Ang Maging Pinoy
I was walking up to school yesterday, when I was reminded of a quote I saw in Discovery Travel and Living Channel. It said something like " I don't like feeling at home when I'm abroad". This is exactly how I feel about being here in India. I don't think it's globalization, being born with an Indian name, marrying an Indian or having a half-Indian daughter. I felt this way the first time I set foot in this amazing nation who loved their soil more than anything.I felt Indian and yet of course, always Filipino but most of the time a global citizen. I started thinking about what each country have and have not, and what we shared together.
It was fueled with the discussion I had in our department with our Economics teacher, Mr. Sinha Babu ( from the Oakrdige Int'l. School) and my Psychology colleague Ms. Shanthi Vedanayakam ( from the Canadian Int'l School). It started with my random question of, which world does India belong to? 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th? Of course they bursted into laughter, since we all know it's the developing and the developed country now only to be corrected by our Economist saying that too has been corrected. We have highly developing countries now to still give room for their growth.Iceland being on top of the list by the way according to UNDP.
The conversation started rolling. I asked which factors exactly makes a country where it is considered right now? He talked about the HDI, which is the Human Development Index of Literacy Rate, Health ( Life Expectancy) and per capita Income. It went on to Population rate, exports, imports, demand and supply etc. etc.
Here's the part that shook me. We started talking about India's economy and then rewinded to the British colonial rule and Gandhi's move to the country's self-sufficiency. I remember Rahul ( my husband) always ranting about how India holds on to the principle of “asahayog” ( non-cooperation ) and "satyagraha" ( civil disobedience)that Gandhi and other Indian freedom fighters fought for. My husband loves technology from cars to computers and whether he admits it or not, he is a huge nationalist. He always emphasizes how India now never allows foreign inverstors to simply take over the economy by requiring the foreign investors to always partner up with a local brand/company. I remember meeting my in-laws who passionately talked about dying in their soil, most astoundingly, was their declaration on having to live in their soil. I see this in many young Indians also, whether they are abroad or not. They seem to share this unified spirit for their country. Believe it or not, Indians patronize their own, I have seen people (middle-aged) up to this day (21st century) thrashing a sandwich into the bin because it holds the idea of western invasion in their culture. That is, even if the sandwich contains Indian spices.
The conversation moved on to my country, the Philippines. With apprehension, I had to spill out facts on how most Filipinos adore western goods and brands. How we love to eat out and not make home-cooked meals like here. We mostly live on malls and American goods. We even thrive on pirated American brands. We giggle when we see "Made in the Philippines" and get so upset when we spend so much on something that we pick from abroad only to realize it's "Made in the Philippines". Here, they will wear clothes if the cotton was grown in their soil, proudly so, if it says "Made in India" - and then they will utter: "now, I know it's pure cotton!". They will wear their national clothes at home, on their streets, in their functions- and hold your breath - even abroad!
Going back to our economic discussions, we moved to foreign aid and world bank debits. We discussed exports and imports. Where else will it lead but to OFW's, I being one of them. I said, for now, I can think for our exports as mainly our OFW's other than the sea shell lamps or rattan sets etc for imports. Our own people. Where does that lead us? Well, the "transfer income" from our OFW's sending money home causes a short term economic fluctuation especially during the holidays. But let's take a closer look, our basic unit of society is breaking apart - THE FAMILY. Now, looking at families being together in the nation, is like looking at families eating spaghetti in Jollibee on the weekends- rich and poor and middle-class. Happy to spend an absent parent's sustenance from abroad to fill-in media caused wants to necessities.
I never expected my colleagues to actually drop their mouths when I told them we IMPORT milk and even rice among many things. We erase our rice farms to build condominiums, housing and land. We sell logs to Japan as they happily preserve their rainforests. We even sell our bodies abroad! Darn, it's not only from the gossips of our Japayuki entertainers but it goes all the way to talks about our female nurses in the UAE selling their bodies to supplement needs for our expensive education back home. Of course, it can't be everyone as applied to everything else.
As a teacher, I'd like to see our educators perspective. Basic teacher's salary in the Philippines : P5,000 private schools and P8,000 for public schools ( which requires political back-up or financial bribery). Say, they have 2 children minimum, hopefully an employed spouse of around the same earning or less, electric, water, rent, travel, clothing, health and education expenses; and that with SKY-ROCKETING PRICES!!! And yet, we keep the picture of a happy Filipino family- "the family that malls together are together in the mall!" Where does that leave our teachers? Let the students copy on the board, do their lesson plans at the back to keep their jobs and principal happy while selling the goddamn tocino( sweetened pork)or caldero
(pots)!!! Guess what they talk about in the staff lounge? SALARY LOANS!!!
Breathing in, breathing out. My colleague asks how's the politcal stability then? Wow, can't I tell him enough how many times we can try to oust one president after another? We also even oust our family members so we can have our kids in private schools and actually be able to have for the first time white, blonde and slim Barbie dolls in their hands in exchange for daddy's or mommy's presence in their lives. It doesn't sound as easy as that of course, since there are 4-5 more siblings waiting for rice on the table. Who cares about Birth control? We are Catholics! Talk about mortal sin in interfering with God's perfect plan.
It's not so cute raging about poverty and how we all buy whitening creams and having that first NIKE pair as our goal for the month or the year. It's not so cute listening to our songs sang in Filipino but in western beats, gladly so if we still listen to them if they are not in English.
It is never simple to watch mothers break their hearts as they bid goodbye to their toddlers in NAIA. I was behind another mother who held her tears all the way to the immigration section and then only to break into tears at the immigration and heard the immigration (another lady) reply, " pupunta ka nang France para naman sa kanila, maging matapang ka, kaya mo yan!". It is not painless to hear a mother in HK talking to her grown up daughter through TV ( some OFW aid channel) saying "I wish I got to comb your hair when you were growing up" ( she was sobbing). We pay such high price for education, and that explains UNDP reports on our relatively higher literacy rate in the country. I combed my daughter's hair with tears in my eyes the day I saw that.... I was grateful for our family's decision to be together ( Anak! halika ka rito at suklayin ko buhok mo, daliii!). I can't judge others for I know not the severity of the pangs of their hunger, may it be of their hearts growing up in poverty or their stomachs literally having seen an empty table on Christmas eve...
But I have my hope, that if every one of us who have risen beyond poverty line give back to our families and our country ( which we already do), we will not drown as a nation, as a people. If we learn to love our own and not be ashamed of it, if we can patronize our own local products and live simply we won't need too much of those sky rocketing condominiums then we have space for our rice to grow. If we won't need too much of those airconditioned glittering malls to window shop and end up borrowing money to have the latest REVLON, we will have space for our trees to grow.
If we can believe in ourselves, we can empower ourselves to do something for our people. That is, to give them not only empowerment opportunities such as skills and respect, but hope that they are not alone and that we are one as a nation. If we can be bold enough to hit the dark corners of the city without electricity, without desks in their schools, we can still move further from where we were and reach the nooks of our villages. If we can't believe in our government, we can start by believing in ourselves that we can make a difference not only in our lives but in our people's lives...
p.s. If you see me at Jollibee with my family, I'll start singing "sarap maging Filipino, sarap mag Jollibee!"
photo credits:
Joseph Macarilay and Satchid Villareal
http://www.pbase.com/sachiv/pinoy
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012624&id=1405675286#/album.php?aid=2021379&id=1405675286
It was fueled with the discussion I had in our department with our Economics teacher, Mr. Sinha Babu ( from the Oakrdige Int'l. School) and my Psychology colleague Ms. Shanthi Vedanayakam ( from the Canadian Int'l School). It started with my random question of, which world does India belong to? 1st, 2nd, 3rd,4th? Of course they bursted into laughter, since we all know it's the developing and the developed country now only to be corrected by our Economist saying that too has been corrected. We have highly developing countries now to still give room for their growth.Iceland being on top of the list by the way according to UNDP.
The conversation started rolling. I asked which factors exactly makes a country where it is considered right now? He talked about the HDI, which is the Human Development Index of Literacy Rate, Health ( Life Expectancy) and per capita Income. It went on to Population rate, exports, imports, demand and supply etc. etc.
Here's the part that shook me. We started talking about India's economy and then rewinded to the British colonial rule and Gandhi's move to the country's self-sufficiency. I remember Rahul ( my husband) always ranting about how India holds on to the principle of “asahayog” ( non-cooperation ) and "satyagraha" ( civil disobedience)that Gandhi and other Indian freedom fighters fought for. My husband loves technology from cars to computers and whether he admits it or not, he is a huge nationalist. He always emphasizes how India now never allows foreign inverstors to simply take over the economy by requiring the foreign investors to always partner up with a local brand/company. I remember meeting my in-laws who passionately talked about dying in their soil, most astoundingly, was their declaration on having to live in their soil. I see this in many young Indians also, whether they are abroad or not. They seem to share this unified spirit for their country. Believe it or not, Indians patronize their own, I have seen people (middle-aged) up to this day (21st century) thrashing a sandwich into the bin because it holds the idea of western invasion in their culture. That is, even if the sandwich contains Indian spices.
The conversation moved on to my country, the Philippines. With apprehension, I had to spill out facts on how most Filipinos adore western goods and brands. How we love to eat out and not make home-cooked meals like here. We mostly live on malls and American goods. We even thrive on pirated American brands. We giggle when we see "Made in the Philippines" and get so upset when we spend so much on something that we pick from abroad only to realize it's "Made in the Philippines". Here, they will wear clothes if the cotton was grown in their soil, proudly so, if it says "Made in India" - and then they will utter: "now, I know it's pure cotton!". They will wear their national clothes at home, on their streets, in their functions- and hold your breath - even abroad!
Going back to our economic discussions, we moved to foreign aid and world bank debits. We discussed exports and imports. Where else will it lead but to OFW's, I being one of them. I said, for now, I can think for our exports as mainly our OFW's other than the sea shell lamps or rattan sets etc for imports. Our own people. Where does that lead us? Well, the "transfer income" from our OFW's sending money home causes a short term economic fluctuation especially during the holidays. But let's take a closer look, our basic unit of society is breaking apart - THE FAMILY. Now, looking at families being together in the nation, is like looking at families eating spaghetti in Jollibee on the weekends- rich and poor and middle-class. Happy to spend an absent parent's sustenance from abroad to fill-in media caused wants to necessities.
I never expected my colleagues to actually drop their mouths when I told them we IMPORT milk and even rice among many things. We erase our rice farms to build condominiums, housing and land. We sell logs to Japan as they happily preserve their rainforests. We even sell our bodies abroad! Darn, it's not only from the gossips of our Japayuki entertainers but it goes all the way to talks about our female nurses in the UAE selling their bodies to supplement needs for our expensive education back home. Of course, it can't be everyone as applied to everything else.
As a teacher, I'd like to see our educators perspective. Basic teacher's salary in the Philippines : P5,000 private schools and P8,000 for public schools ( which requires political back-up or financial bribery). Say, they have 2 children minimum, hopefully an employed spouse of around the same earning or less, electric, water, rent, travel, clothing, health and education expenses; and that with SKY-ROCKETING PRICES!!! And yet, we keep the picture of a happy Filipino family- "the family that malls together are together in the mall!" Where does that leave our teachers? Let the students copy on the board, do their lesson plans at the back to keep their jobs and principal happy while selling the goddamn tocino( sweetened pork)or caldero
(pots)!!! Guess what they talk about in the staff lounge? SALARY LOANS!!!
Breathing in, breathing out. My colleague asks how's the politcal stability then? Wow, can't I tell him enough how many times we can try to oust one president after another? We also even oust our family members so we can have our kids in private schools and actually be able to have for the first time white, blonde and slim Barbie dolls in their hands in exchange for daddy's or mommy's presence in their lives. It doesn't sound as easy as that of course, since there are 4-5 more siblings waiting for rice on the table. Who cares about Birth control? We are Catholics! Talk about mortal sin in interfering with God's perfect plan.
It's not so cute raging about poverty and how we all buy whitening creams and having that first NIKE pair as our goal for the month or the year. It's not so cute listening to our songs sang in Filipino but in western beats, gladly so if we still listen to them if they are not in English.
It is never simple to watch mothers break their hearts as they bid goodbye to their toddlers in NAIA. I was behind another mother who held her tears all the way to the immigration section and then only to break into tears at the immigration and heard the immigration (another lady) reply, " pupunta ka nang France para naman sa kanila, maging matapang ka, kaya mo yan!". It is not painless to hear a mother in HK talking to her grown up daughter through TV ( some OFW aid channel) saying "I wish I got to comb your hair when you were growing up" ( she was sobbing). We pay such high price for education, and that explains UNDP reports on our relatively higher literacy rate in the country. I combed my daughter's hair with tears in my eyes the day I saw that.... I was grateful for our family's decision to be together ( Anak! halika ka rito at suklayin ko buhok mo, daliii!). I can't judge others for I know not the severity of the pangs of their hunger, may it be of their hearts growing up in poverty or their stomachs literally having seen an empty table on Christmas eve...
But I have my hope, that if every one of us who have risen beyond poverty line give back to our families and our country ( which we already do), we will not drown as a nation, as a people. If we learn to love our own and not be ashamed of it, if we can patronize our own local products and live simply we won't need too much of those sky rocketing condominiums then we have space for our rice to grow. If we won't need too much of those airconditioned glittering malls to window shop and end up borrowing money to have the latest REVLON, we will have space for our trees to grow.
If we can believe in ourselves, we can empower ourselves to do something for our people. That is, to give them not only empowerment opportunities such as skills and respect, but hope that they are not alone and that we are one as a nation. If we can be bold enough to hit the dark corners of the city without electricity, without desks in their schools, we can still move further from where we were and reach the nooks of our villages. If we can't believe in our government, we can start by believing in ourselves that we can make a difference not only in our lives but in our people's lives...
p.s. If you see me at Jollibee with my family, I'll start singing "sarap maging Filipino, sarap mag Jollibee!"
photo credits:
Joseph Macarilay and Satchid Villareal
http://www.pbase.com/sachiv/pinoy
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012624&id=1405675286#/album.php?aid=2021379&id=1405675286
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