January 10, 2012

  • A campaign on positivity

    Thoughts

    Soon enough, we will be known for our positivity and this is going to be our brand image abroad. Our goal is to sustain and protect it.
    - From @MonJQuotes on Twitter, presumably the Twitter account of Phillipine Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr.

    More fun in the Philippines, that's basically how the people at the tourism department wants the world to know and how it intends to attract visitors into the country.

    For Jimenez and the tourism people, the Filipino people must scoop their eye out and refuse to see the social realities in the country and just see and promote only that which is positive. No wonder former First Lady Imelda Marcos had this distorted belief that all the Filipino people need in order to forget their impoverished life is to look at her and live their lives through her extravagance.

    Lucky for Jimenez, Filipinos are positive people by nature.

    Yes, we don't have much. Most live in less than a dollar a day, but most also know how to smile, laugh, and make the best of what we have.

    Most know what matters most in our lives and that is why it is not until government removes that from them by force that they begin to realize that we live in a country full of filth because we have leaders that smell of filth.

    But then despite all these, we still know how to smile and even joke about our situation. Yes, our homes will be demolished in an hour, our children shot by government assassins, our spouses kidnapped and tortured by military agents, but life must go on, and we are a people who love to celebrate life. Minutes after our houses are demolished, you will see us laughing about the experience, how government agents made a fool of themselves. We tend to see something funny even in the most desperate situation.

    We are a country of celebrations. Everything is a reason to party. Being with friends, being with family, having to live another day, everything is a reason for us Filipinos to celebrate.

    Yes, Mr. Jimenez, you won't have a problem when it comes to promoting positivity because we are a positive people. I just hope that government won't also forget that the smile on the faces of its positive people is not because they are content with their lives, but it is simply because they are that, a people full of smiles, their problems masked by their smile.

    It's definitely more fun in the Philippines.

    (Photo credit: Eddie Tudtud and Mark Mendoza)

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