Conflicted and inconsistent

THERE is always a public uproar every time there is breaking news about the importation of meat, fish, sugar and other commodities. This reverberates from across social classes, and extends beyond the political class. The outrage is not confined to members of Congress, who almost automatically call for hearings.

And yet, we are also a country with a people who are fixated on everything that is foreign and imported, from gadgets to soap operas and films, and even graduate degrees. The effect of our colonial mentality, where we have collectively branded our local commodities as inferior compared to their foreign counterparts, is that even academic expertise earned abroad, even more so of foreign-sounding experts, carry more weight than degrees earned from local universities or from local experts.