Desperate Politicians
Vip ( wingspread) has been very vocal (against the online petition made by a certain Fil-Am Medical organization and their comments after signing). I side with him in saying how Filipinos were so hypocritical feeling offended by what Teri Hatcher's character, Susan, in Desperate Housewives said. In one of it's latest episodes, Susan was very skeptical over her gynecologist's hypothesis that she might be hitting menopause. This led her to question the doctor's educational background - if he has graduated from a med school in the Philippines. Her dialogue was "OK, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Because I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines "
I do not want to discuss here what I think about the dialogue nor what I feel about those who feel disgusted over it. I had commented on blogs and said what I felt. This itself can make me write a ten-pager single spaced to-be-passed the next day article. I'm neither kidding nor bragging in that last sentence (in reality I doubt I would want to write that long paper considering I have a very short attention span). But anyway, my point is, this type of holding up the media, which I believe would again happen when the video Cris crisgee posted on his blog (which the former President's Senator son calls distasteful)goes around and is seen by many, can open up different facets of life. Political, economical, social, whatevel "-al" you wanna say can be tapped to be a starting point for discussion (and I bet you will say "sensual" and yes, even that can be touched (no pun intended)).
Okay. Forgive me for a while because I think I want to say something related to the previous sentence. You can go back and start talking about historical views like the Spanish mestizos calling us Indios, comfort women during the Japanese invasion, Bernal's Minsan May Isang Gamu-Gamo where Nora Aunor uttered in increasing tension the lines "My brother is not a pig!" when a group of American rangers shot his brother thinking that he's a boar (Nora's character there was coincidentally, a nurse wanting to go to America, how very ironic), or start with something recent like the nursing board leakage. But the reality is, we are going to end up asking two questions: 1) is this really against freedom of speech or to phrase it directly, are TV shows entitled to cross beyond dangerous lines (figuratively and literally)? and the second one - which is the more relevant 2) what's the background to all of this? Answering #2 is easy but hard. Easy in the sense that we can all right away attribute this to the recent leakage which has tarnished the image of the millions if not hundreds of thousands of migrant Filipino medical workers not only in the States but around the world because this has affected the way most foreign countries think about Filipinos in the field of medicine. Questions such as "Does this Pinay know what she's really doing?", "Does she really know what's that liquid inside the syringe she's injecting to me?" up to the point of "Did he really passed the board?" will come up to patients' minds. Anyone who has heard about the leakage incident (who hasn't anyway?), even Filipinos, might have questioned or at least joked about the integrity or capability of nurses. But did we prosecute those who asked? Those being Filipinos? No we did not.
This leads to the more theoretical and most likely the better way of putting it. Those who felt offended were 1) having a false sense ownership of this country and 2) starting to put a double standard based on the structure.
By #1, I mean that these petitioners easily took the line seriously when in fact there is no point for taking that as fact. It is not a news nor an opinionated article. It is a fictional product. Yes, the Philippines might not be fictional but we were not born yesterday to say that globalization is not around the corner. We are breaking walls here, we are closing every inch of gap and this means that we are giving the rights to anyone to use anything related to us on their craft. Rights might not be the correct term but there is no total control or possession of the word Philippines. Other countries have long before used other countries as fictional items - say, James Bond films who goes against the KGBs based in Russia. Had we lived through the dark ages, that line uttered by Susan might already mean war.
2) The Philippines being a structure is using its status to go against and question the superstructure. Does that mean that when we make fun or subtly accusing the superstructure -- like showing a film about a Filipina being hurt by her employees in Saudi or an MMK episode about a Pinoy teen badly treated by neighbor kids in downtown LA -- it is already permissible? That the US should not make an online petition and ask Mother Lily or Star Cinema not to show this anymore? To tell ABS-CBN not to show MMK anymore? No they wouldn't and you being a mature and fair audience should know why.
******
Anyway, the real meat of this entry is actually these crazy politicians, which I would say looks so desperately needing education, who wants to ban the show from being aired in the country. I am not a fan but this is certainly martial-law-ish. Watch the video below.
Can I also check their diplomas?
I do not want to discuss here what I think about the dialogue nor what I feel about those who feel disgusted over it. I had commented on blogs and said what I felt. This itself can make me write a ten-pager single spaced to-be-passed the next day article. I'm neither kidding nor bragging in that last sentence (in reality I doubt I would want to write that long paper considering I have a very short attention span). But anyway, my point is, this type of holding up the media, which I believe would again happen when the video Cris crisgee posted on his blog (which the former President's Senator son calls distasteful)goes around and is seen by many, can open up different facets of life. Political, economical, social, whatevel "-al" you wanna say can be tapped to be a starting point for discussion (and I bet you will say "sensual" and yes, even that can be touched (no pun intended)).
Okay. Forgive me for a while because I think I want to say something related to the previous sentence. You can go back and start talking about historical views like the Spanish mestizos calling us Indios, comfort women during the Japanese invasion, Bernal's Minsan May Isang Gamu-Gamo where Nora Aunor uttered in increasing tension the lines "My brother is not a pig!" when a group of American rangers shot his brother thinking that he's a boar (Nora's character there was coincidentally, a nurse wanting to go to America, how very ironic), or start with something recent like the nursing board leakage. But the reality is, we are going to end up asking two questions: 1) is this really against freedom of speech or to phrase it directly, are TV shows entitled to cross beyond dangerous lines (figuratively and literally)? and the second one - which is the more relevant 2) what's the background to all of this? Answering #2 is easy but hard. Easy in the sense that we can all right away attribute this to the recent leakage which has tarnished the image of the millions if not hundreds of thousands of migrant Filipino medical workers not only in the States but around the world because this has affected the way most foreign countries think about Filipinos in the field of medicine. Questions such as "Does this Pinay know what she's really doing?", "Does she really know what's that liquid inside the syringe she's injecting to me?" up to the point of "Did he really passed the board?" will come up to patients' minds. Anyone who has heard about the leakage incident (who hasn't anyway?), even Filipinos, might have questioned or at least joked about the integrity or capability of nurses. But did we prosecute those who asked? Those being Filipinos? No we did not.
This leads to the more theoretical and most likely the better way of putting it. Those who felt offended were 1) having a false sense ownership of this country and 2) starting to put a double standard based on the structure.
By #1, I mean that these petitioners easily took the line seriously when in fact there is no point for taking that as fact. It is not a news nor an opinionated article. It is a fictional product. Yes, the Philippines might not be fictional but we were not born yesterday to say that globalization is not around the corner. We are breaking walls here, we are closing every inch of gap and this means that we are giving the rights to anyone to use anything related to us on their craft. Rights might not be the correct term but there is no total control or possession of the word Philippines. Other countries have long before used other countries as fictional items - say, James Bond films who goes against the KGBs based in Russia. Had we lived through the dark ages, that line uttered by Susan might already mean war.
2) The Philippines being a structure is using its status to go against and question the superstructure. Does that mean that when we make fun or subtly accusing the superstructure -- like showing a film about a Filipina being hurt by her employees in Saudi or an MMK episode about a Pinoy teen badly treated by neighbor kids in downtown LA -- it is already permissible? That the US should not make an online petition and ask Mother Lily or Star Cinema not to show this anymore? To tell ABS-CBN not to show MMK anymore? No they wouldn't and you being a mature and fair audience should know why.
******
Anyway, the real meat of this entry is actually these crazy politicians, which I would say looks so desperately needing education, who wants to ban the show from being aired in the country. I am not a fan but this is certainly martial-law-ish. Watch the video below.
Can I also check their diplomas?