No to Nationalism

I'm not nationalistic.
It narrows my perspective. Not everyone in the world is a Filipino. It's a precursor to racism.
Nationalism is an idea that causes prejudice, death and hatred.
Some people use that idea to hold on to an identity. But it's not personal identity. It's social. And identifying with any society can turn into, for example, a holocaust. Nationalism is an advocate for "survival of the fittest" and supremacist ideologies, and that leads to needless deaths. It leads to renewal too, but renewal by massacre, or genocide, or mass murder...*

Filipinos being nationalistic would be an irony, because we are all over the world, earning our living by probably every known human currency. I work in Riyadh. My Girlfriend works in Taiwan. We support our families in the Philippines. I've heard people say that you're not a Filipino if you have no family member or relative working abroad. Forget national pride. Forget pride, period. Pride is the reason why we think we're better than anyone else. Someone is always better than us. No one is better than us. Presidents serve their countries, their people pay them their salaries, politicians brainwash the masses, Rome invades Europe. Whatever...
This writing is not anti-Filipino. This is anti-nationalism. I just happened to be a Filipino.

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*Interestingly, the company I work for is expanding in Armenia. In 1915, The Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey), sought to exterminate the Armenian minority from their territory/ies during and after World War 1. "It is acknowledged to have been one of the first modern genocides... and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust."--Wikipedia ; Only yesterday, Thursday, I sent finished graphics to our contact there named Armine. In a sense, she is a holocaust survivor.

Can we abolish nationalism and live in a globalized society?
http://www.ted.com/conversations/7931/can_we_abolish_nationalism_and.html

Nationalism and Terrorism
http://www.straitstimes.com/microsites/global-perspectives/world-cultures/story/nationalism-and-terrorism-2012091

Friends Rush In

*Spoiler alert!*

In the comedy TV series Friends, episode 12 (season 10, originally aired 12 February 2004), "The One With Phoebe's Wedding", Phoebe and Mike's wedding march music was an instrumental rendition of Fools Rush In.

There was a movie (romantic comedy) titled Fools Rush In (1997) that starred Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry.

In Friends, Matthew plays Chandler Bing, and he walked Phoebe down the aisle in place of her father during that wedding.

The Col. Stauffenberg Connection

Three weeks ago, I watched Valkyrie on video. It is the 2008 film about the last attempt of the German Resistance to kill Adolf Hitler, the central character of which was Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.

"Valkyrie" was the name given to an emergency operation that would automatically take effect in case of a breakdown in civil order (and upon amendment, expanded its orders for an effective coup. It is explained within the first third of the film, and essential to understanding the whole events in the movie).

The attempt came to be known as the 20 July plot and Valkyrie was executed in one day. Col. Stauffenberg was arrested, jailed and sentence the same day and died by firing squad, along with his co-conspirators, at the age of 36.

July 20 was my brother's birth day, and "36" is my number because my birth day was March 6 (03-06). Wurd.

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links related to this post:
- Valkyrie movie on IMDB
- More of Adolf Hitler: Hitler Historical Museum, includes his writings, speeches, images, and more.
- Operation Valkyrie
- Valkyrie in Norse mythology, the origin of the name of Operation Valkyrie.
- A few quotes from Col. Stauffenberg:  Claus von Stauffenberg Quotes on Brainy Quote
- Short biographies on Col. Stauffenberg:
 .. WW2 in Color History forum: Clauss Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg - WW2 Hero
 .. on Col. Stauffenberg in the website Spartacus Educational
- George Duncan's Assassination Attempts on Hitler’s Life lists some of the attempts on killing Hitler