[giver_bert]

i don't think we could make a parallel with singapore.. singaporeans have a basic commitment as Singaporeans first. East Timorese think of themselves as East Timorese. We Filipinos think of ourselves as either of these: A Cebuano who is being persecuted by a Tagalog, or a Tagalog who despises the Cebuano because he doesn't speak "soft Filipino", or a Waray who hates both a Cebuano and a Tagalog, an ilonggo who loathes the others because they don't work as hard as he does, or A Mindanao guy who thinks his wealth should have been his alone and not to be shared with any other Filipino, a Muslim who thinks because of the centuries of persecution, every other Filipino is entitled to pay him back... the list of combination is endless.