My Philippines

I want change. And by that I meant, what I want to see is equality. When someone says Filipino, I want respect, not to be looked down on with disdain. Tracing our roots, the early Filipinos were not slaves/maids, thieves or prostitutes as others would imply. We were into fishing, jewelry making, pottery, and mining. We had our own little civilisation. We even had our own system of writing called "Baybayin / Alibata." Colonisation stripped us off our identity, pride and dignity. Over the centuries, we were slaves to our own country, marred by fear and trauma. We're a nation who knew life through struggle and fighting for our survival. 
I am not citing past occurences or using history as an excuse to justify the bad. But it should not be all black or white, let us not be easy to judge as we are all as bad as each other.
Today, I pay homage to my heroes; my grandpa, a brave soldier who fought for my freedom and survived,  "The Death March in Bataan" alongside other Filipino soldiers. And my nana, who, at 15 years old, lived in hiding for four years to escape torture and sexual abuse from the Japanese soldiers. She is my Anne Frank.
And as we celebrate Philippine Independence, Iet us take pride in our own achievements. It is good to honour other's greatness, but a shame to take credit off other's hardwork. Let us not forget that no one is a hero by association. We can't talk about wanting to see changes in our country but ignoring the little things we know we could do something about. Having said this, I got to go do stuff instead of yapping about it. 
 
~RochelleVillaflor©2012,  beautifulbruises ©2012