An expat views the Philippines

OF course, there is a primacy to our own cultural perspective of the things that are happening around us, especially on the way we view the past. But we should also acknowledge a weird fact: that many times, if we are doing something repeatedly, familiarity makes us lose its importance and significance. When it becomes everyday life, it becomes a regular thing for us, and we kind of stop being self-critical.

That means that many times, we can discover some things about ourselves when we read what is written about us by foreigners. Many times, these things were directed to their own culture's audience; that is why historian and historical philosopher Prof. Zeus Salazar, PhD calls it "Pansilang Pananaw," which roughly translates to a point of view of a group of people talking about us from the outside (as against to "Pantayong Pananaw" which is from-us-for-us perspective).