(Blind) Patriotism?

We love this flag.

When I heard that Manny Pacquiao lost the game last Sunday I was immediately disappointed. I think it's a natural reaction: I am not a boxing fan but I have somehow been rooting for him although I am not too sure if politics and preaching go together with punching. But anyhow, I had to know why he lost, if this Bradley person was better than him, and if it was a fight that should topple him from a string of victories.

Apparently not. A lot of people are crying foul.

It has been a few days after the fight and a lot of people are still talking about it. I can just imagine the regular Dhong still bellowing curses and, if the viral photo was real, Mommy Dionisia would still be recuperating from a fainting spell after the defeat. Jokes have come and gone about Birkins and luxury cars, but what the heck, according to a computation I saw on Twitter (was it ANC?), every time Pacquiao makes a punch he makes more then FOUR MILLIONS PESOS which he would get post-fight. Whoa.

Of course when Jessica Sanchez lost I was as disappointed. I thought Philip Phillips was good but not as technically good as Jessica, and I am not saying this in manner of blind patriotism, a term that I have been seeing a lot lately (yes, from Jessica Sanchez to that controversial Ba-yo ad). She is just a lot more talented than the white guy with guitar, but then again Jessica Sanchez did not have the entire force of the website Vote for the Worse behind her which apparently has been claiming the victories of all WGWGs in the past five American Idol seasons.

Naturallement, a lot of Filipino people cried foul. Some even dragged China into the issue. Chinese daw si Jessica Sanchez? China voted daw for Philip Phillips?


Offensive. Proud. Defensive. People have been calling us "Flipinoys"; I saw a lot of that in YouTube comments, usually from people outside this country. Why? Because we like to claim madly, we defend too passionately, we get offended too blindly. Of course I felt somehow offended, but in others' defense, oh but it's true. It's supposed to be Pinoy pride. Is it? What is it? How is it Pinoy pride?

We celebrated the country's Independence Day yesterday; yesterday morning I watched mostly animated features on cable (Megamind and Ice Age), in the afternoon I went to a meeting, and in the evening I was mostly channel surfing between cooking shows and confrontational reality TV-shows until I fell asleep to Terminator 2. Of course, as most holidays go, I did not have to, say, pretend that I had to do something, say, holiday-related yesterday. None of us watched the celebrations on TV. The shopping malls were obviously crowded. Life went on, but not necessarily if we are on TV.

How do we really carry our flag? I think this is an important thing to ponder. Do we do this at a celebrity level: support Paquiao like mad, defend Jessica Sanchez, etc.? Or do we get insulted when someone makes a remark about our country and our race, ie Terry Hatcher's character in Desperate Housewives, Claire Danes, etc.? Do we get angry at the guy and his crew who made the video 20 Reasons I Dislike About the Philippines but then love them again because they made 20 Reasons I Love the Philippines?

If we get offended, are we patriotic? We are free because we wanted to, we are free because we defended it. Several times. After fighting for our independence, do we have to fight again for pride?

Symbiosis somehow comes to mind.

If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?

Back in high school each student was told to recite this quite famous monologue from Merchant of Venice. This episode was pretty memorable: believe me, almost 50% of the class kept saying "If you prickle us..."

And of course, in true Pinoy fashion, all we could do was laugh. I won't be surprised if jokes are made out of it or if China, somehow, is dragged again into the issue.