Post 1: Why The Pinoy Spectator?

The word blog is a contraction of the word ‘web log’ which is a site normally established and maintained by an individual. It is a personal space where the creator can post everything and anything that’s going on or has happened in his life including events, ideas, views, beliefs and emotions. Such contents make a blog an opening to one’s most intimate thoughts and sentiments- a window to one’s personality if you may. And this is the reason why creating a blog title is so hard for me- it’s like creating a new or an alternate name for yourself. Or creating a name for the opening where you allow people to see who you are (a very scary thought).

So after hours of sitting here in front of my screen browsing other people’s blogs, tweeting and doing almost every sane, logical and even illogical things you can do on Facebook, I was finally able to come up with a name for this new blog of mine- The Pinoy Spectator.

The Pinoy Spectator is actually the son of The World Spectator- my former Twitter user name before I changed it to the former. I’ve always used The World Spectator to denote myself as an observer of the world, one who does not belong here but a mere observer. But I’ve always find that the name lacks appeal; meaningful yes, but it has no appeal. No angst, no “it factor”, no distinction and very characterless. So I sought to find a better one.

My qualifications for finding a new name and blog title include being in the same chapter as an observer, having distinction, character and appeal and a title that speaks me. Now as I was going through my pursuit for this great title I suddenly stumbled upon a magazine called the American Spectator.

So as you can see The Pinoy Spectator is actually the son of the World Spectator with the American Spectator having been conceived and born in a matter of seconds. The spectator part has already been explained above and so to give justice to this, I will now explain the pinoy part.

Pinoy is a term used mainly by Filipinos to refer to themselves in general. Although the word was coined intentionally to distinguish the experiences of Filipino emigrants to the United States it is now a nationally accepted term (although still considered a slang) that denotes everyone of Filipino descent and heritage and has helped create a national and cultural identity. A proof of this is the usage by companies and (more timely) by politicians of the term to bring a more personal relation to brand promotion.

Now, although it is a fact that I am only half a Filipino by blood, I do consider myself to be fully Pinoy. I grew up in the Philippines and am living as a Filipino. I have full Filipino rights as well as full Filipino characteristics; I am more often late, I am generally lazy and like to procrastinate, I like street foods, I believe that every man deserves to live in a democratic country, free from abuse and corruption and I value most Filipino ideals.

So to wrap things up as well as make this entire thing somehow coherent, I used the term The Pinoy Spectator because I am an individual first, a Pinoy and an observer. So you can expect that my posts are going to be products of my observations and are mostly about Pinoy related stuff or Pinoy influeced.