You have surely encountered on local print and broadcast media the penchant for branding our talents with such titles like 'Hemingway of the Philippines', 'William Safire of the Philippines', 'Frank Sinatra of the Philippines' etc.
Methinks, this is a blatant self-deprecating act of putting ourselves inferior and relegating ourselves as mere copycats of those of the West. Worse is, those people in the media who should know better are the ones guilty of propagating this style of 'complimenting' our own talents.
One must understand that, for example, a painter from Italy or Spain or from any other Western country is no different from the painter from our local shores. The Westerners may be popular and famous but you must consider that this fact is brought about mostly by the supplementary benefits of their economic power. Same thing applies to other disciplines.
One instance when this issue is put on its rightful place and perspective, though through a corollary matter, was when in an Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APE C) conference, question regarding the Asian consumer purchasing power was deemed be gauged by the price of a McDonalds burger. Then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad stood up and said that the question is better answered not by the price of a McDonalds, BUT rather by a Jolibbe burger.
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