The fond memories I had in the island for about 23 years is now becoming a dream. Living in it completes one’s bucolic passion. However, there’s also that parochial way of seeing things in the island that is often manifested by the shores that limit an individual’s urban aspiration. Because a body of water surrounds the island, the pastoral design is often encompassed by the islander’s desire to go beyond the depth of the waters whether to fish or just bathe under the sun.

It’s always unforgettable remembering the days as an island boy. I always wear a smile whenever I recall the times I had getting shells, catching fish, harvesting seaweeds (as if there’s a farm), and running after some crustaceans especially during low tides and when days permitted me to be on the shore. This way of life was always ending up my nights with a stertor. As visibility is to being easy, crabs were always on the look out of predators then running sideways as fast as they could or burrowing into the mud or sand. I always loved watching them tiptoeing or readying their pincers or claws to protect themselves. Only until second year high school I learned that crabs don’t have bones. Instead, they have a hard shell which protects the soft insides of their body. Crabs have five pairs of legs of which the first pair has powerful claws at the end seemingly usable to defend or fight predators; the other four pairs of legs are used for walking or running and for paddling through the water. Many times had been allotted catching crabs but they were spared by me from being eaten. All throughout my life I never have eaten crabs.

Crabs can either be true crabs or hermit crabs. Whatever divisions they have, crabs remain to be one of the many innocent animals being tried by people in any means. They are inevitably placed on the hot seat as they form part in most people’s cooking pan. On the other hand, they are maligned or stereotyped as their name suggests a negative impression or idea.

From the most sumptuous delicacy served on many tables to the most annoying nature served by different cultures, crabs have not been served the justice they should get from being used up too much. If crabs could just have a mind like humans, they might have also done vengeance to us. Annoyingly, they could not.

Oven-heat it and there you have a lump crab cake. Call it crab imperial, soft crabs, crab toast, crab balls, crab leg, crab stuffed mushrooms, crab dip, or crab-avocado-and-mango stack, all they have are crabs. They sound delectable and taste luscious. They’re cuisine in many retouches.

Call it the way Paul Harvey, an American broadcaster and columnist, coined it in 1995 as Crayfish syndrome. Say it as alamihi syndrome as Hawaiians do. Cry it as doomsday mentality as Black Americans did. Whatever the term is across borders, it’s just crab mentality for Filipinos. The term now is not anymore mouthwatering but sucking.

Let me turn the table down to focus on this cultural serving of divisiveness. Wikipedia defines crab mentality as the tendency to "outdo another at the other's expense" or to "pull down those who strive to be better. Further, it is broadly associated with short-sighted, non-constructive thinking rather than a unified, long-term, constructive mentality. It is also often used colloquially in reference to individuals or communities attempting to "escape" a so-called "underprivileged life", but kept from doing so by those others of the same community or nation attempting to ride upon their coat-tails.

Internet search engines don’t have any finding for the etymology of the term, even on-line dictionaries. On my own theory, crab mentality maybe dates back as humans first existed. It was just later known when there was that representation en masse of behavior or society. Detailing historically, crab mentality was a common mind infliction among individuals during the Spanish Colonial Era. Friars were among those who set the very detail of this mentality. They caused to ruin the state which they ran to prove their power threatening the Indios. They used one ethnic group to fight against another for honor. The typical social status symbol is credited even until now as the most debilitating contribution of crab mentality by the Spaniards to Filipinos. After some 300 years of Spanish occupation, the American Imperial Era contributed much also to this mentality through its colonialism - a policy in which a country rules other nations and develops trade for its own benefit.

The long time past had history of Filipinos adapting to the kind of mentality that Spanish and Americans had in common. Today, we see the same kind of Filipinos who use their power to oppress the many. We see these people becoming nostalgic if they cannot do it to others. In a country like ours, the condition is very notable. The crisis is square and very apparent. There’s Administration vs. Opposition. There’s Tagalog vs. Cebuano. There’s this call center agent vs. an English teacher. There’s this insecure officemate vs. a bossy co-worker. There’s this ambitious self vs. personal arrogance. All these take the same league. All these form part in us. I say, there’s the CRAB in US.

My island life was very focused and contained. In the island, there’s the idea of openness, oneness, and care. I still can’t forget the neighborly wisdom I had gotten from the island folks. Yet there were perturbed island moments, but there was also that dream and expression of moving onward to the borderless world hopeful of every new beginning. Now I see the dream and the urban zone of people with close minds. The metro offers nothing but unfair competition. You need pitons more than how much a mountaineer needs to bravely bring yourself to the apex. My solace has never come yet. Crabs feel the same while looking for that justice of why blame them if it’s man’s action. #