the dangers of ignorance

[callista]

I was just browsing through Dattebayo because I wanted to download the latest episode of Bleach when I saw the title of one of their news articles. It said, "Dattebayo trolled by Filipino Television (or not)". Apparently, someone told Dattebayo (a famous fansub group) that ABS-CBN was using their subtitles to make Tagalog dubs for Naruto. Dattebayo had a good laugh at that, and added the text "LOL @ FILIPINO TV" to their subtitles of Naruto Shippuuden 26. Inevitably, some Filipinos got offended and flamed Dattebayo for it, which only increased Dattebayo's amusement. One of their former members did apologize, but you have to wonder at their sincerity, given the slightly mocking tone of the news article. And their parting words certainly weren't apologetic:

About Dattebayo:
Dattebayo is the world's most recognized fansubbing group, with over 500,000 unique views of its products per week.
About Philipines:
Third world country according to their own inhabitants. For more information, see http://pepper.idge.net/slashdot/philipinos/.

Note their inability to spell our country's name and our nationality correctly. And apparently a big-time fansubber is now more important than an entire nation, if only because it's in the Third World.

I took a look at this website, and I was completely appalled. It was blatantly insulting our country and the Filipino people as a whole. Now, I would never call myself nationalistic, but this just went too far. Basically, the author was accusing Filipinos of "pretending" to be Asian. He/She claims that there is nothing Asian about Filipino culture, and that our supposed pretentiousness is an insult to "great" Asian countries like China and Japan. He/She is also "disgusted" at how prevalent Filipinos are in the U.S. and went so far as to call us a "disease". Here's part of the last paragraph of the text:

Please recognize yoour ROOTS! You come from the the Third World! Your country is a disgusting and filthy place. Most people there live in poverty! Your culture has MUCH MORE SPANISH influence than chinese, and absolutely no JAPANESE influence whatsoever. People in Japan and China, do not act like you.

Does this person think that the only countries in Asia are Japan and China? And supposing we drop that point, does he/she know how much influence the Japanese had on us when they occupied us in World War II? Does he/she even know anything about Malay culture and how similar it is to ours? I'm probably being overly sensitive, but I really HATE it when people decide to write opinionated articles on things they know nothing about, especially when it's as racist and discriminatory as this one. I'm not just saying this because I'm a Filipino. I would honestly feel just as outraged if this were about any other nationality, simply because it's based on nothing but ignorance and a misplaced sense of superiority.

Anyway, I don't really have time to be ranting about this. I have work to do. I really shouldn't have let such idiocy interfere with my studies :P

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Comments

[yuki84.livejournal.com]

Adn.. why would you need to act like Japanese or chinese people? O_o;
I don't act like Romanians, even if they are our "neighbours"...
And I'm not European because my ancestors lived in Europe (they came from different places) I just live here.
So people born in Asia are automatically Asian for me.

I feel bad when I read something like that :(
Partly because my poeple were attacked like that too.
But I tell you something.
This is one stupid person from the Millions living around in the world. Don't feel bad about it. It is not worth it ^_^/ *pets*