Wednesday, December 17, 2014

THE INFERIOR MENTALITY: What is the opposite of the Filipino term "Matapobre?"

    

    The judgmental factor in determining what is right or wrong is always "the majority". This is the twisted part of society that enforces its rules and decisions on that axiom which goes: "Majority wins.". 
    It is quite unfortunate that there are few individuals who are condemned or rejected by the many. Enter a society where the color of your skin; the higher bridge of your nose; your capability to speak fluent English and other international dialects; and your ideas do not coincide with what is considered "ordinary" or "common"; and you are condemned. 
     Reside in silence and solitude among the many gossipers and unrefined individuals; and your conservative demeanor is taken as arrogance and being unsociable. 
    The practice of 'self-pity' is often condemned in life; but is this not put into play when people who envy the situations and advantages of others feel they are looked down upon?
    Is it so wrong to tell certain persons that there is something wrong with what they have, or are doing; and that you have other better suggestions to give them? I once tried to elicit the cooperation of my fellow neighbors in my former address at Laguna. I was clarifying how we can overcome the expensive charges enforced on us by our landlord; if we could come to an agreement on how to consume the water provided us by the owner of the building. The people I spoke to-because I kept to myself most of the time; spoke my mind freely when I knew I had a point; and because I was a former resident of the urbanized Manila area; eyed me and disregarded my proposal. 
    (And maybe because my features as a half-breed or 'mestizo' were so obvious as well.)
     There is an adjective-noun in the Filipino language that gives so much favor to the poor and impoverished: "matapobre", meaning those people who look down at the less fortunate. Well, I would like to challenge this by asking "WHAT IS IT'S OPPOSITE?"
    Sometimes, just because people are different in their appearances; their ideas; and practices; they are already condemned as oppressing the less fortunate masses. But it is the latter who sometimes create that idea by thinking too low of themselves and envying the others who they deem "far better off" than they are. 
    So then, if there ARE arrogant people who look down at the plebeian; society should also look at their counterpart and condemn them as well. 
    Bad thing about a third-world country:they always favor and sympathize with the majority; even if the latter has very narrow minds and irrational views. 
    

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