I am a bit late in POSTING this but I've been busy the past few weeks. But anyway, CONGRATULATIONS to our More Than Medals, the Filipino martial arts team that represented our country in numerous international Wushu competitions have competed in the 17th Annual UC Berkeley Chinese Martial Arts Tournament (CMAT 17) last April 11, 2009 and bagged 10 golds and 2 silver medals.
This is The Filipino Channel’s (TFC) coverage of MTM’s achievement shown in Balitang America.
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F. Sionil Jose gives a better and correct perspective of that Chip Tsao incident in his column in Philippine Star :
“Here we go again, some inconsequential columnist in Hong Kong takes a cheap shot at our unhappy country, calls us “a nation of servants” and immediately an uproar, and magma feelings of hurt are unleashed. Editorials, columnists, politicians are outraged — they demand apology as if one would really salve the bone-deep insult. It was the same sometime back when an English publisher defined “Filipina” as a housemaid. Such insults hurt profoundly but the pain fades quickly and soon after all that enraged outburst, we settle down to the same complacency, we continue sending more of our women abroad to be raped by Arabs, demeaned by Malaysians and Chinese, heckled by the Brits. What has our sense of outrage brought us?
Go to Hong Kong, to Singapore. Visit the Star Ferry environs in Hong Kong or Lucky Plaza, and Singapore’s Orchard St. And there, on Sundays you will see them, hundreds of Filipino domestics, yak-yaking, socializing on the sidewalk, having a pleasant respite from their work.
To the visitors, tourists and the natives, they are a piteous sight, illustrating so clearly and so well how this country has sank. As a Filipino, having witnessed such, I am utterly shamed. I do not blame our poor women for their sorry condition, for I know only too well their plight is the only way by which they can help their families at home and survive.
It is such a boring cliché now, but back to the not-so-distant past: Filipinas was the second richest country in the region, next only to Japan; our universities attracted students from all over Asia, and we had the best professionals, the most modern stores and hospitals.
And what was Hong Kong then? There were slums crawling up those hills on Victoria island, and slums all over Kowloon. Singapore as an English naval base was like old Binondo, with its small squalid shops and equally small houses.
But look at Singapore and Hong Kong now, then look at our country and people.
Sure, you can find in Makati magnificent mansions, the biggest luxury cars, the tony restaurants, skyscrapers. But elsewhere the ugly sprawl of slums, the very poor who now eat only once a day. We must ask ourselves that question, why we became “the hewers of wood and drawers of water” of the world. What happened to us, a very talented and heroic people with a revolutionary tradition?
Once we have answered this question, then we should no longer wonder why there is a continuing diaspora of our brightest people, of our women. It is then the time for us to be truly enraged — not at that Hong Kong columnist — but at the creators of this dismal miasma we call Filipinas. Do not kill the messenger who comes to us to tell the horrid truth about us. Ingest his message, then turn all that outrage, that vehemence, to the Filipinos who turned this beautiful country into the garbage dump of the region: the oligarchs, the Spanish mestizos, the Chinese Filipinos and the treasonous Indios who sent their money abroad instead of investing it here in industries to create jobs for our people. Then it is time for us to rail and condemn the crooked politicians who are the allies of these wretched rich who permitted the relentless hemorrhage of this nation’s capital.
Revolutionary tradition? Ask those rebels why, after 40 years, these leeches are still feasting on our blood!" F. Sionil Jose is undeniably one of the few sages left in our country. He saw the Philippines in its glory days (1960s) and back. He saw how our neighboring nations rose up one by one until we got left behind.
Even without Tsao’s article, foreigners have low regard on us Filipinos, whether you are an OFW or staying in the Philippines. With millions of Filipinos working abroad as servants, what other image can the world have of Filipinos? Hasn’t the Philippine government succeeded in creating the world-wide perception that we are indeed a nation of servants?
Tsao has just become a mirror of what is really going on about the Filipinos and the Filipino image in the world…That is an undeniable fact…
We need to accept the fact that we are the number one exporter of domestic helpers especially to the US, Middle East and Hong Kong? Some of our teachers and other professionals resigned from their jobs here to apply as domestic helpers in other countries. We cannot blame foreigners if they call our country a “nation of servants” because their servants are mostly Filipinos.
Many migrant groups, including the Center for Migrant Advocacy (CMA), Kanlungan Center Foundation, and Migrante International, have bashed Tsao for spouting this "racial slur." According to GMANews.TV Nevertheless, the groups admit that the Philippines has indeed become a country of overseas domestics.
Both CMA and Kanlungan questioned why Filipinos are so keen on denying the fact that we do have large a number of Filipinos doing domestic work abroad.
“We react because we have too many domestic workers abroad? But we do," CMA executive director Ellene Sana told GMANews.TV in an e-mail.
Institutionalization of migration
The phenomenon of migration in the Philippines can be traced back to the 1970s when there was a surge in the number of Filipinos leaving for abroad.
Dante Ang, chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas, said this was because then Labor Secretary Blas Ople thought of deploying Filipino workers to the Middle East to take advantage of the oil-boom and at the same time, temporarily solve the growing unemployment rate in the country.
However, more than 30 years after migration was pegged to be a temporary stop-gap measure against unemployment, the deployment of Filipino workers still hasn’t slowed down.
In an article titled “Understanding International Labor Migration in the East," published in the May-June 2007 Newsletter of the Philippine Institute for Development, Maruja Asis, director for Research and Publications of the Scalabrini Migration Center, identified the factors why Filipino migration has continued for almost four decades.
One of the reasons for this, she said, is the “institutionalization of migration."
The Philippine government has always been very upfront with its desire to deploy more Filipinos overseas.
“Working abroad has become an accepted fate to most Filipinos," she said.
In fact, she said it is now unusual for a Filipino to not to aspire for a job abroad despite being faced with proof that overseas is not really a haven for the unemployed.
The POEA said that a total of 165,737 Filipinos left for work abroad in January 2009 as compared to 132,285 in January 2008 – indicating an increase of 25.3 percent.
It also said that the 2009 deployment target is one million – 16.6 percent of which has already been achieved. It added that about 5,346 Filipinos are being sent to work abroad daily.
But why that has happened to our nation despite the fact that “Filipinas was the second richest country in the region, next only to Japan; our universities attracted students from all over Asia, and we had the best professionals, the most modern stores and hospitals” and our country, our Land is blessed with the bounty of nature or rich in natural resources? WHY…?
F. Sionil Jose was right in saying;
"We have A REAL AND INSIDIOUS ENEMY that we must vanquish, and this enemy is worse than the intransigence of any foreign power. WE ARE OUR OWN ENEMY. And we must have the courage, the will, to change ourselves."
-Why Are Filipinos So Poor
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
The Chinese journalist, Chip Tsao, is coming under sharp criticism from Filipinos in the blogosphere and from two female lawmakers and a labor policy center have joined calls in demanding a public apology over a recent article “The War At Home” that made a racial slur against Filipinos in relation to the dispute over the Spratly islands.
Here’s the article:
“The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.
As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China. Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.
Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.”
Sen. Pia Cayetano said Filipinos "deserve no less than a formal public apology" “HK Magazine and Tsao must apologize for insulting Filipinos, and they should pledge not to commit this mistake again," she said. "Our being a poor nation does not diminish the validity of our historical and legal claim to the Spratlys. In the proper forum, this dispute will eventually be threshed out and resolved. Ignorance, hatred and racial bias are the last things we need in approaching this long-standing controversy," she added.
Cayetano also said that the Philippine claim to the Spratlys "is as valid as the other claims being pushed by other nations. It does not mean that we're disregarding the claims of others. We respect their claim inasmuch as they should acknowledge ours." She was quoted as saying. "We should be proud that millions of OFWs are able to serve the world, whether as managers, laborers, caregivers or medical professionals. There's nothing to be ashamed of as long as we're earning an honest living without having to step on the dignity of others," she added.
Former labor undersecretary Susan Ople meanwhile also denounced Tsao, “His published declaration that he gave her Filipino maid a harsh lecture and warned her to tell every one of her compatriots that Spartly Islands belong to China or she'd lose her wages, is already a sign of an unstable, irresponsible and racist employer who resorts to verbal abuse even for perceived bilateral and historic infractions." said Ople.
Disgusting, derogatory, vile
Akbayan Rep. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros-Baraquel also protested over Tsao's article, saying the magazine should apologize immediately. "This disgusting, derogatory, and vile remark can only come from dim-witted and mediocre writing. The magazine should apologize straightaway. The article reflects the kind of attitude that promotes abuses against Filipina workers," Hontiveros said.
She said Tsao's story should not have been published, owing to its defamatory nature characterized by racial discrimination against Filipinos in general, and domestic helpers in particular.
A world without a Filipino
"Filipina domestic workers should hold a one-day strike to tell the likes of Chip Tsao who's the real master of the HK economy. If all Filipino workers in HK would strike, the HK economy would grind to a halt without us having to invade the territory," she said.
“So if Filipinos decided one day to stop working or go on strike for any reason, who would transport oil, food and heavy equipment across the world? We can only imagine the disaster that would happen.
When speaking about the Philippines, we should not forget Filipino nurses. They are some 23 percent of the world’s total number of nurses. The Philippines is home to over 190 accredited nursing colleges and institutes, from which some 9,000 nurses graduate each year. Many of them work abroad in countries such as the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Singapore.
The Philippines, which you can barely see on the map, is a very effective country thanks to its people. It has the ability to influence the entire world economy.
We should pay respect to Filipino workers, not only by employing them but also by learning from their valuable experiences. We have to remember that we are very much dependent on the Filipinos around us. We could die a slow death if they chose to leave us.”
Nation of servants
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”.
F.Sionil Jose’s article“Why We Are Poor” looks back in the 50s and 60s when the Philippines was still the most envied country in Southeast Asia. Today, we are just simply a nation of servants.
The only way to answer people, who insist that we are a nation of servants is not by shooting off our mouths. The only answer is to BEAT THEM by studying and working TEN TIMES HARDER than the rest—to beat them not just once or twice, but to do so consistently for the next 20,30, 40, 50 years.
Remember Condoleezza Rice, the first black woman to become the United States Secretary of State. She was born in Alabama and suffered discrimination on account of her color. But she was taught from a young age by her father, that she had to be “twice as good”and prove that she was deserving of advancement. Condoleezza Rice explains, “I was going to be SO WELL PREPARED, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in white society SO WELL, that I would be armored somehow from racism. I would be able to confront white society ON ITS OWN TERMS.”
Unless we Filipinos are prepared to love our country, and sacrifice ourselves by doing the extra-mile, we really deserve to be called “A nation of servants”
Update: March 31, 2009 HK Online Magazine has publicly apologized and deleted the article but Chip Tsao himself remained unapologetic. The blogosphere already caught the fire and they can no longer change the different reactions of thousands of people around the world.
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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”Continue...
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The BBC recently expressed its apologies for airing a comedy sketch that many Filipinos have found distasteful.
“Firstly, we're sorry if you were in any way offended by the program as this wasn't our intention,” the BBC’s Complaints Division stated.
The division described 'Harry & Paul' as a “post-watershed comedy sketch show well-known for its exaggerated humour and absurd characters.”
“It in no way represents real people and was never intended to offend or demean any viewer,” it added.
“We recognize that you were personally offended by the sketch and would like to assure you that your complaint has been registered on our audience log,” the complaints division stated.
The skit was part of a series known as “Northern Monkey,” and that the maid’s nationality was not relevant to the comedy.
“The fact that the maid is from the Philippines isn't relevant to the comedy,” it stated.
The said skit was first brought into the general public’s attention when Filipino groups complained that a portion of the “Harry & Paul” comedy show portrayed a Filipina in a very demeaning manner.
Philippine representative for party-list AKBAYAN Risa Hontiveros condemned the network for the “racist and humiliating” portrayal of a Filipina domestic worker.
"By making a horrible scene of exploitation an object of ridicule, the show trivializes an act of abuse commonly experienced by Filipina workers abroad…, an issue that merit global indignation,” she added.
Hontiveros also said that showing Filipinas as submissive sex objects reinforces the idea of people from other nationalities that they can just hire a petite and sexy Filipina domestic helper and turn her into a sexual object.
Philippine Ambassador to the UK Edgardo Espiritu criticized the skit as "gutter humor." He said the show counters the advocacy of the British government to observe equality for all and respect for human rights.
The Philippine embassy in London had already written to the United Kingdom's media regulatory agency as well as to the mayor of London, the secretary of state for women, and the television network to complain about the said show.
Filipinos in the UK also condemned the show and mapped out protest actions including an online petition called “Dignity and Respect for the Filipino Worker Campaign”.
Female lawmakers and other organizations followed suit in asking BBC to issue a public apology for presenting a racist, humiliating and disgusting depiction of a Filipina domestic worker.
Many groups have already urged the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to lodge a complaint before the British government and to demand apology from BBC.
An official complaint was emailed to the network. The show outraged many Filipinos, women’s groups and even lawmakers prompting the Philippine government to direct the foreign affairs department to act on the issue.
Philippine Government wants BBC apology for wrong reason.
A national alliance of women criticized the government’s hypocrisy for seeking a public apology over the racial slur aired in a British comedy show in the guise of defending the Filipino dignity.
“The Philippine government is seeking public apology from the show’s producers and the British Broadcasting Corporation not in defense of the Filipino dignity but in defense of its labor-export policy especially on the eve of the Philippine hosting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development,” said Gabriela Secretary General Emmi de Jesus.
“The Philippine government is flustered the 'anti-Pinay' portrayal in 'Harry and Paul' mirrors the current state of many Filipina overseas workers, which thus puts into question it’s claim that the Philippines is the showcase of how migration leads to development,” De Jesus said.
The group added that the portrayal of a Filipina maid in the skit “speaks not of development, but of degradation.”
It was revolting. It was a disgusting and an insensitive statement from our government!
In Kishore Mahbubani’s book, The New Asian Hemisphere, he writes that there are two historical epochs taking place now in the 21st century: One, the end of Western domination. Mahbubani was not the first guy to say this. Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune noted it early this year with his article: The end of the era of the white man.
But there is another wave taking place today according to the Singaporean-Indian sage: THE RENAISSANCE OF ASIAN SOCIETIES. It is now the age of “Incredible India,” “Sparkling Korea” and “Malaysia truly Asia.”By 2010, he said, 90% of Phd holding scientists all over the world will now all be in Asia.
And the Philippines?
In the 1950s, the Philippines was the most dynamic economy in Asia - hailed by the World Bank as a future powerhouse. Half a century later the country is, in the words of Rommel Banlaoi, a political-science professor at the National Defense College, "the sick man of Asia“.
A Filipino resident in Singapore reveals that in the National University of Singapore, they are already teaching what the role is of the Philippines in the international community. It is not to produce scientists like India, nor to produce cars like Japan, nor to produce Olympians like China, but to produce DOMESTIC HELPERS for the world.
880,000 Filipinos leave the country every year in pursuit of more gainful employment abroad. They're laying pipelines in Siberia, mining diamonds in Angola and sailing ships in all the world's oceans. They clean thousands of homes a day from Hong Kong to Dubai to London; Bahrain's prime minister employs some 50 Filipinos in his own household (Philippines: Workers for the World, Newsweek, Oct.4, 2006)
• The Philippines is currently the world’s leading exporter of nurses, with 164,000 or 85% of the country’s trained nurses are working abroad, with doctors becoming nurses.
Nowhere is this emerging problem more pressing than in the medical sector. Dr Jaime Galvez-Tan, professor of the University of the Philippines' College of Medicine and a former secretary of the government's Department of Health (DOH), says the Philippines is currently the world's leading exporter of nurses. About 164,000 nurses, or 85% of the country's trained total, are working outside the Philippines. Out of this number, about 100,000 have left the Philippines in the past 10 years.
• About 200 hospitals have recently closed down across the country because of a lack of doctors and nurses with another 800 hospitals considered to be “partially closed” due to the lack of qualified health personnel
• The Filipino youth and students are uneducated, indebted, and hungry: 1 in 10 Filipinos has never gone to school (6.8 million) 1 in 6 Filipinos is not functionally literate (9.6 million) 4.1 million are illiterate 11.6 million youth are out-of-school 51% of Filipinos had at most elementary education (The State of the Philippine Education, Freedom from Debt Coalition, July 25, 2006)
• Last 2006, the National Career Assessment Examination showed that out of the 1.3 million examinees, only 3.7%, or 49,066 students, are fit to enter college.
• The Philippines is No. 41 in Science and No. 42 in Mathematics among 45 countries.
Until we come to terms with who we are, our identity, our roots and heritage…the rise of Asia will never include the Philippines.
This article is my comment (response) to Cathy's post "Buy Pilipino".
(An excerpt) by F. Sionil Jose's Why are Filipinos So Poor.
In the ’50s and ’60s, the Philippines was the most envied country in Southeast Asia. What happened?
What did South Korea look like after the Korean War in 1953? Battered, poor - but look at Korea now. In the Fifties, the traffic in Taipei was composed of bicycles and army trucks, the streets flanked by tile-roofed low buildings. Jakarta was a giant village and Kuala Lumpur a small village surrounded by jungle and rubber plantations. Bangkok was criss-crossed with canals, the tallest structure was the Wat Arun, the Temple of the Sun, and it dominated the city’s skyline. Ricefields all the way from Don Muang airport — then a huddle of galvanized iron-roofed bodegas, to the Victory monument.Visit these cities today and weep — for they are more beautiful, cleaner and prosperous than Manila..In the Fifties and Sixties [the Philippines] was the most envied country in Southeast Asia. Remember when Indonesia got its independence in 1949 it had only 114 university graduates compared with the hundreds of Ph.D.'s that were already in our universities. Why then were we left behind?The economic explanation is simple. We did not produce cheaper and better products.
The basic question really is why we did not modernize fast enough and thereby doomed our people to poverty. This is the harsh truth about us today. Just consider these: some 15 years ago a survey showed that half of all grade school pupils dropped out after grade 5 because they had no money to continue schooling.Thousands of young adults today are therefore unable to find jobs. Our natural resources have been ravaged and they are not renewable. Our tremendous population increase eats up all of our economic gains. There is hunger in this country now; our poorest eat only once a day.But this physical poverty is really not as serious as the greater poverty that afflicts us and this is the poverty of the spirit.
Why then are we poor? More than ten years ago, James Fallows, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, came to the Philippines and wrote about our damaged culture which, he asserted, impeded our development. Many disagreed with him but I do find a great deal of truth in his analysis.
This is not to say that I blame our social and moral malaise on colonialism alone. But we did inherit from Spain a social system and elite that, on purpose, exploited the masses. Then, too, in the Iberian peninsula, to work with one's hands is frowned upon and we inherited that vice as well. Colonialism by foreigners may no longer be what it was, but we are now a colony of our own elite.
We are poor because we are poor -- this is not a tautology. The culture of poverty is self-perpetuating. We are poor because our people are lazy. I pass by a slum area every morning - dozens of adults do nothing but idle, gossip and drink. We do not save. Look at the Japanese and how they save in spite of the fact that the interest given them by their banks is so little. They work very hard too.
We are great show-offs. Look at our women, how overdressed, over-coiffed they are, and Imelda epitomizes that extravagance. Look at our men, their manicured nails, their personal jewelry, their diamond rings. Yabang - that is what we are, and all that money expended on status symbols, on yabang. How much better if it were channeled into production.
We are poor because our nationalism is inward looking. Under its guise we protect inefficient industries and monopolies.
And finally, we are poor because we have lost our ethical moorings. We condone cronyism and corruption and we don't ostracize or punish the crooks in our midst. Both cronyism and corruption are wasteful but we allow their practice because our loyalty is to family or friend, not to the larger good.
I am not looking for a foreign power for us to challenge. But we have a real and insidious enemy that we must vanquish, and this enemy is worse than the intransigence of any foreign power. WE ARE OUR OWN ENEMY. And we must have the courage, the will, to change ourselves.
I’m not a pessimist but while reading this article I’m beginning to ask the intention of the writer (I mean the real intention) I’m crossing my fingers that the intention of the article is to really elevate “may kababayan”, not to “sell” them considering the site is all about “DATING”
We need to consider how other nationalities look at us so that we can really understand the reason of writing about our women.
Please don’t get me wrong; we need to ask the right question in finding the right answer!
Here’s the article:
As a man married to a Filipina I have been asked many times if it is true that Filipino women make the best wives in the world. Don’t get me wrong now, I will not start bragging about my own wife nor I will dissuade you from dating a Filipina girl. I am just going to tackle some of the statements you hear or read about Filipino women so you can better distinguish the myths from the facts.
“Filipino women are very well educated” – FACT College education has always been of a great importance for the Filipinas. Pride in accomplishment at school is instilled in Filipinas since their early childhood and the statistics shows that female college enrollment even exceeds that of the male.
“Filipino women are religious.” – FACT Being the only Christian nation in the Far East (the Philippines is 83% Roman Catholic), it is common amongst Philippine families to raise their children in the church. Your perspective Filipina bride would most likely dream of a church wedding and it is likely that her family even forbid her to get married without one.
“All Filipinas are submissive and obedient.” – MYTH Generally Filipino women would never engage in a loud quarrel but their patient, non-confrontational and understanding nature should not be mistaken for submissive. All their life Filipinas have been taught to act like a real Lady – to be refined in both tastes and manners and always speak politely, with a gentle tone of voice. Arguing, along with public criticism, is just not acceptable and even if you are off your rocker your Filipina will not confront you just to save you from embarrassment.
“Filipina’s only purpose in life is to fulfill their husband’s wildest dreams and never lose his attention.” – MYTH As already mentioned, in reality most Filipinas have advanced degrees of education and professional lives. It could hardly be presumed that they live only to fulfill some man’s wild desires. And yet, nobody can deny the warmth, loyalty and faithfulness of Filipina wives. Since there is no divorce laws in the Philippines, Filipinas have always paid high regard for the sanctity of marriage and make every endeavour to preserve the love in their family.
“Money is always secondary to the stability of a loving marriage.” – FACT Living in a society that finds divorce unacceptable, Filipino women will always put the stability of their marriage first, before money and they will always be more willing to sacrifice career than a family.
“Filipina women don’t believe in divorce.” – MYTH Raised with high values of honesty and fidelity, Filipino women are very patient and willing to stand by their husbands during hard times. This is not unconditional, however, so don’t equalize the illegality of divorce in the Philippines with unwillingness of Filipinas to divorce if they could. A Filipino woman in an honest and loving relationship will never consider divorce as an option but if her husband abuses her verbally or physically she will resort to it if given the opportunity.
“Filipinas are excellent home keepers.” – FACT Filipino women are very focused on family needs and are exceptional mothers. Their home is a great source of pride for them and they do their best to create a warm and loving environment for their family. For the Filipina even yelling at home would mean de-facing her home so you will probably never find a Filipina woman screaming or breaking dishes.
“Filipina women prefer men who are many years their senior.” – FACT Filipinas are, at a minimum, tolerant of much older husbands. This fact is confirmed by the statistics – with 80% men older than their Filipina wives by at least a year, more than 40% are at least 10 years older and about 15% are more than 20 years older. What makes them desirable despite the significant age gap is that Filipinas perceive older men as more mature, less promiscuous, and financially stable.
“Filipinas seek Western men for marriage because there are twice as many females as males in the Philippines.” – MYTH The population difference is about 700,000 (age 15-65) in a country with a population of about 73,000,000 – that is a difference of less than 1% which proves that such a statement is just inconsistent. Filipino women seek Western men for a husband for many of the same reasons Western men want them for a wife – for a stable, loving and lasting relationship.
The writer Jonas P. is a retired American living in the Philippines. He and his Filipina wife have made a Filipino Dating site about Filipina women, their culture and the famous Filipina personality.
You can check the original article here: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonas_Patterson
So, what do you think about the article?
Btw, i'm 9 years older than my wife and we literally go to church every sunday. again i'm not a pessimist i'm just trying to ask the right question. Continue...
I cant help my self but to have hope every time I visited a blog or a site of a Filipino working or studying abroad but yet still proud of her country! Like “Cat’s Walks” who’s living and working in Switzerland.
How many Filipinos will say the same thing:
“I have embraced European culture without losing and being ashamed of my own …I will always be proud of being Filipino and I will always promote the Philippines and our culture. I hope that someday more Filipinos will do the same.”
I’m suppose to post this article next week but I can’t help my self but to post it now as my way of appreciation and gratitude to her for loving our country kahit nasa lugar sya ng mga banyaga!
What is so special about Beijing Olympic? What is so special about the Bird’s Nest? America has at least 7 stadiums that are as big as or bigger than the Bird’s Nest.
Like what they’re saying,
What makes Bird’s Nest so unique is not the size but its Chinese identity. It is not European, it is not American… It is Chinese! Bird’s Nest is a Chinese soup delicacy, which costs at least $30 a cup. It is created by a certain species of bird that creates a nest with its saliva. What is amazing is HOW FAR and HOW GRAND the Chinese can attach meaning to something as ordinary as soup. It’s like creating a stadium and then call it “Sapin-sapin” or “Burong Talangka.” But no brilliant Pinoy architect has ever risen to promote our indigenous culture and express it NOT with “barriotic-ness,” but with a jaw-dropping, state-of-the-art facility like the Bird’s Nest.
The names of our stadiums are bereft of meaning and creativity: ULTRA, AMORANTO, ARANETA… Our theatres, convention centers are also meaningless: CCP, MERALCO, METROPOLITAN, FOLK ARTS, PICC. There is one theatre named in Tagalog, Lisa Makuha’s ALIW theatre. But just the same, no national identity. Just cute names.
Singapore’s Esplanade whose design was taken from a popular fruit among the Singaporeans—with the best varieties in fact, being grown in the Philippines (Davao): the odorous Durian. In the Philippines, Durian is considered the king of the fruits (Arancillo and Native are the best! How about Durian coffee? I love the taste) But to Singapore, Durian is an icon of culture, progress, civilization. Same with Bird’s Nest, it is so symbolic of Chinese culture.
F. Sionil Jose was right: “We are poor because we are poor.” There is a greater poverty that inflicts us, and it is the poverty of the soul. Let’s not be surprised if the Oxford Greek Dictionary today defines the word “Filipina” as “domestic helper.” As Jose Rizal sharply pointed: “There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.” We cannot find the Dragon in us, because we think like slaves and therefore we are treated as one. Sikat tayo kapag halukikip tayo ng puti. Hindi tayo makatayo sa sarili nating mga paa—lagi na lang tayong nakasabit sa laylayan ng mga banyaga. We cannot have the will to empire because we are contented with dole-outs and free-loads. Mahirap makahanap ng dragon sa Pilipinas.Continue...
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