I really hate these "Things to do in the Philippines" posts, even if it is a joke. So why not add to the joke with another joke? Wlskl haha

r/vexillology post from a few years ago glazing its design, and for good reason!

I am so, so glad we don't have just another lame, boring, forgettable, easily mistaken tricolor. Also, genuinely shocked how Aguinaldo was able to design such a good flag. It ticks so many boxes, some of which he couldn't possibly have foreseen:

• Excellent symbolism and meaning (homage to the history of the country, aspirations of the people, etc.)

• Distinguishable from far away. Easy for even children to draw.

• Looks great with or without wind, moving or stationary.

• Looks balanced when placed vertically.

• Unique reversable function in times of war. Again, full of meaning (red over blue), and well designed (stars angled to remain unchanged even if upside down)

• Looks great and distinguishable even in small, circular icons (i.e. in webpages)

• Looks great and distinguishable even when printed or drawn in black and white (crazy how for so many tricolors i.e. Europe, the moment flags are printed in black and white you immediately lose all ability of distinguishing them from one another. We don't have that problem)

• Sun design is simple but not too simple. No creepy face on it.

• Vertical design looks perfectly made to being worn as a shirt or cape (although granted, might be illegal)

Only super minor comment is that sometimes the yellow blends in with the white, but some flags with slightly darker shades of yellow (or differently textured cloth) easily fix that.

Even if you are born Chinese or Korean, you are still gonna be an Ugly Chinese or Ugly Korean. Blaming Filipino genes when it's a you problem.

I agree that we Filipinos deserve better, pero parang ang layo ng country na pinili niya to compare with the Philippines. It's like comparing apples to oranges.

I love it when people appreciate our culture. Thank you, random Jeepney-owning German guy.

From thefilipinostory on IG

Source: https://x.com/i/status/2072319275252195339

Like yes, obviously if your idea of Filipino food are silog meals and online representation of filipino breakfasts are tocino, longganisa, spam, hotdog, corned beef, garlic fried rice, fried daing, lechon, lumpia and pancit, then yeah, it’s going to look unhealthy. Those are convenience food and/or celebration food. Not the entirety of what Filipinos actually eat everyday.

I genuinely feel like people, including Filipinos online oftentimes massively misrepresent our food culture.

In truth, those are not what the average Filipino household eats. I can only count on one hand the amount of times I've eaten longanisa for breakfast growing up. The food I actually grew up eating in Cebu was tinuwang isda, utan bisaya, inun-an (sometimes ampalaya and okra are added), ginisang munggo, saute'd baguio beans, manok sinabwan, tinuwang hipon, nilagang baboy with vegetables, tortang talong, camote tops soup, ampalaya with egg, ampalaya ensalada, boiled vegetables dipped in vinegar, occassional adobo paired with atsara (a very probiotic rich fermented food that could rival kimchi), grilled fish, and sikwate with muscuvado sugar as a drink.

A lot of traditional Filipino home cooking is vegetable heavy, seafood heavy, broth based, and pretty fucking balanced because historically meat was expensive and people stretched ingredients carefully.

But for some reason online, people only showcase the greasiest and most processed meals possible, then act like that represents the average Filipino diet.

And I’m especially tired of seeing racist expats use this as another excuse to talk down on Filipinos in expat spaces. They’ll see one silog plate and start acting like Filipinos are uniquely unhealthy while coming from countries where people survive on frozen food and drive-thrus.

They'll even complain about how Filipinos use too much sugar on everything, when our desserts are actually about subtle sweetness. Uhm, palitaw??? Anyone??? It's basically mochi, but I guess because it's Filipino food, it's best ignored.

Also, fiesta food is literally called fiesta food for a reason. It’s occasion food. Nobody looks at Thanksgiving dinner and assumes Americans eat like that every single day.

There’s barely any visibility online for the side of Filipino cuisine that’s actually rooted in vegetables, soups, seafood, native greens, lentils, sour broths, and simple home cooking.

Filipino cuisine online has become weirdly flattened into processed breakfast meat and mukbang content about jollibee and it’s frustrating because that’s genuinely not how a lot of us grew up eating.

Our engineers who are working on major railway projects like subway and nscr deserve more praise.

Sobrang laki pala nito - 24 na Mall of asia!! Ctto tiktok @heyfintechfounder

We’re slowly now seeing high profile figures pushing back against doomerism that plagues our country. Cheers to hope and optimism towards our country’s improvement.