Happy Filipino-American Friendship Day everyone!
As we all know, Americans choose to celebrate
Filipino-American Friendship Day by lighting fireworks (a misguided but well intended tribute to Asian cultures) and waving American flags.
It is important that we take a moment to reflect on the meaning of this day, the meaning of indpendence (as well as forced inter-dependence).
In 1521, Magellan landed on an Island called Homonhon and promptly decided to name it Felipinas (after King Philip of Spain), much to the surprise of the natives who called it home. Although having been an island full of diversity, with Japanese, Chinese, Arab, and various Islamic merchants sailing in, those shifty Europeans were able to set up a fully colonial government in exactly 50 years.
In 1896, Filipinos successfully revolted against Spanish rule, and June 12 was declared their Independence Day. However, the Americans (even craftier than the Spanish - probably from having been on both sides of the colonial divide just a century before) set up colonial camp. The Filipinos soon
revolted in what is once in a while referred to as the
Philipine-American War.
In reference to the Filipinos, god made President William McKinely realize it was his white man's burden to "uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died." Following a foreign policy that eerily resembles an Ann Coulter train of thought, we attempted to "kill half the Filipinos in order that the remaining half of the population may be advanced to a higher plane of life than their present semi-barbarous state affords" - all in the name of democracy, of course.
While the war ended much earlier (various dates are given, but generally 1902), America kept <strike>its claws</strike> some influence in Filipino life. In an astounding turn of events, we somehow
"gave" them their freedom (with numerous exceptions) on July 4, 1946. July 4 was celebrated as the new Filipino Indpendence Day until 1962 when
the Filipino president changed the official Independence Day back to June 12, and declared July 4 to be Filipino-American Freindship Day.
Do some of these events sound eerily familiar? If you attended a public school in the US, you more than likely never once discussed ANYTHING related to this. Yet somehow, somehow it feels as if I was
just reading about something exactly like this, maybe in the newspaper. Hmmm . . .
So what can we learn from all of this? One very important lesson -
those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it. And unfortunately, the US seems bent of dooming countries one at a time, until they all bow down to the blessings of western-style democracy.