Why Do I Write, Nay Love To Write In English, When I Am A Full-Blooded Ilocano And Living In The Philippines?
“Words have power” indeed, but you have to form them from somewhere
to become a message. My wide & wild & wizened googling convinced me 25 years
ago – I’m 82, thank God! – English is the most powerful language in the
world, has the most knowledge. I say: “English is power!”
(“Words” from dreamstime.com,
“Knowledge” from quotesgram.com)
I have been a writer mostly in the manner of the American Reader’s Digest, unusually & actively
communicating starting 1975 when I began founding & becoming the Editor In
Chief of the 3 major publications of the Forest
Research Institute (FORI) – monthly newsletter Canopy,
quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop,
and quarterly color magazine Habitat
that I patterned after the American National
Geographic. American Boy!
In one issue of Habitat, I wrote my new theory that I called
“Communication for Development
(ComDev).” And certainly, forester Filiberto
S Pollisco, Director of FORI, applauded my ComDev products. Of this and
more, I have written earlier (22 April 2018, GAIA
con GAIA, blogspot.com):
With Dr Pollisco at
the top and I below, we were setting the pace and tone of communication for the
development of Philippine forests and forestry.
American English! On 24 Nov 2021, I regenerated “ComDev” into
“CoViD21” – acronym for Communication for
Village Development in the 21st Century – emphasizing “village
development” (26 Nov 2021, “Regenerative Thinking… Regenerative Agriculture In
The Philippines,” Frank And Healthy Minds,
blogspot.com).
Where else did I catch the concept of “Regenerative” except in English?
Since 2000 when I started blogging (self-taught, I must
emphasize), I have uploaded at least 8 million words in my numerous blogs, all
in American English (excluding Americanisms) – have I been
displaying American linguistic imperialism in my writing as Mr North alleges?
Mr North quotes Mary
Bresnahan from “English In The Philippines” (Journal of Communication, 1979):
… colonizing a people
who wanted independence presented a situation which was philosophically
inconsistent with democratic ideals. In rousing public support, they (American
public policy makers) attempted to justify their actions by emphasizing the
enlightenment the US presence could bring to the Philippines.
Mr North says, “The very notion of enlightenment described
here indicates a perceived status of superiority.” I say, of course!
He further says:
Granted, one could
certainly say that English has unlocked Philippine involvement in international
politics, business, and economics in a very practical way. However, the most
positive outcomes of English in the Philippines have always been a result of Filipinos’
practical resourcefulness and appropriation of the English, not the
philosophical enlightenment of the Islands through the language.
Mr
North, no stopping: We Filipinos wish to be enlightened! And it is not the
English language per se that has enlightened us Filipinos – it has been Filipino
intelligence!@517
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