EST. 2009

November 19, 2010

Those Beautiful Filipinas




IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT PHILIPPINE TOURISM HULLABALOO, I point not a condescending finger at the advertising or tourism folks for their careless and unsophisticated branding of the country. I've decided not to only because then, I'd have to point that same finger at every other poorly executed and thoughtless thing I come across as I go through my everyday life in Manila.

Let's face it, it's not the first lousy logo we've seen but we're making a commotion about it because we hate to be represented by it. How about our poorly architectured buildings? Don't they represent us too? Our decrepit roads? Our dingy rivers? Our crude fashion sense? Our unpolished manners? Our mediocrity? The declined quality of our craft? The level of our intelligence?

If we're gonna be fussy about image then let's be fussy about image through and through. We can't collectively design and agree on a single logo for our tourism but we can all promote the country by perfecting its number one resource: ourselves.

If we are at our most presentable, not only for tourism's sake but for our own, surely the world will take notice.

And even with the lousiest logo, it will be our qualities that promote us best.

Lady Wearing Saya, Country Girl With Basket and Lady Holding Mangoes by Fernando Amorsolo. Images from Amorsolo Drawings, published by The Lopez Museum, 1992.

COMMENTS

wisewoman60 said...

They are beautiful! Thanks for commenting on my blog.

Nonoy said...

Amorsolo is a master artist. If I'm not mistaken he is our national artist in painting. He is known for describing Philippine culture through brushes and paint in canvass. Most of all in depicting the Filipinas, the beautiful Filipinas, whether a Manila girl or Cebu girl, Amorsolo can make beauty of Filipinas unique and so nationalistic as in real life.