By Gideon Lasco

Philippine Daily Inquirer-May 21

Where I grew up, “lokal” was a pejorative, used to describe something — or someone — of poor quality. Even today, a quick online search indicates that such usage persists, as when people describe a defective product as lokal or when trolls use it as ad hominem. Such language is rooted in part on the view of the inferiority of the “local,” as opposed to the superiority of the “imported” or “foreign.” Although colonial mentality is too jejune an explanation, we can certainly implicate centuries of miseducation and symbolic violence that have found their way in our preferences of which food to eat or which clothes to wear.

Read more at: https://opinion.inquirer.net/130023/cultivating-local-economies#ixzz6N4LEdBwp