Colonial mentality
In the early days of world politics, colonization was the common method of territorial expansion. Renowned seafarers from perceived major powers like England, France, Portugal and Spain, crossed the seas in search of lands and peoples either to trade with or colonize and rule. An example was Portuguese Hernando de Magallanes, Ferdinand Magellan, in our history books. When Magellan searched for another way to the Mallacas islands, he served in the name of the King of Spain. Along his then uncharted route, he came to our shores and planted his sword here to signal the Spanish domination of our land.
Ironically, most colonizers flaunted higher form of culture to garb their selfish intentions. Instead of improving the lot of the people in their discovered lands, they acted, as rulers, like demi gods and treated the people they dominated, their subjects, if not slaves. Probably, Magellan, having found no record of the kind of culture we had when he caused the first mass to be held in Limasawa Island, on the Easter Sunday of March 31, 1521, thought he was our God-given master.
The term colonial mentality must have arisen from such a situation. On one hand, the conquerors imagined that their privileged position of power and culture was vastly superior to those they enslaved. Their mind frame was that they had the birthright to dominate. On the other hand, those subjugated also bowed their heads in acceptance of their inferiority to the culture or doctrines of the colonizers.
Colonial mentality. There is no other way to explain the presence of a certain Ted Lerner, an American, I believe, in the boxing promotion last Saturday at the Waterfront. To be sure, it was not the first time that he acted as the privileged announcer of the event. Mr. Lerner has served as the Michael Buffer (by trying to ape him) in many major boxing promotions in our city.
On his part, this Caucasian must have entertained the thought that his fair skin, in substituting his absent talent, makes him better than say Mr. Rico Navarro or Mr. John Magat. Indeed, he must have mistaken his race as superior to the brown pigmentation of Messrs. Navarro and Magat's because atop the ring, he struts like a peacock! And he squeaks like one.
Well, Mr. Lerner is wrong. He is not one bit better than the Filipino announcers whose important task he takes away from. His talent, if at all, is as ordinary as that of the barkers in our midst called “dispatchers†- you know, those men shouting for passengers to board jeeps - “Hoy, Ramos Carbonâ€. In fact, I have heard few dispatchers with better voices than Mr. Lerner's. Yes, his twang is unmistakably American, but that is all there is to it.
I do not know why Mr. Lerner was so privileged as to be engaged as the announcer of the main event and therefore, the most important part of the night's boxing presentation. Is he, in the first place, here in the Philippines as a professional ring announcer? And as such he pays the correct amount of tax? Does he have the kind of training and background that place him notches higher than our own?
In that Saturday card, the Filipino announcers were relegated to the preliminaries, the crumb, so to speak. By taking away from Mr. Navarro and Mr. Magat the privilege of showcasing the Filipino talent in introducing world-class boxing to world-wide audiences, Mr. Lerner, not only deprived the Filipino ring announcers of the professional fee they were supposed to get, he, more importantly, allowed the international audiences to think that we are incapable of competently doing the job.
As a Filipino, I felt so insulted by the situation that I listened carefully to the American each time he opened his mouth. It was my intention to discern if he possessed a language so polished as to justify his taking over a privileged function. Alas, he failed in that regard that I now ask our promoters not to give him again that job the next time there is a boxing promotion.
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