I had a conversation with a young classmate from school a while ago. It went something like this (translated from Dutch to English):
Person: Where you from again? Philippines, is it?
Me: Yeah.
Person: Where’s that? Is it in Europe?
Me: No, Asia. It’s near Indonesia, where your mother came from. Do you know where it is?
Person: Oh, there’s a lot of mountains there, right?
Me: Yup, a lot.
Person: Oh, now I know. There’s no houses there, right?
Me: What? Of course there are houses.
Person: Do you have schools there?
Me: Yes! (a bit irritated)
Person: Do you also learn math there?
Me: Yes.
Person: Are you a soldier?
Me: Whaat?? No, I’m not a soldier.
Person: How do soldiers look like in your land? Bows and arrows, right?
Me: What? No. You watch too much TV.
Person: Are there TV’s there?
Me: The Philippines is just a land full of people in forests, savages with bow and arrows and all, is that what your saying?
Person: Oh, what country is it then? *thinks*… Africa!
Me: It’s not like that in Africa either. You watch TV too much, you forgot to watch the real world.
Person: Isn’t it the land where there’s only animals and trees?
. . . . and he continued asking me questions like that (worse questions, actually) for another 15 minutes. I asked him where he got all these images of the country where I came from. He said he saw it on TV.
I hate it. It makes me angry, how the people in Europe have these images forced into their brains from the moment they start learning. The images of these savages from the Third World running around with no clothes, hunting for animals they will eat for dinner. The people who control the media, control the people’s mind. What hurts me more is that this boy is half-Indonesian, and is ashamed of it, as if he is half-animal.
I don’t hate this boy. I don’t blame him. I don’t hate the TV. I hate the people controlling it, monopolizing it. Not just the TV but the radio, the paintings, the music, the culture. I hate how they are being used. Hate is not a bit strong.
Someone: Who’s that guy who discovered South America?
Me: Discovered? You mean conquered, there were people there when Columbus came.
Someone: No, there were Indians.
Ah, and I also hate how they think they are these heroes who gave us civilization. That they came there to save us from savagery, gave us freedom and democracy and all those beautiful words. That before they came there, we were animals not capable of being humans. When in fact they came to these countries not because these countries are poor but because these countries are rich.
Recent Comments