I don’t know if the Philippine penchant for beauty pageants and our never-ending love affair for international beauty contests reinforced this concept in my brain, but I never paid attention to the little things I learned from these seemingly frivolous activities. I guess you can say I never really appreciated all this beyond the utopian concept that WORLD PEACE is to us today and that it’s “A Small World after all.” Dressing up in different national native costumes didn’t really make much of an impression on me even if we did it year in and year out in elementary. (I wonder if they still do this back in St. Paul where my niece is in kindergarten now.)
Until I learned of a conversation where a 16-year-old talking to a friend on the phone made this comment about this year’s World Cup where France and Italy fought neck and neck for victory. ”Yo, I never even thought that Italy was not a part of France until today when I watched them at the World Cup.” My jaw dropped upon hearing that.
We take so many things forgranted. We think that what we know is something that everyone knows. Call it stock knowledge or what have you, but we fail to appreciate that we are fortunate to know what we know. We do not have to be geniuses, we should just try to steer clear of being labeled as stupid.
And even if only because of Ms. Universe, at least I’m sure the little kids back home know that yes, Italy is not a part of France.