Juan Nation?

7107 islands, 16 regions, 3 major island groups, countless number of dialects, and different religious beliefs. That's the Philippines in a nutshell. With all of this diversity, can we really say that we truly are a country, or are we just a people forced to "think" that we are.

This question has been in my head since my college days. But because of alcohol and dusk till dawn outings, i failed to truly sit down and ponder about this issue of my youth.

Here's what has been bugging me.

If we really consider ourselves as a nation, why is it that we discriminate people from other regions? Why is there discrimination in the first place? We cant deny the fact that the word "probinsiyano" before was used as a derogatory term for Filipinos who did not live in highly urbanized parts of the country. It was as if these people were dumb and ignorant because they don't live in big cities.

If we are truly a nation, why was there a move before to change the national anthem from "Filipino" to Bisaya? The argument was, there are more Bisaya speaking regions in the country than "Tagalog/Filipino" speaking regions. Why cant just they accept the fact that its already there?

I find it funny sometimes that Filipinos who live outside of the country seems to be more patriotic than those of us who lives here. When Filipinos abroad talk about our country, they sound more sincere. They tend to research more about our past and try to come up with ways to lessen if not solve the issues that plagues our nation. While we here only utter about national pride and unity when Pacquiao wins, when we are oppressed, or when hit by a calamity.

It seems that the idea of "country" for us is just the immediate area or region that we reside in. So are we really a nation, i don't think so. The seas that surrounds us does not only divides us geographically, but also prevents us from truly reaching our full potential as a nation.

I started writing my thoughts about this in the hope that i might find even just a sliver of an answer. But in the end, I ended up asking more questions.