Being Pinoy on Anzac Day

Today's a holiday here in Oz. It's Anzac Day.

What is ANZAC Day?

ANZAC Day - 25 April - is probably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

Read more here.
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It's weird living in a country and not knowing any of its history.

Even weirder is I find that I can't be bothered to go out of my way to know more about it.

Okay, maybe not that weird, since I have, at times, been seen as apathetic. I am from UP CBA after all.

But, no matter how f***ed up the Philippines gets and how I try to stay removed from the situation (I hardly even read any news from home. I've found that the news cycle and recycle anyway. We're having elections AGAIN. After the elections, I'm sure there'll be accusations of cheating. As what happened in the last election. And the election before that. Everything's the same.), I'm a born and bred Manileno (sorry, i can't find the "enye" in my comp). True blue Pinoy. My country is ingrained in me and always will be.

If I have been seen as apathetic, I've also been accused, at times, of being patriotic. Me? How strange. I never thought of myself as patriotic. Never that. I've had a number of heated arguments with my dad about my apparent lack of love for country.

But, if, insisting I'm Pinoy when people try to label me as half-Aussie (just because I can assimilate doesn't make me one of them) or not rushing towards a new citizenship just because it's available and will make traveling much easier or extolling the wonders of the Philippines (the beaches! the rum shakes! the massages on the sand!) to anyone who would listen, if all that make me a patriot, then I guess I am one. But see, I still don't see myself as a patriot. (I don't know if I would be willing to die for my country. We don't have that great a relationship.) I just see myself as Pinoy.