Rational Insanity
Pinoy fear factor?
Let me start you off with the alleged sex scandal of one of the participants of Pinoy Fear Factor, Jose. A week before the Endemol Reality TV Game Show went on air, a rumor surfaced that Jose, one of the participants, had a sex scandal on YouTube – other than this sensationalization, there is nothing else that is Pinoy about this game show; well, the affinity to the belief that 'sex sells' is another Pinoy thing, with all the participants parading in skimpy swim wear during the opening credits of the show.
I don't really get it. Is it just me or does everybody share my predicament. To start you off, why do we have to buy a franchise of an existing show that is not Pinoy-produced to begin with? Are our television companies that dumb-assed to not come up with our own original concepts? Another thing is the inexplicable use of Spanish in the show – is this a taste of the DepEd plan of reinstating Spanish as one of the subjects in the High School curricula? What's with the use of Spanish for the names of the stunts? A Pinoy Fear Factor that cannot use the Filipino language, what gives? I really don't get it. Are we not tired of everything Spanish when even our own heritage is tarnished by the inaccurate belief that the Spaniards are the reasons for almost everything Filipino – nothing is purely Filipino, so to speak; and here we are proud of that faulty notion? My goodness…
I remember the lecture of Prof. Fernando Zialcita during the National Conference for the Preservation of Visayan and Mindanao Architecture held in Cebu. His topic was about the interpretation of heritage. He said that we Filipinos seem to be obsessed with everything Spanish that we tend to claim that what we now have is a result of Spanish influence. For instance, we have the "bahay na bato"; everybody keeps on saying that these houses were influenced by the Spaniards, what we don't know is that in truth and in fact, these houses are based on the Filipino Bahay Kubo or house on stilts. Go to Spain and you will not find a single house there that even closely resembles our "bahay na bato" – the Spaniards will die of cold if they had houses like ours replete with ventanillas and open spaces. Then to the simpler "ensaimada" – of course the name of the pastry may sound Spanish, but the Pinoy "ensaimada" is 100% Pinoy. Why can't we begin to highlight the Filipino in everything and stop giving the Spaniards too much credit for what we have? Aren't we proud of our heritage?
Now, back to Fear Factor – the Filipino is fearless – La Raza Valiente nga daw sabi nila sa show, then what's with the challenges that seem to be fearful only to the elite? This is what I mean by die-casting the show on a franchise. Had we come up with our own concept of a similar show, the challenges would have been very different. I believe the only participant in Pinoy Fear factor who I would call truly Pinoy is the guy from Tondo, "ang kargador" – the rest of them are snips of high society, the braidy-bunch of high heeled and snotty nosed Manila, and well, what do you expect, they will definitely not like eating eyeballs and brains, but go to Iloilo and you will have something there called MATOK; it's a stew made of cows eyeballs and brains – and trust me, it tastes excellent! Just a thought – why are all the participants from Luzon anyway? Is this a way of regionalizing fear? Meaning ang mga taga probinsiya mas matapang kesa sa mga taga-Luzon? I hope not, because as far as I'm concerned, we all love to eat balut – without making a face that is, walang,'Yucky, that is so not masarap!'
What am I getting to here? Well, my point simply is, I think we should not berate ourselves by being too obsessed with the cultures of other countries – this is what you might call the imported mentality, courtesy of the American invasion, as opposed to the colonial mentality, courtesy of the Spanish regime. I guess the producers should rename the show, instead of calling it Pinoy Fear Factor, it should be called Fear Factor with chick Pinoys in it, what do you think?
I know my arguments are quite scattered here, but see, I'm like this when I really hate something – I ramble on and blabber pointlessly because I think the object of my ire is pointless and stupid as well, so why would it deserve logical talk?
Be rational; be insane…every once in a while! TTFN!
I love you all! Byers!