Syncretism in Asia

Religious syncretism, mixing, is quite common in Asia, as many Asians don't believe in religious purity, to which white people aspire.  Even Protestant sects are known to meld with traditional religions in South Korea.  Asia is not the only continent with such phenomenon, as it is also common in Latin America and Africa, as especially Roman Catholicism blends with folk beliefs.  In the Philippines, some so-called "Tsinoys" or Chinese-Filipinos worship a dualism of the Santo Niño (the Christ Child) and the Buddha, as they have duplex altars, a phenomenon unlikely studied by anthropologists.

Yaring Shenzhen

Sa pizzeria nitong umaga sa Isla Lulu, nakita ko ang isang Tsinang nanay at ang kanyang babaeng anak na dalawa at kalahating taong gulang.  Nakaitim ang nanay.  At nakakulay-rosas ang bata.  Kumakain sila ng pizza.  Si Rosa namang tinderang Pilipina roon ay naghanda ng Griyegong pizzang may kesong fetang kinain ko.  Kinausap ko ang mag-ina.  Sabi ng Tsinang nag-aaral daw siya ng Bibliya sa Mandarin, pero parang wala pa siyang sektang pinili.  Taga-Shenzhen siya.  Sabi ko'y mas parang Budista ako.  Marunong siya ng Mandarin, Kantones, at Ingles.  Mandarin ang pag-usap niya sa anak.  Hindi niya gusto siyang mag-Kantones.  Tagahilagang parte ng Tsina ang asawa niyang Mandarin lamang ang alam.  Sabi niya, "mas mabuti" raw ang Mandarin.

World of Michael and Viktor

I saw blue-shirt-wearing bearded Michael, the Dane-French, this sunny, blue-sky morning along the neighbourhood alleyway.  We talked about American politics and the pervasive ignorance in humanity.  I irksomely mentioned, "Most of humanity is not good quality."  We talked about travelling around this world, as I said that I have journeyed through Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, and Latin America.  A striking part of our conversation was about my Egyptian excursion.  My early objective in life was to see the Great Pyramids, which I managed to do in my twenties.  Egypt was like a different planet, with old French colonial buildings and multimillennial ruins.  The sky was a deep blue over the desert.  Michael mentioned, "That's why it's called the Dark Continent..."

Rich According to the Japanese

In the majority Japanese mindset, the rich are people like Italians and French.  Various pastas and croissants exemplify their food.  Japanese menus are full of syllabograms deriving from Italian and French gourmet terms.  Even "Jamón ibérico"—a Spanish ham—is a rare treat for wealthy Japanese.  Despite a past history of Portuguese near-colonization, the Japanese know less of them now, but the Castella cake, deriving from the Portuguese in the 16th century, is a popular reminder.  (There are now Japanese-Brazilian immigrants living in Japan, nevertheless.)

There are a minority of, maybe younger, Japanese, who, like me, cherish souvenirs from Amerindian, Australian Aboriginal, Polynesian, and other native cultures.  The Japanese are not monolithic.

Rod Ready for Camping

Wearing a blue T-shirt and blue jeans, Rod my Canadian neighbour was trimming the lawn, as I was walking by his yard.  "Looking well!" I greeted him.  He told me that he and his wife Joanne, of many generations of Ukrainian-Canadians, are getting ready for camping in the Cariboo and then in Drumheller, the dinosaur site.

I know another person who likes camping.  He's Nana, nanaseruw on Instagram and Twitter.  He treks in the spiritual forests of Japan.  His treks are very intriguing.

Let There Be Peace! - Pāx sit!

"Pāx sit!" is old Latin for "Let there be peace!"  Many have been thinking that a great war has been overdue for some time—77 years having passed since the last.  My thinking is that the 2020s is not like the 1940s, as people are better educated and there are more communication devices and methods, now.  And with modern Chinese making money and getting richer, they are less motivated to change from the status quo.  Sci-fi writers like the British knighted Arthur C. Clarke and the American mulatto Samuel R. Delany do not write about a great war on this Earth.  Clarke writes about America's tricentennial and more space exploration and colonization.  Delany writes, however, about war in the Solar System when neighbouring planets and moons have been already colonized by humans, and this Earth does become severely affected, as some of its colonies revolt against Terran hegemony.

There are Japanese awaiting a great war, which they think is inevitable, as there are tensions at the micro level, so there would be ensuing tensions at the macro level of the human sphere.  Some Japanese foresee their vindication coming, as some Japanese think that they were severely maltreated in the last war.  There are Japanese anime, like No. 6, depicting post-apocalyptic scenarios.  In No. 6, there would be a few surviving ultramodern city-states.  In the Anglosphere, there is Edgar Pangborn's sci-fi book Davy, which depicts a Medieval-like life in post-apocalyptic times.  The vintage teleseries Buck Rogers in the 25th Century depicts a future after a great war on this Earth.  Isaac Asimov, the Russian-born American Jewish sci-fi author, writes in his Foundation series of a great Terran war as a prelude to exploration and colonization of the galaxy, as it becomes home, a Galactic Empire, to zillions of humans.  Larry Niven, an American Jewish sci-fi author, writes about continuing progress on Terra with ensuing space colonization, but he writes that there would be war with alien species like the Kzinti, cat-like humanoids, maybe metaphoric.  Even in the Star Trek franchise universe, a great Terran war is a prelude to First Contact with extraterrestrials and later great space exploration and colonization.

Japanese Scientist

Some Anglo-Saxons and Chinese have commented that I'm "like a Japanese scientist."  I recently have declared that I'm a "Science-oriented Animist-Buddhist," and such essentially comprises a "Japanese scientist."  If you watched anime and read manga, you would know that these productions engender this mindset.

Yet Incomplete as a People

A couple of Hispanics have said, "No es un pueblo" (It's not a people).  I'm guessing that they are referring to Filipinos.  As Filipinos, our culture seems incomplete.  Our daily language is replete with foreign-sounding fad-sounding English words.  We don't have vast literature, as do the Indonesians.  Our crutch is the English language.  Regionally, there are many local languages, like a hodgepodge.  Many Filipinos who talk in a mixed manner are fluent in neither good Tagalog nor good English.  Our culture and cuisine are an ambiguous blending of Malay, Spanish, Chinese, and American influences, all jumbled up.  Sometimes, I say to myself, "I'm from Firipin!"—the uchronic or alternative-universe Philippines in which the Japanese would have continued their rich colonization.

(I often think that with the Filipino population now well over 100 million, we should be more ambitious and think more about things like space.  Many of us Filipinos think that we are "from just a little country.")