Rediscovering Nationalism

BBC has reported on attempts at mainstreaming, or internationalizing, Philippine cuisine.... 

To me, while there are many factors why Filipino food has not been on a par with our neighbours Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian cuisines in terms of international recognition, I believe that some of the important explanations have to do with [i] our generally very adaptive cultural disposition; [ii] the incompleteness of our nation-building process; and [iii] the absence of a national development strategy.

Points [i] and [ii] may be self-explanatory, yet [ii] and [iii] are interrelated. On point [i] I remember Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations feature on Philippine cuisine when he made a comment about Filipinos: "I think you are just too damn nice. I think this is a problem." Watch below that particular episode.

But I would like to emphasize on the importance of point [iii] here. It might have been ideal to make identity flourish 'organically', but at this historical moment of globalization I think food identity for the international market can be created. That is to say, politics can actually create a culture, an identity. Creating a food identity can be part of a nation-building process and outlined in a national development strategy - both of which orchestrated by a truly democratic state (we, the people). It is actually good that in the Philippines, unlike in many European countries, the principle of 'nationalism' has a positive connotation. However, sometimes I have a feeling that our nationalism is most articulated in sports - particularly every time that our national pride Manny Pacquiao fights in the boxing ring - but we have not extended a sense of nationalism to our polity and to our economy.

We should not forget that development - i.e., capitalist development - from Europe and the US to Japan, South Korea, and China (and even Malaysia) were not built on the invisible hand of the market but on conscious state policy, not on 'liberalism' but on 'nationalism'. 

Finally, I very much disagree with these statements in the BBC report: 

Mr Laudico believes the reason why Philippine food is not well-respected is because Filipinos themselves do not respect it. They might like to eat it, but they do not think others will. 

"We have a lack of pride in our own cuisine," he explained. "For hundreds of years, when we've had guests in our homes, we've apologised and said to them: 'I'm very sorry, I can only serve you Philippine food'."

BBC News Feature Sources here:

— "Philippine chefs look to take national cuisine mainstream" by Kate McGeown
— In pictures: Philippine food seeks global appeal

Watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode on the Philippines here: