Are you patriotic? What does being patriotic mean to you?

Am I patriotic? Somewhat, I might say. I am a dual national: Filipino-Aussie. Being nationalistic doesn’t mean gobbling only kangaroo meat or knowing the Panatang Makabayan (Patriotic Oath) by heart. Though I recited the latter each school day, I am rusty.

Food is a big part of our culture. When I lived overseas, I ate Pinoy food. I am always open to trying something new. So while I enjoyed local dishes, I also consumed Chinese, American, Italian, Thai, and Mexican cuisines, to name a few. On this website, I’ve written about my love for Filo fare. After classes, I always headed to the eateries off campus. I usually got noodles, congee, and other local food. In the scorching summers, I feasted on halo-halo: a concoction of ice cream, crushed ice, nata de coco, ube, coconut strips, and so on. It was delicious. The full scoop on my high tea consumption could be found on chapter one of my self-published memoir.

Jollibee

Aside from the above, after a flick, I’d head to Maccas. They served fried chicken with rice, the usual burgers, French fries, spaghetti, soft drinks, etc. If we felt like it, we’d get our Maccas faves delivered. Interestingly, Maccas isn’t the country’s number one fast food chain. That honour belongs to Jollibee (JB). The latter has been operating since the seventies, beating Maccas to the punch. Their mascot is an orange and yellow bumblebee with a white cap.

JB’s menu has more variety than Maccas. Yes, they overlap with their Chickenjoy, Jolly spaghetti, burgers, chips, and sundaes. However, JB also offers Pinoy dishes like noodles, spring rolls, and coco pie. They even weigh your chips! So successful has JB been that they have acquired other leading fast food chains. Among these are Greenwich (pizza), Chow King, and Mang Inasal. We’d get pizza from Greenwich and chow fan, soup, spring rolls, and chow mein from Chow King. Together, these four brands have billions of pesos in annual turnover.

I mentioned Mexican. My primary school canteen had tacos. My high school had nachos. The latter was actually pretty good. Aside from the tortilla chips, it had tomatoes, minced beef, and melted cheese. Yummy. We did not forget our Chinese background. Aside from these, we regularly bought stuffed buns and dim sums. We ate mung bean cakes. During Chinese New Year, we consumed mooncakes, rice noodles, dumplings, etc. Though fish was on the menu, we didn’t just eat fish on Lunar New Year. It was a staple in our diet. To complement the latter, my dad would buy fresh seaweed. He also made juice from the lemon in our front yard. Our gardener sold us native chickens which made the tastiest soup.

Today in Literature

Aside from the eats, perusing Filo literature proves my patriotism. In school, we studied works by immortal Pinoy artists. In the past few years, I’ve read material by Jose Rizal and Nick Joaquin, two literary titans. This shows that, even post-school, I retain my appreciation for those giants who came before me. They taught me how the pen can unite a country and rally against tyranny. Rizal impressed that one man can defy an empire. Meanwhile, Joaquin exhibited that Pinoys could succeed while writing in English. The fact that Spanish was his first language adds to his mystique.

The same applies with Aussie authors. I’ve read The Dry by Jane Harper. The Happiest Man on Earth by the late Eddie Jaku. The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do. Two books by Trent Dalton. Two books by Graeme Simsion (part of a trilogy). Jonathan Thurston. Breaking Badly by Georgie Dent. That’s only off the top of my head. In short, in recent times, I’ve borrowed a lot of Aussie books. See also: my past reading lists.

Bread and butter

Going back to gastronomy, we do our weekly shop with Coles. The supermarket giant is Aussie owned. Aside from the latter, we also shop at Woolies, the perennial grocery leader. These days, we seldom wander into ALDI, the German multinational. Call it a lack of variety. I haven’t scanned the Special Buys in ages. Meanwhile, we also order food via DoorDash – an American company. The same with Menulog, which is British-owned.

Coles and Woolies provide opportunities for Aussies. This is so in their call centres, in stores, and their delivery drivers. While the other two are foreign companies, their drivers are locals. They trade in Aussie dollars. The restaurants partly utilise Aussie ingredients.

‘Height is might’

Apart from food and books, being patriotic entails supporting your home country. A sports columnist in Manila once suggested that we should try football since we clearly are too short for basketball. One reader responded. He told the writer that loving a game isn’t only about winning. Fans could enjoy a match regardless of the outcome. Our passion for hoops would overcome these challenges. If I may, we should be grateful for what’s been given to us. We may not be blessed with towering heights. We cannot showcase windmill dunks. We do not have Jordan’s hang time. Yet, by battling out there, we could earn the respect of our foes. We would give our diehards something to cheer on.

Oz does not have this issue. We once fielded Luc Longley, a 7-2 centre who won three straight chips with Chicago. Andrew Gaze played in five Olympics. Patty Mills is an NBA vet who led us to our first Olympic medal. Aside from him, a number of our cagers suit up in the NBA. In football, we won the Asian Cup. The Matildas just missed out on a World Cup medal. In addition, we’ve been one of the best swimming teams around. In the winter games, we consistently claim medals. We even win stages in the Tour de France. Despite being a young nation, Oz has a rich sporting tradition.

We Pinoys had just won our first ever gold at the Games. A diminutive weight lifter flipped the script. She bench pressed her way to the top. Upon touching down in Manila, she was met with great adulation. The media had seen boxing as the sport where we could break through. Before, we had won medals in that category. Hidilyn Diaz outworked them all.

‘Defence wins championships’

Another thing: patriotism involves defending your compadres. See also: Claire Danes. Bourne Legacy helmer Tony Gilroy commented on Manila, ‘It’s just so colourful and ugly and gritty and raw and stinky and crowded’.

John Arcilla played a supporting role. When asked about the director’s musings, instead of defending his country, the latter seemed to side with Gilroy. The show’s host told him that calling our city ‘ugly and stinky’ is unacceptable. More so since the cast and crew were treated with warm hospitality.

You don’t have to do something massive like writing an epic (see also: my memoir). You could start small by reading famous works and cheering your national teams. You should always stand up for your country, even if it means being unpopular. You may not recall most of the Patriotic Oath or the Angelus. Yet, as you continue to nurture your national pride, you’ll create more good memories. I should know.