| Subject: INTERESTING INFO |
Author:
John
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Date Posted: 19:00:43 04/17/04 Sat
told my friend that the Filipino reputation abroad
for being quality service providers wasn't exactly a
huge source of pride for the country. He started to
apologize, but I said it was completely all right. The
export of human labor, which has probably overtaken
agricultural products as the country's chief trade
item, was the one thing that was keeping the
Philippines afloat. No maids, no caretakers, no
nurses, no Juan de la Cruz.
Everyone to a man or woman spoke of the many virtues
of the Filipinos, and not entirely out of politeness.
That went with much head-shaking questions about what
was ailing the country. To have such a people with
such enviable capabilities but to have fallen to such
unenviable straits, it did not make sense. I confessed
I did not know the answers, although I suspected the
fact that all those talents were being put at the
service of the world rather than (directly) of the
country might be one of them, if it wasn't the source
of the predicament itself.
The artistic talents of Filipinos particularly got
rave reviews. It wasn't just in popular music
Filipinos excelled in, it was in graphic arts as well.
One Singaporean editor told me his paper had several
Filipino cartoonists and illustrators, and the quality
of their work had brought his paper much prestige and
many awards. He wouldn't part with them for all the
world, he said, though he wouldn't say that to them or
they might immediately ask for a raise. Other
Singaporean newspapers had Filipinos as well. I said I
knew a couple of them, though most of the graphic
artists I knew were in Hong Kong.
There was one other quality Filipinos had, my
Singaporean friend said emphatically, addressing
himself to the men and women in our company over sake
in a dive in Fukuoka on a cold night. It was that, man
or woman, Filipinos were exceptionally charming. They
laughed a lot, and made friends easily. If you don't
watch out, he told the others, you'd lose your
boyfriends or girlfriends to them. Or you'd end up
being their boyfriend or girlfriend. One Filipino man
in fact became the subject of a recent scandal in
Singapore, as two well-known Singaporean women fought
for his affections.
Filipinos are very articulate as well, one Thai woman
told me. You notice, she said, that they're the ones
who're very active in conferences, along with the
Indians.
Good question: Given the talent, what in God's name
has happened to us? The only thing worse than being
poor all your life is being rich once and now being
abjectly miserable. That's the thing that truly cuts
to the quick.
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