Guest post by Daryl Flores
The Dark Side of the (American) Force
From the previous article, we showed what the Americans brought to us after “kicking out” the Spaniards. They brought to us so many wonderful things! Education! Health! The English language!
Also, apples!
They brought to us so much new things that you should wonder why they are bringing these to us. Sure, they said it’s the white man’s burden to improve the “inferior” peoples, but still, it’s impossible for (almost) anyone to give so much without expecting something back. And we’re not even talking about capitalists yet. And since the Philippines just pretty much got out of iron-fisted, resource-hungry Spanish rule, it would seem understandable for the Filipinos to accept anything that the new folks in town would bring. Especially if it’s “free”.
Or is it?
You will want to wonder why, in their sane capitalist minds, America would buy the Philippines from Spain for $20 million just so they could benevolently assimilate us. But of course, every foreign power that comes to the Philippines has their own agenda. It just so happened that the Americans, specifically the businesses, wants to expand beyond the national border as a result of a strong economy. And it just so happened again that Asia would be a good place to expand, what with China being dissected and shared between the different foreign powers of that time. Being the upstart nation of that time, America wants to have a piece of the superpower action, so they “liberated” the Philippines in order to have a base of operations from where they would go on to take China (or at least pieces of it). Its kinda like that new kid in school who really wants to hang out with the cool kids so he goes around doing the same stuff that the cool kids do. Except those cool things, which mainly comprise of partying and getting wasted, are replaced with conquering Eastern nations and still getting wasted, but now they’re using their newly conquered resources.
That’s what basically happened to the Philippines. America bought Philippines not so they could go all carebear on the Filipinos and give us what we really need (though they did give us useful things like education but more on that later on); they bought the Philippines so they would have a new source of raw materials as well as a drop point for their overabundant finished products. Also, they made certain that ANY development done on the country is done mostly for the Americans, especially the businessmen. Take note that these are not yet all of the reasons why America colonized the Philippines.
“Don’t worry kid, I’m gonna save you from them! (and take all that you have in the process)”
Another common misconception for the American occupation is education, as stated in their Manifest Destiny. They said they wanted to educate the Philippine people so that they may, one day, become as cultured and civilized as the Americans. But this was just a ruse that they created in order to embed into the Philippine mind that anything American should be followed, which will again benefit their economy. By doing this somewhat subliminal messaging (for example, when teaching the letter A the word apple is almost always used as an example) the children learning in schools will want to have American things. They also instilled Western culture by virtually destroying what little native culture we have left that wasn’t corrupted or destroyed by the Spaniards. This is again done by showing the “cultural superiority” of the West.
There were many other reasons for colonizing the Philippines, so it is simplified into the 5 D’s: Destiny, because they claim that it is their God-given destiny to educate the inferior ones; Defence, because democracy’s staunch enemy, communism, is gaining prominence in Asia and they need to keep it in check; Dollars, which has been described in the above paragraph; Deity; and Duty. The one that the Americans used as justification for colonizing the Philippines is benevolent assimilation, and all others are kept under wraps. So the next time some random stranger wants to be friendly to you, be vigilant! You never know whether that person does it out of good will or he wants to control you and your descendants.
“Soon you will worship me, you oversized bee… soon.”
Putok 