I chanced upon a fellow blogger (Pinoy in Singapore) who is talking about Our Race..which is related to my blog entry last 14 of march

Reflections from Batam, Indonesia
(dated March 14)

What a good way to start the New Year 2007! 16 Volunteers (including moi) spent 3 days at Batam, Indonesia to build a house for a poor Indonesian Family (husband & wife and 2 kids).

How ironic it is that we Filipinos associate ourselves more to Western culture when in fact we look a lot more and even talk in the same way as Indonesians (Bahasa Indonesia sounds like Tagalog, the alphabets are the same)...even some words are the same although it has a different meaning.

The vegetation in Indonesia (wild grass), the occasional chicken and dogs criss crossing the road. Even the local brown birds (I think we call them maya-maya) is also a common sight in Batam. The way our poor folks in the Philippines carry their baby on their hips...the way some of our elderlies..sit in front of their doors and windows to pass away the time while smoking a cigarette or chit chatting with the neighbor.

The way we oggle at white cacuasians and wonder why they come to a place as remote as this town...

It all reminds me of the Philippines. It reminds me of my Grade 4 History class, my teacher then told us that our ancestors are the Malays and the Indonesians.

We have such terms as Filipino-Chinese, Filipino-Aussie, the Fil-AM (Filipino Americans), but we never say Filipino-Malay or Filipino-Indonesian, to refer to children born out of interracial marriages.

I reckon maybe because our bloodlines are the same and any cross-cultural marriage would not be obvious,as we look the same anyway.

I also reckon that South East Asia (SEA), is predominantly a Malay\Indonesia race anyway. This is how we distinguish ourselves from other Asians --

Greater China which includes China, Taiwan & Hongkong
South Korea
Japan
India

But the only developed nation amongst SEA nations is Singapore (not far behind though is Malaysia). What does the Malay\Indonesian race lack and we are all still called developing countries?

At first, I thought maybe the Malay/Indonesian race are the counterpart of the 'black' natives of America. And then, I remember, India, they are darker than us in terms of skin-tone but they are far more culturally rich than us. We are neither, white, nor yellow or black. We are of the brown race. On a lighter note, it seems we were moderately cooked (thus explains the brown color).

Perhaps, we (Filipinos) need to start associating more with our SEA neighbors and help fuel the economy of SEA developing nations by acknowledging the fact that our bloodlines are predominantly Malay\Indonesian and that our close proximity to each other. We should also revisit the way our past history is closely linked together. We should acknowledge that we are of the brown race and act like it.

There is certainly nothing wrong being white, yellow, black or brown. It is just being more in touch of who we really are and project our identity in the best light as much as possible.

Her entry

Mabuhay!@ Let's help Spore know more about Pinoys

I'm currently cleaning up and trying to throw my old newspapers to the recycling bin. There was an article pala, by a certain Gina Olivares-Jocson (Mar-25-2007 Sunday Times) who according to the newspaper, is of Malay, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish descent. Whoa, so many. What I have is a plain Filipino blood, thank you very much!

I was surprised because how many times do we, Filipinos, have a chance to write for the major daily? THE major daily, THE chief general news source for the country's English-language residents? Very seldom actually...

Anyway, I can really relate to her sentiments unfortunately. Most especially in this statement nya:
"So, is it a stretch to conclude that because of our embarrassment with our country's governance and the dire economic situation that has pushed many of us to look overseas for employment, we subconsciously decided to go around with bowed heads, so to speak?"

When I was also new here, I had a pretty hard time answering the question of "What is your race"? I thought I was a Malay because di ba, iyon yung itinuro sa atin sa school? That Filipinos are of Malay race? Later on, I discovered that for Singaporeans pala, Malay are those indigenous Malays, the original residents of this country. So looking back, na I ticked the box "Malay", napapangiti n lang ako...

Haaay.... Philippines... I really wish na our country will SOMEDAY prosper, so we will not have to be away from our families....
http://reddotpinoys.blogspot.com/2007/08/sunday-times-article-written- by.html