Back in high school, I could remember whining about why the Philippines was the way it was. At first, I wrote an essay in my high school days about what I'd do if I were president. Just having turned 15 too soon, I remembered writing my stupid solution that I would discipline every single Filipino (read here). Eventually, I was asked why is the US rich and the people there aren't as disciplined as in Singapore. Even worse, I remembered how the K+10 system tried to achieve economic literacy in just one year in the fourth year of high school. Sure, my economics teacher was as brilliant as the late Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago, or MDS for short. However, my teacher who was as brilliant (and strict) as MDS could only impart theoretical knowledge. I only knew how economics was used in college. I still feel stupid (until now) because of that! I couldn't understand why the US was a powerful country (back then) and it was the American dream. I had that American dream in high school.
The American dream was something some wanted. In my case, I was doing poorly in a high-standard school. I felt I was intellectually stupid or challenged. I did start to resent my Chinese ancestry and having been raised Filipino. Not soon after, I really felt about moving to the US permanently. That's why I wanted to take Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT)--it's all about the hype of going abroad. Some were taking nursing in hopes of going abroad. I wanted to take BSIT never mind that the course was under the Mathematics department. Computer science requires a lot of mathematics. Strangely enough, I did dig into some applications of mathematics to make me forget I once hated the subject.
What was that American dream about? It was my dream to one day escape the Philippines and go to the US. It was something that came to my mind because I didn't like studying the Tagalog language subject. I also saw the Philippines as a hopeless case. I only saw that the US was a land of hope never mind the racist history it had. Fortunately, there were great people who helped fight racism such as how the late Bruce Lee taught Chinese martial arts to non-Chinese people. What amazed me was that Lee was married to a white American woman.
While typing this right now, I recall the problem of students' dream course to go abroad (read here). I was feeling insecure when some people had taken their nursing degrees. I wanted to be a doctor but dropped the desire because of my fear of human blood. Sure, I could handle frog dissection in high school biology class but frog blood is nothing compared to human blood. I even had some fear while I was about to have my eye operation. Why did I want to become a doctor before I dropped it? It was because of the desire to go abroad. It was the desire for the American dream. The desire to have greener pastures in America.
I started to look at the root of the problem in the Philippines. Was the problem solely to blame on the Marcos Sr. Regime and the 1973 Constitution? I discovered various sites like CoRRECT Philippines. The real problem had to be with ongoing economic protectionism. I'm amazed that Carlos P. Garcia is still hailed a hero. The real problem with the Filipino First Policy is that it has restricted jobs. Filipino First Policy is a democratic version of Mao Zedong's China first policy. There's no place for Filipino First Policy in the Asian 21st Century (read here). Taiwan and Singapore took a lead in the Asian 21st Century. The Philippines is still left behind because of again, Filipino First Policy.
Right now, we have the Asian 21st Century. The former dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Kishore Mahbubani, is saying that Asia may be rapidly overtaking the West. I wonder if the American dream is still worth pursuing? Asia, once a poor continent, has developed thanks to world trade. Singapore became a model in development. No, Singapore didn't open to foreign direct investments (FDIs) only because of its lack of natural resources. Vietnam is rich in natural resources yet it only developed because of Doi Moi by the late Nguyen Duy Cong. China was once poorer than the Philippines but Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms led to its rise. However, it seems that Chinese President Xi Jinping might become China's biggest problem now.
Maybe, it's time to think of why the American dream became so prevalent. I remember the film Heaven and Earth which talks about the Vietnam War. It was based on a book by the Vietnamese author known as Le Ly Hyslip. The film was partly based on the real incident called the Vietnam War and Le Ly's life. Now, Vietnam is overtaking the Philippines. There are still Filipinos stuck with the American dream. The Philippines really should get serious about adopting what Singapore and Vietnam did. We would need to permanently get rid of Filipino First Policy. That way, more and more Filipinos could fulfill their dreams better without having to rely on the American dream.
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