For the first time in perhaps 40 years I was an active participant in a conversation about ‘colonial mentality’. The occasion was an early dinner meeting with former high school classmates of the graduating class of 1960. It was a pleasant enough rendezvous, savoring Filipino cuisine in a Santa Clara, California restaurant. I cannot exactly recall how the conversation drifted into the issue of ‘colonial mentality’, but it did.
Are we the possessors of a ‘colonial mentality’? Do we harbor deep seated, albeit unconscious, admiration for our colonizers, first the Spaniards and then the Americans, and therefore speak and act with a pronounced bias for their values and ways?
I remember that in the course of my abbreviated college tenure, the early 1960’s, there was a stigma, among the young, that was associated with the perceived harboring of a ‘colonial mentality’. It was a phrase we liberally used to describe what we considered the ‘antiquated’ thinking of our elders, who, as survivors of WWII had a great affinity for Americans.
At this dinner in Santa Clara I was asked directly whether we should, as immigrants to the US, consider ourselves as possessors of a ‘colonial mentality’.
Well, on the one level, I made a conscious effort to immigrate, and, upon completion of my naturalization process I swore allegiance to the American flag and renounced allegiance to any other country. I took, and continue to take, my naturalization vows quite seriously, as I’m sure millions of immigrants likewise do.
I also was impressed by the words of the judge administering the oath who, in his post-ceremony remarks urged us to be “good Americans”. Be good neighbors, he said. “Value liberty and be prepared to protect it in every way you can. Pay your taxes diligently. Obey our laws. Honor our traditions. Love and support your new country. Bring the best from your past and your cultures to your new land and enhance this mosaic that is America”. And those words resonated with me and helped drive my transformation.
So back to the question that my colleague at dinner asked, do I then harbor a ‘colonial mentality’? Well, not only did I adopt the ways of our erstwhile colonizers, I actually moved over to join them and be one of them. Did I possess a ‘colonial mentality’ when I was still in the Philippines and is this what propelled me to come over and join the ‘enemy’, so to speak?
I, like many from my generation, and that of my parents, had an affinity for things American. We wore jeans, we smoked Marlboros, most of my English major friends all wanted to be the 2nd coming of Ernest Hemingway and we of course expressed ourselves in American English. We danced to American music and most of our singers were copycats of whichever singer was in vogue. Frank Sinatra had a huge Filipino male following among the elder generation( my late father included) hence a Filipino party usually featured someone belting out “My Way”). The younger generations swayed to Elvis Presley’s hips. And, needless to say, we were, many of us, brainwashed by our parents who had great affinity for America because many of them were educated by Americans during that period between the two world wars. And Americans were considered more down to earth, friendlier, in comparison to our previous colonizers, the Spaniards.
( The famed Philippine author Nick Joaquin wrote a novel titled “ A Woman with Two Navels” a metaphorical allusion to the indelible scars – in the form of navels- the result of the Philippines’ seeming umbilical attachment to two colonizing cultures, Spain and America.)
I remember in the 1969 presidential election, Serging Osmena Jr., responding to remarks that he was “America’s boy”, dared his opponents to publicly make that statement, understanding that a majority of Filipinos at that time, if they were asked to vote, would support outright statehood. It also brought to mind that famous quote attributed to Manuel L. Quezon in the 1930’s ,who, discussing options for the Philippines including statehood, supposedly averred that, “I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos, than one run like heaven by Americans.”
Well, judging from the tenures of the Marcoses, the Estradas and the Macapagal-Arroyos, and the “hell” they have left in their tracks, I doubt if Quezon would feel the same way.
Speaking for myself economics was a factor for emigrating, for sure. But probably more than that it was opportunity that was the main consideration. As in, if I stayed back home my opportunities were very limited, whereas if I emigrated my vista of opportunities widened. And I am sure the millions of Filipinos who are now US citizens share this sentiment.
Yet it is really more than that. Our exposure to America was not limited to Marlboros, movies and Hemingway. We were also exposed to the ideas of freedom, equality and fair play.( Ideals that may have been direly tested many a time as I’m sure many of us have, from time to time at least, perhaps felt the painful sting of racial discrimination and unfair treatment).
America is replete with examples of immigrants making good in many fields of endeavor or commercial enterprise. In America we have a chance at achieving our many dreams, opportunities which, in our country of origin, may have been limited to a few. The fact that 8 million Filipinos (and counting) have taken contractual overseas employment even as maids, underscores the drought of opportunities in the Philippines.
So to the charge of ‘colonial mentality’? Perhaps viewed from the prism of the 1960’s when a revived sense of nationalism was sweeping the Philippine youth movement, sure, at that time I too despised ‘colonial mentality’. But by the time I left in 1972 I had a different mindset. And today my honest response is that it is an irrelevant question. While I love my adopted country I have not in any way diminished my love for the Philippines. There is a book authored by Carlos Bulosan, an immigrant in the 1930’s titled “America is in the Heart”. That statement, in a sense, perhaps helps explain the lure of America. Not only Filipinos, but millions of people around the world continue to look at America as an ideal, and what it stands for is engraved in many hearts. Sure, America has problems but it is a country and a situation very few would trade for anything else regardless their 'mentality'
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
A 2nd Look at Arbularios
Rediscovering the Powers of Mangosteen
Growing up in the semi-slums of Cebu City in the 1950’s, amid the nipa huts and the tartanilla plodded dusty roadways that bordered the Echavez-Sikatuna area, it was seldom that impoverished families could afford the cost of modern medical care. The only remedies available were those dispensed by the local arbulario, usually a beetle-nut chewing old lady who had seen many a limping “patient” in her career.
Have a long festering sore? Use some oregano leaves, slightly crushed and smother it on one’s wounds. Or perhaps use some tender guava leaves. Break a bone, or sprain an ankle? Go over to Manoy Undo’s shack by the dry creek; he’ll rub the ankle area, pull the leg and voila we can go back to the many games and youthful joys that occupied the humid and dusty days of snotty nosed barrio kids.
Living in a lush green tropical island provided our arbularios, herbalists, with all manner of plant life from which to grind out and concoct one type of cure or another. The one remedy that I remember very vividly was the purple colored Mangosteen fruit, specifically its thick skin or rind. After thorough boiling I drank the liquid leftover like a tea and sure enough it alleviated whatever stomach pains I had. Boiling tender guava leaves also had a somewhat similar though not as potent an effect.
Having had to deal with several bouts of cardiovascular diseases over the past several years and therefore needing to take in many pills a day, I have been actively exploring the use of herbal remedies to salve the minor aches and pains that the aging, deteriorating body is often heir to. For gout, for example, I have been drinking several glasses of black cherry juice a day as it is said that this fruit serves as a “binder” for uric (or euric) acid, which, if not adequately expelled from the system crystallizes in the extremities’ causing painful bouts of gout. My primary care physician voiced no objections to this practice (perhaps because he believes that adding more pills to my regimen ultimately harms me).
The Philippines has become a leading supplier of many herbal remedies in the past couple of decades. Not too long ago it was widely understood that the oft hated, bitter ampalaya (bitter melon gourd) was an effective remedy for certain types of diabetes. Although not a diabetic I drink several cups of ampalaya tea a day as I noticed it has a general cleansing effect; it seems really effective in removing whatever fatty residue that we ingest from our diet. There are powdered version of this plant on sale but diabetics, as with any remedy, ought to consider its use only in consultation with their doctors.
Many Filipino stores carry all kinds of herbal teas the most popular of which are the ones made from guava leaves and the highly regarded banaba , which, it is said back home, was in widespread use long before the invention of midol for women.
Anyway, the point of this story and why I started writing it out in the first place. A few weeks ago I had a severe case of acidity in my stomach. It was so severe that it kept me up awake at nights. I went to see my gastroenterologist who prescribed antacids. Over several days I had to pump myself with the stuff just to get some relief but the aftermath was not pleasant either. And it seemed that I could not eat anything at all without triggering a veritable lava flow of acid. In fact for a 3 day period I actually did not eat anything as having food in my stomach seemed like carrying around bricks in my system. And teas did not seem to help either.
On my next “Filipino grocery” shopping stop I saw bundles of Mangosteen displayed in the produce bins. I grabbed what looked like a sack of it, paid an arm and a leg for the stuff which supposedly came out of Thailand and took it home. These fruits were very much smaller than the ones I had seen in my youth. The meat was nice, white and delicious but my main interest was the skin which I immediately boiled and drank the brownish liquid as I would tea. I had several cups of the stuff. Now, I cannot say exactly if it was my Mangosteen concoction at work or whether the dozens of chalky antacid tablets I chewed was the reason but that night I slept a little better and did not have the severe symptoms previously experienced.
Then one day earlier this month I drove down to San Francisco to attend a relative’s 80th birthday party and to look up an old friend from some 35 years ago with whom I had recently reconnected via email. This friend, Carole and her daughter Shannon, as it happens, are deeply involved with Mangosteen as distributors of a product called XanGo. This is a product that had hit the market like over a decade ago but was now packaged more sensibly in a user friendly kind of way. Having recently experienced the pangs of stomach acidity I was anxious to try the product and see if, like in the days of my boyhood, it would have the same magical powers and cure me. Well I have now taken the product every day for the past 7 days and I have had no acidity and have not had to take in any antacids at all. How great is this?
This led me to read up on the product and where this led me to was information (provided by my XanGo distributor friend Shannon) that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota is currently investigating this fruit, specifically the skin or rind, for its anti-inflammatory agents called Xantones . The Mayo Clinic study now involves 220 patients who currently have atrial fibrillation. Half will drink the juice, half will be given a placebo. Also under investigation is the plant’s antioxidant qualities. This effort was covered in a news program of ABC News recently.
Information on this subject can be obtained by going to the National Library of Medicine website : www.nlm.nih.gov
Needless to say I’m impressed at the medical-scientific attention the
Mangosteen is receiving. My stomach is just happy that the acidity has been severely reduced and hopefully will not have to host any more antacid parties for a while. I’m impressed too that the old beetle-nut chewing arbularia in the Echavez-Sikatuna neighborhood was on to something with her herbal cures 50 years before the Mayo Clinic thought it worthy of a serious look. Who wudda thunk it?
Email ldq44@aol.com
Growing up in the semi-slums of Cebu City in the 1950’s, amid the nipa huts and the tartanilla plodded dusty roadways that bordered the Echavez-Sikatuna area, it was seldom that impoverished families could afford the cost of modern medical care. The only remedies available were those dispensed by the local arbulario, usually a beetle-nut chewing old lady who had seen many a limping “patient” in her career.
Have a long festering sore? Use some oregano leaves, slightly crushed and smother it on one’s wounds. Or perhaps use some tender guava leaves. Break a bone, or sprain an ankle? Go over to Manoy Undo’s shack by the dry creek; he’ll rub the ankle area, pull the leg and voila we can go back to the many games and youthful joys that occupied the humid and dusty days of snotty nosed barrio kids.
Living in a lush green tropical island provided our arbularios, herbalists, with all manner of plant life from which to grind out and concoct one type of cure or another. The one remedy that I remember very vividly was the purple colored Mangosteen fruit, specifically its thick skin or rind. After thorough boiling I drank the liquid leftover like a tea and sure enough it alleviated whatever stomach pains I had. Boiling tender guava leaves also had a somewhat similar though not as potent an effect.
Having had to deal with several bouts of cardiovascular diseases over the past several years and therefore needing to take in many pills a day, I have been actively exploring the use of herbal remedies to salve the minor aches and pains that the aging, deteriorating body is often heir to. For gout, for example, I have been drinking several glasses of black cherry juice a day as it is said that this fruit serves as a “binder” for uric (or euric) acid, which, if not adequately expelled from the system crystallizes in the extremities’ causing painful bouts of gout. My primary care physician voiced no objections to this practice (perhaps because he believes that adding more pills to my regimen ultimately harms me).
The Philippines has become a leading supplier of many herbal remedies in the past couple of decades. Not too long ago it was widely understood that the oft hated, bitter ampalaya (bitter melon gourd) was an effective remedy for certain types of diabetes. Although not a diabetic I drink several cups of ampalaya tea a day as I noticed it has a general cleansing effect; it seems really effective in removing whatever fatty residue that we ingest from our diet. There are powdered version of this plant on sale but diabetics, as with any remedy, ought to consider its use only in consultation with their doctors.
Many Filipino stores carry all kinds of herbal teas the most popular of which are the ones made from guava leaves and the highly regarded banaba , which, it is said back home, was in widespread use long before the invention of midol for women.
Anyway, the point of this story and why I started writing it out in the first place. A few weeks ago I had a severe case of acidity in my stomach. It was so severe that it kept me up awake at nights. I went to see my gastroenterologist who prescribed antacids. Over several days I had to pump myself with the stuff just to get some relief but the aftermath was not pleasant either. And it seemed that I could not eat anything at all without triggering a veritable lava flow of acid. In fact for a 3 day period I actually did not eat anything as having food in my stomach seemed like carrying around bricks in my system. And teas did not seem to help either.
On my next “Filipino grocery” shopping stop I saw bundles of Mangosteen displayed in the produce bins. I grabbed what looked like a sack of it, paid an arm and a leg for the stuff which supposedly came out of Thailand and took it home. These fruits were very much smaller than the ones I had seen in my youth. The meat was nice, white and delicious but my main interest was the skin which I immediately boiled and drank the brownish liquid as I would tea. I had several cups of the stuff. Now, I cannot say exactly if it was my Mangosteen concoction at work or whether the dozens of chalky antacid tablets I chewed was the reason but that night I slept a little better and did not have the severe symptoms previously experienced.
Then one day earlier this month I drove down to San Francisco to attend a relative’s 80th birthday party and to look up an old friend from some 35 years ago with whom I had recently reconnected via email. This friend, Carole and her daughter Shannon, as it happens, are deeply involved with Mangosteen as distributors of a product called XanGo. This is a product that had hit the market like over a decade ago but was now packaged more sensibly in a user friendly kind of way. Having recently experienced the pangs of stomach acidity I was anxious to try the product and see if, like in the days of my boyhood, it would have the same magical powers and cure me. Well I have now taken the product every day for the past 7 days and I have had no acidity and have not had to take in any antacids at all. How great is this?
This led me to read up on the product and where this led me to was information (provided by my XanGo distributor friend Shannon) that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota is currently investigating this fruit, specifically the skin or rind, for its anti-inflammatory agents called Xantones . The Mayo Clinic study now involves 220 patients who currently have atrial fibrillation. Half will drink the juice, half will be given a placebo. Also under investigation is the plant’s antioxidant qualities. This effort was covered in a news program of ABC News recently.
Information on this subject can be obtained by going to the National Library of Medicine website : www.nlm.nih.gov
Needless to say I’m impressed at the medical-scientific attention the
Mangosteen is receiving. My stomach is just happy that the acidity has been severely reduced and hopefully will not have to host any more antacid parties for a while. I’m impressed too that the old beetle-nut chewing arbularia in the Echavez-Sikatuna neighborhood was on to something with her herbal cures 50 years before the Mayo Clinic thought it worthy of a serious look. Who wudda thunk it?
Email ldq44@aol.com
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Soul Searching, Not Chest Thumping Needed
Disagreement re Lacson’s ‘The Filipino Today’ Piece
Alex L. Lacson is genuinely one of the really “good people” in the Philippines today. He authored the best seller, “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country.” I first knew of him from a column written by my friend and famous Filipino journalist/commentator, the late Max Soliven.
In the aftermath of the recent bloodbath that resulted in the death of 8 Chinese tourists at the hands of slain hostage taker police inspector Rolando Mendoza, and the accompanying “negative publicity” our country and people were, and still are, subjected to, Mr. Lacson wrote a piece urging Filipinos to not get down on themselves and keep in mind the many good and outstanding accomplishments of our nation and of individual Filipinos in many fields of endeavor..
“We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us”, he avers in his piece. He then goes on to enumerate various accomplishments such as the 2007 award won by Filipino scientist Baldomero Olivera for his work with neurotoxins; or, the sacrifice made by educator Dr. Josette Biyo who opted to teach in the barrios versus a good paying post at De La Salle University; or, the many beauty contests Filipinas have won internationally.
I must regretfully and respectfully disagree with Mr. Lacson. Rather than engage in breast thumping over past “outstanding” deeds to assuage our feelings of shame and embarrassment over the hostage deaths, we ought engage in serious soul searching and identify what truly is at the core of this fiasco.
If we do, then we might yet finally admit that we have major and very deep problems; and unless these are addressed and remedied we shall remain mired in that place that rightfully opens us, as a country and a people, to ridicule and scorn.
We do not need a long drawn out “investigation” to establish culpability and guilt in the Rizal Park massacre. We know our police forces are riddled with incompetence. Massive graft, corruption, political patronage and blatant cronyism are what breed this culture that results in bumbling and bungling sagas such as the one the world saw in full display last August 23rd. The question is: what are we going to do about it?
Will our country’s leadership act in a way that will make us proud, or shall we expect to have to cringe in shame yet again? Why does the world think so badly of us? Well, let’s look at some possible reasons:
• I mentioned corruption earlier and the thing we need to keep in mind is that it is deeply rooted and endemic and it has been perpetrated by whoever is in charge regardless of the political affiliation of the powers that be at the moment. We rejoiced and the world danced with us when “people power” finally got rid of the Marcoses ( or so we thought then – ha, ha, the laugh’s on us isn’t it?). Mrs. Aquino was incorruptible but her family reportedly feasted at the trough. We have not heard much about General Ramos’ vis-à-vis corruption per se yet the whispers are that ex and current military bigwigs are deeply in business in all areas of endeavor. Yes, the world knows of our culture of corruption and so far we have not convinced anyone that they should now stop holding up their noses in ridicule.
• Once upon a time it was a rarity, an exception to be sure, that a movie star gets elected to high public office. In the 1960’s Joseph Estrada was elected mayor of the suburban town of San Juan and most thought that’s as far as he was going. Before you know it he had become a senator, a vice-president and soon enough the presidency itself was in his curriculum vitae. Not reputed to be the brightest candle in the chandelier, if Erap can make it so can we, thought others in show business, and before you know it the easiest route to elective office was movie or tv stardom. Yes, it seems comical yet why does it hurt when we laugh?
• The addiction to things “imported”. It seems that something is only good if it is from abroad. Even our poor domestic helpers who slave it out overseas are expected to bring in Nike’s and other prized items when they come home lest they disappoint their relatives.
• Speaking of overseas workers, the very existence of this very large group of wage earners by and of itself is an eloquent indictment of our system which fails to provide local employment opportunities for even the highly educated among our people. That many of these workers accept domestic helper employment has helped to create the impression in many countries that we are a nation of “maids” and it is thus not surprising that the world looks down on us.
• The seeming inability to effectively address the massive gridlock that our traffic jams create. We are held hostage, it seems, to the “jeepney” system of transportation and no political leader has the guts, the vision nor the innovative thinking required to re revamp this system. Not only are we “choked” by the traffic but by the resulting smog as well. Nothing to be proud of, for sure
We could go on and on and my point is that we are the laughing stock of the civilized world not because we do not appreciate the accomplishments of many Filipinos; it is because we have all kinds of messes which we either brought about deliberately or allowed to grow into various festering menaces.
So, rather than mask the negative image the Rizal Park massacre created we ought to use it as the impetus to once and for all truly face our problems and take serious steps to correct them. How the massacre investigation is conducted and reported can either be a first step in the long and arduous task of redeeming our image, or it can add yet another nail to the crucifixion that our country has been subjected to for over 50 years. Soul searching and principled actions, not hollow gestures, will be our road to redemption, and away from laughability
Alex L. Lacson is genuinely one of the really “good people” in the Philippines today. He authored the best seller, “12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country.” I first knew of him from a column written by my friend and famous Filipino journalist/commentator, the late Max Soliven.
In the aftermath of the recent bloodbath that resulted in the death of 8 Chinese tourists at the hands of slain hostage taker police inspector Rolando Mendoza, and the accompanying “negative publicity” our country and people were, and still are, subjected to, Mr. Lacson wrote a piece urging Filipinos to not get down on themselves and keep in mind the many good and outstanding accomplishments of our nation and of individual Filipinos in many fields of endeavor..
“We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us”, he avers in his piece. He then goes on to enumerate various accomplishments such as the 2007 award won by Filipino scientist Baldomero Olivera for his work with neurotoxins; or, the sacrifice made by educator Dr. Josette Biyo who opted to teach in the barrios versus a good paying post at De La Salle University; or, the many beauty contests Filipinas have won internationally.
I must regretfully and respectfully disagree with Mr. Lacson. Rather than engage in breast thumping over past “outstanding” deeds to assuage our feelings of shame and embarrassment over the hostage deaths, we ought engage in serious soul searching and identify what truly is at the core of this fiasco.
If we do, then we might yet finally admit that we have major and very deep problems; and unless these are addressed and remedied we shall remain mired in that place that rightfully opens us, as a country and a people, to ridicule and scorn.
We do not need a long drawn out “investigation” to establish culpability and guilt in the Rizal Park massacre. We know our police forces are riddled with incompetence. Massive graft, corruption, political patronage and blatant cronyism are what breed this culture that results in bumbling and bungling sagas such as the one the world saw in full display last August 23rd. The question is: what are we going to do about it?
Will our country’s leadership act in a way that will make us proud, or shall we expect to have to cringe in shame yet again? Why does the world think so badly of us? Well, let’s look at some possible reasons:
• I mentioned corruption earlier and the thing we need to keep in mind is that it is deeply rooted and endemic and it has been perpetrated by whoever is in charge regardless of the political affiliation of the powers that be at the moment. We rejoiced and the world danced with us when “people power” finally got rid of the Marcoses ( or so we thought then – ha, ha, the laugh’s on us isn’t it?). Mrs. Aquino was incorruptible but her family reportedly feasted at the trough. We have not heard much about General Ramos’ vis-à-vis corruption per se yet the whispers are that ex and current military bigwigs are deeply in business in all areas of endeavor. Yes, the world knows of our culture of corruption and so far we have not convinced anyone that they should now stop holding up their noses in ridicule.
• Once upon a time it was a rarity, an exception to be sure, that a movie star gets elected to high public office. In the 1960’s Joseph Estrada was elected mayor of the suburban town of San Juan and most thought that’s as far as he was going. Before you know it he had become a senator, a vice-president and soon enough the presidency itself was in his curriculum vitae. Not reputed to be the brightest candle in the chandelier, if Erap can make it so can we, thought others in show business, and before you know it the easiest route to elective office was movie or tv stardom. Yes, it seems comical yet why does it hurt when we laugh?
• The addiction to things “imported”. It seems that something is only good if it is from abroad. Even our poor domestic helpers who slave it out overseas are expected to bring in Nike’s and other prized items when they come home lest they disappoint their relatives.
• Speaking of overseas workers, the very existence of this very large group of wage earners by and of itself is an eloquent indictment of our system which fails to provide local employment opportunities for even the highly educated among our people. That many of these workers accept domestic helper employment has helped to create the impression in many countries that we are a nation of “maids” and it is thus not surprising that the world looks down on us.
• The seeming inability to effectively address the massive gridlock that our traffic jams create. We are held hostage, it seems, to the “jeepney” system of transportation and no political leader has the guts, the vision nor the innovative thinking required to re revamp this system. Not only are we “choked” by the traffic but by the resulting smog as well. Nothing to be proud of, for sure
We could go on and on and my point is that we are the laughing stock of the civilized world not because we do not appreciate the accomplishments of many Filipinos; it is because we have all kinds of messes which we either brought about deliberately or allowed to grow into various festering menaces.
So, rather than mask the negative image the Rizal Park massacre created we ought to use it as the impetus to once and for all truly face our problems and take serious steps to correct them. How the massacre investigation is conducted and reported can either be a first step in the long and arduous task of redeeming our image, or it can add yet another nail to the crucifixion that our country has been subjected to for over 50 years. Soul searching and principled actions, not hollow gestures, will be our road to redemption, and away from laughability
Friday, September 10, 2010
The Filipino today
By Alex Lacson
After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.
“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general. There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.
Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.
It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.
We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.
The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to HongKong, China and to the whole world.
But there is so much more about the Filipino.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.
In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.
The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.
The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.
The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!
Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.
Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!
Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “New York’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.
In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.
The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.
I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Leah Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.
What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has a beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.
So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.
To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.
Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines.
We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.
Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.
First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.
We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.
To all the people of HK and China, especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.
After the August 23 hostage drama, there is just too much negativity about and against the Filipino.
“It is difficult to be a Filipino these days”, says a friend who works in Hongkong. “Nakakahiya tayo”, “Only in the Philippines” were some of the comments lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles received in her Facebook. There is this email supposedly written by a Dutch married to a Filipina, with 2 kids, making a litany of the supposed stupidity or idiocy of Filipinos in general. There was also this statement by Fermi Wong, founder of Unison HongKong, where she said – “Filipino maids have a very low status in our city”. Then there is this article from a certain Daniel Wagner of Huffington Post, wherein he said he sees nothing good in our country’s future.
Clearly, the hostage crisis has spawned another crisis – a crisis of faith in the Filipino, one that exists in the minds of a significant number of Filipinos and some quarters in the world.
It is important for us Filipinos to take stock of ourselves as a people – of who we truly are as a people. It is important that we remind ourselves who the Filipino really is, before our young children believe all this negativity that they hear and read about the Filipino.
We have to protect and defend the Filipino in each one of us.
The August 23 hostage fiasco is now part of us as Filipinos, it being part now of our country’s and world’s history. But that is not all that there is to the Filipino. Yes, we accept it as a failure on our part, a disappointment to HongKong, China and to the whole world.
But there is so much more about the Filipino.
In 1945, at the end of World War II, Hitler and his Nazi had killed more than 6 million Jews in Europe. But in 1939, when the Jews and their families were fleeing Europe at a time when several countries refused to open their doors to them, our Philippines did the highly risky and the unlikely –thru President Manuel L Quezon, we opened our country’s doors and our nation’s heart to the fleeing and persecuted Jews. Eventually, some 1,200 Jews and their families made it to Manila. Last 21 June 2010, or 70 years later, the first ever monument honoring Quezon and the Filipino nation for this “open door policy” was inaugurated on Israeli soil, at the 65-hectare Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
The Filipino heart is one of history’s biggest, one of the world’s rare jewels, and one of humanity’s greatest treasures.
In 2007, Baldomero M. Olivera, a Filipino, was chosen and awarded as the Scientist for the Year 2007 by Harvard University Foundation, for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of Philippines. Olivera is a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah, USA. The Scientist for the Year 2007 award was given to him in recognition to his outstanding contribution to science, particularly to molecular biology and groundbreaking work with conotoxins. The research conducted by Olivera’s group became the basis for the production of commercial drug called Prialt (generic name – Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction.
The Filipino mind is one of the world’s best, one of humanity’s great assets.
The Filipino is capable of greatness, of making great sacrifices for the greater good of the least of our people. Josette Biyo is an example of this. Biyo has masteral and doctoral degress from one of the top universities in the Philippines – the De La Salle University (Taft, Manila) – where she used to teach rich college students and was paid well for it. But Dr Biyo left all that and all the glamour of Manila, and chose to teach in a far-away public school in a rural area in the province, receiving the salary of less than US$ 300 a month. When asked why she did that, she replied “but who will teach our children?” In recognition of the rarity of her kind, the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States honoured Dr Biyo a very rare honor – by naming a small and new-discovered planet in our galaxy as “Biyo”.
The Filipino is one of humanity’s best examples on the greatness of human spirit!
Efren Penaflorida was born to a father who worked as a tricycle driver and a mother who worked as laundrywoman. Through sheer determination and the help of other people, Penaflorida finished college. In 1997, Penaflorida and his friends formed a group that made pushcarts (kariton) and loaded them with books, pens, crayons, blackboard, clothes, jugs of water, and a Philippine flag. Then he and his group would go to the public cemetery, market and garbage dump sites in Cavite City – to teach street children with reading, math, basic literacy skills and values, to save them from illegal drugs and prevent them from joining gangs. Penaflorida and his group have been doing this for more than a decade. Last year, Penaflorida was chosen and awarded as CNN Hero for 2009.
Efren Penaflorida is one of the great human beings alive today. And he is a Filipino!
Nestor Suplico is yet another example of the Filipino’s nobility of spirit. Suplico was a taxi driver In New York. On 17 July 2004, Suplico drove 43 miles from New York City to Connecticut, USA to return the US$80,000 worth of jewelry (rare black pearls) to his passenger who forgot it at the back seat of his taxi. When his passenger offered to give him a reward, Suplico even refused the reward. He just asked to be reimbursed for his taxi fuel for his travel to Connecticut. At the time, Suplico was just earning $80 a day as a taxi driver. What do you call that? That’s honesty in its purest sense. That is decency most sublime. And it occurred in New York, the Big Apple City, where all kinds of snakes and sinners abound, and a place where – according to American novelist Sydney Sheldon – angels no longer descend. No wonder all New York newspapers called him “New York’s Most Honest Taxi Driver”. The New York City Government also held a ceremony to officially acknowledge his noble deed. The Philippine Senate passed a Resolution for giving honors to the Filipino people and our country.
In Singapore, Filipina Marites Perez-Galam, 33, a mother of four, found a wallet in a public toilet near the restaurant where she works as the head waitress found a wallet containing 16,000 Singaporean dollars (US $11,000). Maritess immediately handed the wallet to the restaurant manager of Imperial Herbal restaurant where she worked located in Vivo City Mall. The manager in turn reported the lost money to the mall’s management. It took the Indonesian woman less than two hours to claim her lost wallet intended for her son’s ear surgery that she and her husband saved for the medical treatment. Maritess refused the reward offered by the grateful owner and said it was the right thing to do.
The Filipina, in features and physical beauty, is one of the world’s most beautiful creatures! Look at this list – Gemma Cruz became the first Filipina to win Miss International in 1964; Gloria Diaz won as Miss Universe in 1969; Aurora Pijuan won Miss International in 1970; Margie Moran won Miss Universe in 1973; Evangeline Pascual was 1st runner up in Miss World 1974; Melanie Marquez was Miss International in 1979; Ruffa Gutierrez was 2nd runner up in Miss World 1993; Charlene Gonzalez was Miss Universe finalist in 1994; Mirriam Quiambao was Miss Universe 1st runner up in 1999; and last week, Venus Raj was 4th runner up in Miss Universe pageant.
I can cite more great Filipinos like Ramon Magsaysay, Ninoy Aquino, Leah Salonga, Manny Pacquaio, Paeng Nepomuceno, Tony Meloto, Joey Velasco, Juan Luna and Jose Rizal. For truly, there are many more great Filipinos who define who we are as a people and as a nation – each one of them is part of each one of us, for they are Filipinos like us, for they are part of our history as a people.
What we see and hear of the Filipino today is not all that there is about the Filipino. I believe that the Filipino is higher and greater than all these that we see and hear about the Filipino. God has a beautiful story for us as a people. And the story that we see today is but a fleeting portion of that beautiful story that is yet to fully unfold before the eyes of our world.
So let’s rise as one people. Let’s pick up the pieces. Let’s ask for understanding and forgiveness for our failure. Let us also ask for space and time to correct our mistakes, so we can improve our system.
To all of you my fellow Filipinos, let’s keep on building the Filipino great and respectable in the eyes of our world – one story, two stories, three stories at a time – by your story, by my story, by your child’s story, by your story of excellence at work, by another Filipino’s honesty in dealing with others, by another Pinoy’s example of extreme sacrifice, by the faith in God we Filipinos are known for.
Every Filipino, wherever he or she maybe in the world today, is part of the solution. Each one of us is part of the answer. Every one of us is part of the hope we seek for our country. The Filipino will not become a world-class citizen unless we are able to build a world-class homeland in our Philippines.
We are a beautiful people. Let no one in the world take that beauty away from you. Let no one in the world take away that beauty away from any of your children! We just have to learn – very soon – to build a beautiful country for ourselves, with an honest and competent government in our midst.
Mga kababayan, after reading this, I ask you to do two things.
First, defend and protect the Filipino whenever you can, especially among your children. Fight all this negativity about the Filipino that is circulating in many parts of the world. Let us not allow this single incident define who the Filipino is, and who we are as a people. And second, demand for good leadership and good government from our leaders. Question both their actions and inaction; expose the follies of their policies and decisions. The only way we can perfect our system is by engaging it. The only way we can solve our problem, is by facing it, head on.
We are all builders of the beauty and greatness of the Filipino. We are the architects of our nation’s success.
To all the people of HK and China, especially the relatives of the victims, my family and I deeply mourn with the loss of your loved ones. Every life is precious. My family and I humbly ask for your understanding and forgiveness.
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