Havaianas and Colonial Mentality

by Danielle Marie Torralba

Resting in a tropical zone, Philippines tend to require its inhabitants to wear comfortable footwear such as slippers. However, when the need for slippers and commercialization merge, it is not just the comfort Filipinos are craving for; they begin to look for a brand. Thus, colonial mentality gets the show on the road and Havaianas is there to scratch the entire itch.

When these Brazilian flip-flops stepped its feet on the Philippine shore eight years ago, it seemed to be like a magnet binding itself with metals surrounding it. Filipinos patronize these flip-flops, and some do not even know why. My friend told me that it feels good. I was thinking, nowadays, everything that is good has a price tag.

The price of a pair of Havaianas cost P800. With that amount, you can already buy more or less 10 good quality pairs local slippers. While those Havaianas that are look good in the eyes may an eye-sore price tag between P1000 and 1,500. That doubles the quantity of our local brand which you may buy, and may add snacks in your cart.

The number of consumers has leveled up not only inside Metro Manila, even in provinces. Even during the hard times of recession, Filipinos were unstoppable of buying pairs of Havaianas.

In a newspaper article that I read, one Havaianas official described Filipinos that “When they want something, they want so much of it”. Sao Paulo Alpargatas, the Brazilian company who created these flip-flops, must have put that statement in his mind for Havaianas bested 60 other distributors last 2009 and they are planning to open more branches nationwide.

It is a funny thing that after all these high prices and Filipinos are being used by this foreign company, devotees of Havaianas had grouped themselves as “Havaianaticos”.  When I tried searching for “Islanders” or “Ramboticos” nothing came up.

Another funny thing is that tourists visiting our country prefer buying native products rather than those in demand stuffs as pasalubong. While us, who may get those abaca-made slippers anytime we want, promote those expensive merchandises and degrade our own products
Aside from very much low price, our local brands of slippers or flip-flops (or whatever you call it) are as good as these foreign brands.

Rambo was my favorite when I was young. It was very strong and took a year or two before it could be broken because of playing “tumbang preso”, “piko”, “patintero” and “kick-ball”. Islander was next to my favorites. It is a strong as Rambo but more comfortable and “sosyal”.

I once went this certain Filipino owned coffee shop in Manila wearing shirt, pants, and a brand less pair of local slippers. A guard suddenly blocked my way because of my footwear. It annoyed me yet did not bother to argue because somehow I have accepted this illness in our nation. But when I went to a franchised milk tea shop in Greenhills with the same outfit, there was no discrimination happened and people happily greeted me. I questioned, is this how worst colonial mentality in our country?

None of us is innocent of colonial mentality. Even I am guilty of it.

It made me think that maybe the foreigners are not the culprits. It must be us Filipinos to be blamed because we allow colonial mentality enter our system and swallow us slowly and later might destroy us, our unity as a nation, and our identity as Filipinos. We accept that we are helpless to change things.

To end this article, I would like to leave you a quote from our national hero Jose Rizal “… little by little they lost their old traditions, the momentos of their past they gave up writing, their songs, their poems, their laws in order to learn by rote other doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another aesthetics different from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking… degrading themselves in their own eyes; they became ashamed of what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was foreign and incomprehensible; their spirit was dismayed and it surrendered to… this disgust of themselves.”