It's really a bummer when you google the word Filipino and most of the time the results are derogatory content. I was trying to write something about Philippine women, and when I googled the word "Filipina", there's this "Filipina 101" right on the first page of the search results, and it's an ad for a book that contains tips on how to court and marry a Filipina. Like Filipinas are commodities. You might ask, what am I so mad about when it could be viewed as a backhanded compliment that Filipinas are prize wives that's why there's a book specially written on how to "catch" one. Hello, is there a book entitled "American Woman 101"?

Anyway. I'm just glad there's Wikipilipinas and Filipiniana.net. That way, there will be web content about the Philippines that's not derogatory, for a change. Wikipinas and Filnet content are about the Philippines from the Filipino point of view. The sites try to present uncompromising content, content that says, here we are, we are Filipinos, we are human beings with unique and beautiful culture, all 100+ varieties of it, we live in a beautiful country the potential of which has not yet been fully explored. We are not just domestic helpers and mail order brides, japayukis, hospitality girls, seamen, construction workers, nurses and doctors. We are human beings who are trying to bear up the best we can in an environment that can be very hostile to us, and yet we have not lost our humor, our faith and our hope for a better world. We were an independent people who had a distinct culture before we were subjugated by a better-armed power who tried to make us forget who we are. But we assimilated their different cultures, and we survived. We live in a country that has many troubles, and yet we can still smile, we can still sing, we can still laugh. Would you have reacted the same way, were you in our place? We have to let our sons and daughters leave the country so that the rest of us might live. Condemn us for that if you may, but what would you have done, were you in our place? We may have burdens, but we love life so much that even when it deals badly with us, we still manage to embrace it. And see, this is what we have managed to do with it. We have produced great artists and performers, heroes, writers and scientists. We have composed great music, created beautiful dances, written beautiful literary works, painted masterpieces, developed scientific breakthroughs that benefit the rest of the world. We have concepts and beliefs that are not found elsewhere. Although many would disparage us saying that we cannot define ourselves, we accept that part of our mystique is our undefinability. We present us, as we are, a people as diverse as the 7,100+ islands we call home. Take us or leave us. We are as human as you.

Thank you, Wikipilipinas and Filipiniana.net, for each time I am there I find a new reason to be proud that I am Filipino.