Speaking as a Filipino: Ouch!
If I am an OFW: Really Ouch!
If I am an OFW in Dubai: Major Ouch!
Half a year may have passed since this topic have graced many a Filipino's blog, but I am still compelled to write my thoughts on what she wrote...especially the words that made her the Filipinos' most hated woman of 2007.
However I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them. Of course, everyone in economy class was yelled at for having overweight hand-carries.
-----
...so I heaved a sigh, popped my sleeping pills and dozed off to the sounds of gum chewing and endless yelling of "HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga saan ka? Domestic helper ka rin ba?" Translation: "Hey there? Where are you from? Are you a domestic helper as well?" I thought I had died and God had sent me to my very own private hell.
-----
On my way back, I had to bravely take the economy flight once more. This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.
To tell the truth, I find her trend of thought disturbing, and if this is indicative of how her crowd thinks, then it is appalling.
The article definitely looks down on OFWs. No doubt about it.
To be fair, overweight hand-carried bags and loud chattering in planes are cliches associated with OFWs. Some have even successfully made endearing jokes of these observations in e-mails that make their way around the globe as chain letters. If Fernandez was attempting to make joke, then she failed by declaring she wanted to slit her wrists because she was trapped with the OFWs doing activities that she associates with being sent by God to her very own private hell.
I couldn't say much on the overweight hand-carried bags. I could however point out that talking loudly on a plane is not a behavior peculiar to OFWs, or Filipinos in general. When I was flying to Hong Kong last November, the noisy people on board were Chinese; years ago, the noisy people onboard my plane trip to Boracay were Korean. This behavior comes out when people are in a pack. You get too many of any type or race of people in one place, and you will inevitably hear the yapping - unless there are rules for staying silent in that area.
Now, pondering what makes it a private hell for her would be interesting. Is it merely the noise? Or, given the number of negative observations, most probably the fact that they are made by OFWs? To feel like you're in hell when surrounded by OFWs shows uneasiness, and an itching need NOT to be associated with them. A probable fear that by looking so much like the less privileged people around her, she'll be mistaken as one of them. She is not comfortable with this image of the Filipino, and consequently not 100% comfortable with being Filipino.
Fernandez was just being true to herself. Sadly, though, her self image is confined to being the socialite, and preferably the socialite akin to those found in developed countries. It is an image that has distanced and wishes to disassociate itself from the Filipino struggling to make a living.
What is sadder is that Fernandez is just one of many people who think this way. I have met her kind in the exclusive girls' school I studied in, at the university I attended, and in the workplace. Youd'd probably meet her kind in any place in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment