Brown Soul

It’s a sad but good reflection on the wrong priorities and focus of millions of Filipinos going abroad. While we look for TRINKETS and TOYS (or goods for pasalubong and beautify our image), the Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and the Koreans would go to the West and gather TOOLS to equip themselves by getting the best education in the great learning institutes so they could invent a new mobile phone, design a new car, or create their own business at home.

The Institute for International Education released their 2007 report on the ranking of the different countries with foreign origin in the college schools/universities in the West:

Rank Place of Origin
1 India 83,833

2 China 67,723

3 Korea 62,392

4 Japan 35,282

5 Taiwan 29,094

6 Canada

7 Mexico

8 Turkey

9 Thailand 8,886

10 Germany

11 United Kingdom

12 Saudi Arabia 7,886

13 Nepal 7,754

14 Hong Kong 7,722

15 Indonesia 7,338

16 Brazil

17 Colombia

18 France

19 Kenya

20 Vietnam 6,036

21 Malaysia

22 Nigeria

23 Pakistan

24 Russia

25 Venezuela

Notice that the leading countries are from Asia with almost 50% from the list being Asian countries.
Where is the Philippines on this list?

Nepal is a very small country and yet would make sure they have at least 7,000 citizens in the best schools in the West. And so would Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and even African countries such as Kenya and Nigeria.

On the other hand, we probably have millions living, or coming in and out of the West but how many dreams of having a doctorate in Harvard? Or a Masters degree in MIT? We do have dreams yet our AMERICAN DREAM is somehow disorientated and has no large impact.

Sad but true, the perception of a Filipino today is a striking contrast during the time of Rizal when Filipinos in Europe were referred to as “the glory of the universities”