77,947

http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/petition.html
(As a Pinay, I want to respond. )



http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/petition.html

As of this writing, the above petition has garnered 77,947 signatures, as a result of the ill placed quip on Desperate Housewives. Allow me to declare early on in this entry that the point is not to devalue this cause, nor further muddle the idea that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." I believe in that saying, hands down. And sure, I am well aware that there are many people out there who are of the "what the fuck is the big deal?" school. Which is an opinion I'm okay with, one with which I disagree, but again, still I'm okay with it.

What floors me about this incident are the following:

1) How some want to label this as a "satirical" misinterpretation. But if we're really going to use that defense, let's understand "satire" for what it is: it's a device meant to use scorn or ridicule to expose or attack some kind of basic criticism of the subject. And what exactly is the point of criticism on this issue? If that is missing, then we are left with the "scorn" and "ridicule" portions. However, if you can identify where the criticism was, then you will bump the theory I share with much of the Filipino community, that this is a mockery of the Philippine educational system (which, ironically, is modeled after U.S. standards after it was occupied) and the line itself, in its dissection, upholds Western bias/superiority.

If people are outraged, let them be outraged. Dissent is critical and necessary.

2) Aside from the overwhelming presence of Filipinos/Fil-Ams in the medical field having come from Philippine educational institutions, it seems no popular press outlets have picked up on the very basic relationship between the needs for the US market to acquire overseas labor, and the dependence of the Philippine government on exporting its people in order to bring money into the impoverished nation. Remittances, hi2u.

3) The recruitment agencies are present en masse in the Philippines, openly encouraging emigration (as if leaving wasn't already heavily ingrained within our culture), and after charging exorbitant placement fees, are responsible for the mistreatment of thousands of Filipinos. More often than not, they are trafficked to other parts of the world (of course, the U.S. being the apple of many-a-Filipino's eye) and placed in dire situations where their personal safeties are compromised, wages withheld, and creates a present-day system modeled after fuedal debt bondage. As in the ongoing case of the Sentosa 27++, medical workers are not exempt from these injustices.

What I gave you above is context. Quite frankly, this is an understanding I've acquired very recently in my life, and due to my involvement in Filipino community organizations. So, yes, it is a privileged understanding.

This is also not to say that the attention this incident has received is equally disappointing, especially in light of everyday examples of racism and bias displayed in the media; those examples being normalized to the point that we have grown indifferent and it is more difficult for many communities to galvanize and get 80,000 signatures when their ethnicity, creed, class, etc. are attacked and demeaned.

With this in mind, it's a shame that the only thing we can say is the same old media byte, "To have this happen in (insert year here) is a tragedy" --- foregoing context and all other players involved. As more press outlets pick up this story, that's the only newsworthy line. It will likely remain the only thing written about this incident, despite the richness of its circumstance and how it could have been used to shed light on these other points.

(And please. Don't even start your first amendment bs with me, unless you at least google it before taking it there.)