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[av_heading heading=’ JUST ANOTHER DAY | Slave mentality’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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AT THE height of the ASEAN Summit in Manila last week there was an incident that went viral. After seeing the video on Facebook moi’s immediate comment was “ahay.” It was “ahay” in the sense that it’s no big deal and why all the fuss.
It was just two people having a spirited discussion on some issue which obviously they don’t agree. So what if it was blogger Sass Rogando Sasot and Jonathan Head of the British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC?
It’s not like its Wonder Woman and Superman having an argument; they’re just two people albeit from different racial and ethnic origins and tone of skin, but still just people.
People argue all the time and it does not make the six o’clock news, and seeing the reactions and comments particularly of Filipinos changed “ahay” to “good God!” But these Filipinos are showing very strong symptoms of “slave or colonial mentality.”
And what is “slave or colonial mentality” for the uninitiated?
A slave or colonial mentality is the attitude that colonized people feel themselves to be inferior to their colonizers based on the fact of colonization.
It is also a concept in psychology. It refers to a coping skill where individuals use passivity and submissiveness when confronted with a threat, leading to subservient behaviour and appeasement.”
Now why did moi say the reactions and comments of Filipinos exhibit strong symptoms of slave or colonial mentality? Here are samples of the comments not exactly verbatim but almost:
“Who does she think she’s talking to? That’s the BBC.”
“Does she think she is better than the BBC?”
“What gives her the right to question the BBC?”
And then there were comments that they’re embarrassed because Sass Rogando Sasot dared to question the BBC.
What was worst probably was a comment that Sass Rogando Sasot should not raise her voice or talk in an aggressive and assertive manner to the Bureau Chief of the BBC.
Hello people, Sass Rogando Sasot is a Filipino, you’re a Filipino. Jonathan Head is an Englishman and you’re on his side and you’re embarrassed by your countryman? If you have any sense of nationalism you would naturally side with your countryman.
What are you, a “little brown Englishman?”
The whole point of that discussion was Sass Rogando Sasot questioned Jonathan Head why the British Broadcasting Corporation or BBC went out of its way and gave a platform and an interview to Jover Laurio just because she’s a rabid anti-Duterte blogger.
Bearing in mind all the basic requirements needed for a person or event to make it to the news, clearly shows that Jover Laurio is sorely lacking i.e. she’s a very minor blogger with an insignificant following; she’s no Hemmingway and she has done nothing except malign people.
The fact that she is a rabid anti-Duterte blogger is not newsworthy and does not merit an interview over the BBC. There are a lot of people in social media who possess the same hatred perhaps more towards President Rodrigo Duterte and the BBC is not even aware they exist.
It was not about Sass Rogando Sasot desperately wanting to be interviewed by the BBC; it was why the BBC interviewed a very minor blogger; why not interview Sass Rogando Sasot because she has a much bigger following than Jover Laurio?
Yet almost everyone, including mainstream media, focussed on that.
Take note people, Sass Rogando Sasot is very well steep in European culture and education. She attended Leiden University College-The Hague with a Masters degree in Foreign Policy and International Diplomacy.
What is more embarrassing is that some people and mainstream media were embarrassed that Sass Rogando Sasot stood up against Jonathan Head of the BBC.
In case you’re not aware of it, Western media, particularly the British Broadcasting Company or the BBC, were rabidly anti-Singapore during the time of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yu just because he did not conform to their own concept of democracy. Now they’re eating their own words.
Now Western media including the BBC are doing the same to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The response and comments of those Filipinos and mainstream media against Sass Rogando Sasot is akin to them putting on “whitening creams” so they will have fairer skin like the white Europeans.
If you missed the whole point of that discussion and just focused on Sass Rogando Sasot standing up against Jonathan Head of the BBC and were embarrassed by it, you exhibit very strong symptoms of slave or colonial mentality.
On a personal note, moi was director for almost two decades of an animal welfare nongovernment organization based and funded in the United Kingdom and moi’s experience in dealing with Englishmen is that always present yourself as an equal if not better than them and always be assertive, not submissive, otherwise you’ll lose their respect and they’ll eat you alive. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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