'Hangang pier, na naman'.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Bambi L. Harper

MORE and more we hear people wondering what happened to us that we were second only to Japan some decades ago and all of a sudden we're at the bottom of the progress barrel.

The answers are, of course, complex and varied, depending on which discipline is asked the question. What is not refutable is that we're lagging behind no matter the area. (Well, there's the birth rate, but with the exception of the Pope and the Catholic Church, I don't think anyone tasked to house, feed and educate all those mouths properly is crowing with pride.)

Let's take the cultural field, for instance. Sure cultural workers will tell you that Singapore had a billion dollars to jump-start their bid to be the cultural center of Southeast Asia that started with their conversion of a colonial building into a museum. But remember that the Cultural Center of the Philippines was built three decades ago with the necessary components to keep it afloat. Let's not enumerate the number of means pursued to make sure it failed not least of which was turning over the properties to the Public Estates Authority.

In a special issue of Newsweek (Oct-Nov 2003), Kishore Mahbuhbani avers that the smaller cities of Southeast Asia have at present the market opportunity to become "a potential intellectual center for the region." Needless to say Manila is not mentioned. It's Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, and not because they have more money but because "they long ago realized their ethnic diversity was a strength, not a weakness."

It doesn't take a lot of brains to figure out that with our insistence on bewailing our "damaged culture" instead of embracing that diversity we're nurturing our own poor self-esteem. Oddly enough it's mostly from men that I've heard the comment that they don't know who they are. The women I know don't seem to have that problem. (It's simple and goes this way: "I am who I am. If you don't like it, it's your problem, not mine.")