THE 109th PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE DAY:
Mabuhay ang Inyong Kalayaan!
Our neighboring village, the Philippines, is celebrating their Independence Day today, 12 June, from the colonization of the United States. (oops! Change that to Spain. I stand corrected. It's Sofia's info, by the way. LOL)
The country, which was once the most prosperous nation in our region, has been through a lot of changes from the prosperous 50's and 60's, through the intellectual revolution of the 70's, through the dictator (but fabulous!) regime of the 80's and the economic kick-start of the 90’s.
We Thais received their teachers and professors to our universities with open arms. They have taught us English, Mathematics and Agriculture. And most of all, they taught us that Asians like us can be globally competitive and expand our horizons beyond our borders.
If they can only learn OR RE-learn the importance of unity – that despite their political and ideological differences as a nation – they can work together for the advancement of their country.
Happy 109th Independence Day, Philippines!
--Pisanu (OMG! I can't believe
I just wrote that! So serious lah!)
24 Comments:
Seems like their independence celebration is NOT a big deal to them. This post has been here for hours and no reaction nor thank you. Lol.
Good thing you guys didn't write a lenghty post otherwise it is an obvious waste of precious blog space.
Just a thought from an observer from Swirzerland, the neutral country.
neutral country? how dare you say that we are indifferent with our national day? you do not even belong to this region... why not just milk some cows in the alps!
anyways, thank you pisanu for celebrating independence day with us... appreciate the banner and the post! but its actually 109th year celebration of our independence from SPAIN not the US. we got liberated from the US in 1945.
thank you so much... MABUHAY ang ASEANO
ahh, happy independence day! :D in malaysia we call it "merdeka", so our independence day is called "merdeka day" lol...
i must go to philiphines one day too :)
*sigh* There's a reason Lee Kwan Yu's mad at us. lol. It's quite funny though, they moved the Independence Day holiday to yesterday so that there would be a long weekend. Most of us had work/school today.
Philippines sent professors to Thailand?
Hmmm.....interesting.
Anyway, I never considered Thailand to be a country with a significant number of Filipino population. Most of the Filipinos that I know that visit the country are small time entrepreneurs who take advantage of the cheap cost of goods there, and then they take them back to the Philippines to re-sell them. That was when the Baht and the Peso still have a 1:1 ratio.
But one thing I know that Filpinos taught other ASEAN countries is the cultivation of rice. Now, Philippines is overpopulated and we import rice from Thailand. Haha!
Thanks Pisanu! And Morten, it's Switzerland, not Swizerland.
Mr. Scrotum, we just got home from celebrating our independence day the whole day with street parties and parades. That is why we weren't able to check this wonderful blog by Pisanu earlier. If you have nothing better to say, then just don't say it! Didn't your mom taught you anything?!
You only proved that not all people living in the supposedly 1st world countries are actually 1st rate citizens... There are 1st rate assholes too!
Pisanu! Thank you for the wonderful blog on our independence day! Love the banner! You"re simply amazing! Mwah!!!
hi there river
wow we really appreciate that entry...
love it, but you're right that we are not really that united.
ive been always dreaming of that, for us to achieve the success that we deserve
@ Morten...it's ok, dude. No big deal. I posted this as a sincere greeting not an action-reaction science experiment. Pas probleme. Merci bcp de venir et venir encore svp. :-)
@ anonymous... thanks dude! Leave your name next time, so we can thank you by name.
@ Conan...yeah, Hari Merdeka is 09Aug! I'll be there of course. Malaysia boleh lah! :-) And go visit our neighbour...they have Cebu Pacific flight KL to Manila. Very convenient travel too.
@ Q The Conqueror...we do that in Thailand too. We call it "Substitution Day" when we have a holiday that drops on an odd day. But we usually sub it on Fridays not Mondays.
@ Cypocalypse...I see that you've been disecting our blog eh? You are reading all previous posts! Thanks! We called the Philippine Embassy on Sukhumvit Road, they said we have 65,000 Filipinos working in Thailand. But only a fraction of them are legally documented.
And they also gave us information we shouldn't know. If you want it, send us an email. Mostly, "chismis" about Filipinos living here.
@ Misterhubs!!!...no post is complete without your name on it. Thanks and we always appreciate your patrionage (patronage? -- sounds like a massage club!)
@ Frostfire...that's the spirit! Westerners (I'm half of them) are very outspoken and I guess you surpirsed them with your comment. LOL. But let's not take it against them (half of me). Are you Eurasian too? :-)
@ Pinoyurge..."basta ikaw" dude! :-)
***This @ @ @ thing was taught to me by AJ of BAMR and MisterHubs! Isn't it fantastic?!
Fabulous regime? My Filipino BF had to flee his country because he was an activist and was warned he was on a Marcos deathlist. Others like him didn't make it and were murdered. Maybe you should read a little history before making silly statements like that. And no, Imelda wasn't fabulous. She was worse than he was. Ian
Ey man! Thanks for putting a post about philippine independence in your blog. We appreciate it. Q is right though, the government moved independence holiday to Monday so we can have a happy long weekend. LOL. I agree about the unity too, too much disagreements among political leaders...such a waste of filipino taxes..sigh.
DUDE IAN (anonymous), thanks for dropping by. It is MY opinion and I am in no position to judge whoever you want to send to the guillotines.
I stated "fabulous" because as "shallow" that I am;
1) the Philippines have shown the whole of Southeast Asia how a modern city should look like.
2) how to play diplomacy with how the Philippines enjoyed international attention in those days.
3) how to educated their people and in turn the whole of Southeast Asia send their students to the Philippines and learn more.
4) and eventually, they have shown us how to abuse power and consequently be thrown out big time
It all happened in the Dictator regime. If your are insinuating that the current freedom of the Philippines is better than the 70's or 80's, do you know which direction the whole country is going now?
We all learn from something. Good or bad.
This is how I see life. Always beautiful and optimistic. And it isn't hard to be one, mind you.
Now, if you will persuade me to be otherwise...I'm afraid you'll be disappointed.
Most of the Filipinos that I know HAVE MOVED ON and LOOKING FORWARD...don't you think you should to?
At hindi lahat ng Pilpino ay sang-ayon sa iyong saloobin Ginoong Ian. Ngunit hindi namin sila nilimutan, huwag kang mag-alala.
(Not all Filipinos have the same sentiments as yours, Mr. Ian. But don't worry, we haven't forgotten them, don't worry.)
Guten Tag pisanu.. been frequenting your blog lately and i must say that i have a great admiration to it.. it reflects your remarkable wit, cool sense of humor and broad knowledge towards almost everything...
btw, am a filipino guy presently residing here in Germany.. and yes, i've got amazing and amiable Thai friends here.. i do love spicy Thai food, too! aroi!!
with reference to my coutry, the Philippines, the dreadful political scene there is really a big hindrance towards economic development that sometimes i wish to be trained as a professional assassin so i can execute the corrupt government officials.. or better yet that everything will be wiped out there so the filipinos can start anew.. i love the country, not the people governing it.. *sigh*
anyways, keep up with your splendid blog..
"yao narn"...
Hi again Pisanu! I'm half Chinese and half Filipino. I was born and raised in the Philippines so I have more Filipino sensibilities in me than Chinese.
I think this comment -"Good thing you guys didn't write a lenghty post otherwise it is an obvious waste of precious blog space." -by Mr. Scrotm is not being outspoken Pisanu. It's being sarcastic!
Anyways, I got addicted reading your blog ( I check your blog everyday). My kudos to you and Sofia in your efforts to bring the ASEANs closer together. Have a fabulous day you guys!
There's a lot of negative feedbacks on the habit of the current Phils. administration of moving local holidays to either friday or monday to creat a longer weekend.
But for me I think this is very sensible. By making longer weekends, it helps promote local tourism (since most Filipinos love to go out of town during long weekends). It help creates more business opprtunities in the country side.
lol. Frostfire, you got that right. Malls were packed this weekend :)).
Anyway, on Marcos, he and Imelda actually had some pretty good ideas. They created the lung center, kidney center, the cultural center, HS for the arts and philippine science HS and precisely because of Imelda's vanity, these places were extremely well maintained. Fast forward now... were these places are lacking in equipment and funding.
Also during the Marcos era, I'm not sure if its ethanol fuel, but some sort of organic fuel was discovered. Unfortunately, when that spawner of Kris (Cory) took over, the project was stopped just coz it was tainted with the Marcos name. I think the inventor then gave the idea to the Malaysians.
I'm not a Marcos loyalist, but the government should at least give funding to his better ideas and not ignore them and leave them to rot. Not to mention that the current government has a human rights record as bad as Marcos.
Oh my thanks a lot for d banner...
Im from d philippines too n honestly speaking
i luv ur blog sooo much that i always visit it everyday...god bless n continue updating hehehe muahhhh
Just got home from work and I'm about to relax and unwind, but before that let me read up on my favorite blogs!
Wow, thanks for the greeting River, LOL, I understand how confusing Philippine Independence Day could be! It is celebrated on June 12 (independence from Spain) but it was on July 4th that our country achieved independence from the US. It's like having 2 Independence days. =)
Hey Pisanu,
The Philippines has improved in many ways since Marcos, I dont deny that, but the corruption by politicians, government officials and the raping of the countries by the rich and powerful continues unabated. Being a journalist myself, i am well aware that speaking/writing the truth about these matters by Filipino journos will often result in a bullet in the head. The Philippines could be a really wonderful country if it wasnt for the bastards running the place.
Thanks Juan de la Cruz and Dexta. Im glad some remember because its undeniable that if you forget your past, you are doomed to repeat it. Peace Ian
See q d conqueror! Long weekends does bring business opprtunities both in the country side and to the malls! That a good thing isn't it! =)
Dexta and Laine, first time to leave a comment eh?1 All smiles from me here! thanks!
ei guys... havent been here in a while.. came across your Siargo entries... too bad you didnt get there... hmm... btw... did you know that the next wakeboarding world finals will be held here (philippines) naga city, 8 hours south of mla by car or 35 mins by plane... hahahah... ive been addicted to it lately! lotsa foreigners there... =)
check this out! its the bomb! http://www.camsurwatersportscomplex.com
nice nice nice =) oh and thanks for the link =P
Happy Independence Day!
I didn;t like the pic!
Post a Comment