oath, sing our anthem and waive our flag. The long-strain of wail to achieve the freedom and liberty we have today cost not gold but crimson. We owe all of these to our forefathers, and let us not fail them. The oath of allegiance to the Philippine flag, gives me shivers, and let me, proudly recite, one more time:

Ako ay Pilipino
Buong katapatang nanunumpa
Sa watawat ng Pilipinas
At sa bansang kanyang sinasagisag
Na may dangal, katarungan at kalayaan
Na pinakikilos ng sambayanangMaka-Diyos,
Makatao,Makakalikasan at,Makabansa.

"nasaan na kaya ang mga Pilipinong ito?"