What an interesting question, and filled with possible problems when answering!
I am not Filipino, and have no idea what a ‘genuine’ Filipino is (for that matter, I don’t know what a genuine Englishman is either). However, I have lived and worked in different countries around the world and may have a perspective to add to this.
The world changes, societies and communities evolve - albeit very slowly at times. Custom and practice also changes. Where I had tapes and records as a youngster, now children have phones and iPods. Does this make them any less ‘genuine’ because they have adopted the new technologies and no longer understand some of the things we had as children?
It’s the same with language - it constantly evolves. I come from a country that provided the world with Shakespeare, and yet when you read the original language of those works, it’s almost impossible to understand, such have things changed.
Look at just about any aspect of life today, and compare it to years ago - things have changed. Medicine, education, technology, weather, trade and travel, manufacturing, music, the animals we see, our understanding and tolerances of different religions, different lifestyles - everything. It has all changed over time. Would a ‘genuine’ person still live in the house built in the way they were built 400 years ago? Would they dress or behave in the same ways? Has our collective understanding moved?
Of course, it has. It is the same all over the world, with very very few exceptions. Adaptation is the key to survival and reacting to your environment is an essential skill. It normally changes slowly, but change it does.
So the customs of a country change over time. It doesn’t matter the country, it will have changed… Filipino customs are no different in that regard, they change, too.
Would a Filipino child growing up in Metro Manila be any less ‘genuine’ than a child who grew up here in the 1940’s? How about the 1800’s? At what point do we say they are not following customs and are no longer genuine?
Would the same argument exist for a child growing up in London? Paris? New York? Auckland?
Do you consider the guitar to be part of the ‘customs’ that a genuine Filipino would need to adhere to? And if so, how do you explain that the guitar is an imported tool, adopted and absorbed into everyday life… and appropriated by Filipinos and used to very good effect - so much so that it is now ‘customary’ to have a guitar in nearly every community and to use it for entertainment?
Just consider the changes in the world, the technologies, the environments, our understanding of the world, it’s inhabitants, languages, currency, medicine, education… the list is endless… the speed of some changes, the way generations change - what is the ‘custom’ that you refer to, and is it even relevant to modern lifestyles?
Remember, this is not just about Filipinos - it’s about all peoples the world over. We never should forget our history, we should strive to understand and learn from it… even hold it dear… but we definitely should not try to live it. Life moves one way in my opinion, customs and practices go with that. I’d urge that we don’t forget the past, but equally we shouldn’t hold it up as some ‘ideal’ to reach for, either.
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