The editorial of New City Magazine, September 2006 issue positively talks of nationalism, the Filipino nationalism. This magazine usually offers surprising articles, testimonies and civil and ecclesial events under the light and perspective of the Gospel. Another perspective. It does not miss therefore to see things in the light of the gospel especially on the light of the charism of unity – seeing things so that all may be one, as Jesus prayed before He died.
False and what could be termed excessive nationalisms could be destructive. Extreme nationalistic ideas, in this age of globalization, even leads to violence and extremism. What the editorial offers is a nationalism which does not absolutely deny our identity as filipinos, bicolanos, visayans, ilocanos, etc, but this particular identity should open us to the identity of the others and see what are its positive points.
Nationalism that only looks at its own identity leads to blindlness even of its own. We could see this for example of the extreme nationalism of the Jews that lead them to an unreasonable war with Lebanon with disastrous consequences even to their own nation. They have become more unpopular to the world. It is said that the prime minister is increasingly unpopular even in Israel. If they do not open themselves towards co-existence, and this is also true to Hezbollah or Hamas, and any other extremist mentalities, they can contribute more evil rather than good in the world.
So even though the editor of the New city said that:
“we have also to realize that every country in the world has passed through good and bad moments. There is nothing new to the Philippines being considered less than others. Other nations have passed dark moments in their history and eventually recovered. . . .”
we need precisely to see positively our own nationality our region or culture for that matter, and open ourselves to other nations, cultures, regions, etc. who “passed dark moments”.
What follows therefore is to be positive of our own identity. But this could be seen only when we open ourselves to the others, not to compare but to appreciate the other “nationalisms,” and see the others nations, regions, cultures, in their own perspective. What is good in the ilocano culture? Its frugality! Instead of criticizing it, one would appreciate it and learn something from it. They say in Western Visayas, it is the fathers, like my own, who cooks. Could this not be considered positive by the Tagalog culture? That is why they say women in central Luzon love to marry the Ilonggos since the husbands cook, not the wives – a characteristic of their own culture. There are other many cultural traits that could be considered as gifts one to another as culture. But we need to be open and see the positive angle of our own culture and place it in “contradiction” with the other. (See my other blog, regarding man’s identity which could be applied to “national identity” )
True nationalism is not a given, it is attained by loving it first and this lead us to discover its goodness. Once discovered, we could instead appreciate it more share it with others! We could extend what a man named Jesus said towards nationalism: Love the other nation, region, culture, etc. as your own!
