A useful measure of one’s ‘nationalist’ fervour is the degree to which one can imagine a future in this country. To imagine one building a career, making investments in solid purchases – such as a house, giving birth and raising children in this locality. Imagining a future here, and making a living here, gives one a stake in wrestling the order of things to hew closer to what an imagined good life would be. To commit to the future of this country, one will logically take pains to question why the existing order is as it is – dysfunctional at best, mercenary at worst.
Recently a former student of mine asked for my counsel, having passed the initial phase of the Foreign Service Exam and offered a place to study in a uni in Australia. I asked him what he thought would make him happy. Either choice will land him overseas anyway. If he does make it to become part of the diplomatic corps, they will probably send him to a hardship post in the Middle East, after serving the requisite first four years in the country. I asked him if he would return to the Philippines after his studies in Melbourne. I didn’t get a definitive answer. I have countless friends now either working or studying overseas. Some are quite adamant about returning home eventually. Yet time tends to tick past without us noticing, and eventually will be deferred according to the exigencies of the present.
My friends and peers (as with countless relatives who have long uprooted), share something in common. They can no longer imagine a future in this spatiality. It is a given that they see a paucity in opportunities – economic, self-advancement, growth, security. They would come home every so often to visit – much as one would to parents after having flown the coop. They do so to catch up with old friends and pay homage to the Philippine sun and scenery. One friend, who must make a spectacular living as a pharmacist in Canada, is here very four, five months. To my mind, her homeland has become a Disneyland of sorts – a theme park to while time away for some rest and relaxation. Her Facebook account is full of photos of her travels – a one-woman walking tourist catalogue. Her adoration for her country of birth is without question. But as they say, one cannot live on love alone.
I once taught in a university in Intramuros. The student body, one might say, reflect the mind set of the Filipino Every Person. Many of my students have either one or both parents working overseas. My salary literally came from the blood and sweat of migrant labour. All they want, it seemed, was to earn a degree so they could up and leave. Of the tens of thousands churned out by our tertiary education mills, how many imagine a future here? How many bide their time so they can have a chance at realising a model life they imagine over the horizon? How many grapple with feelings of doom as everyone they know leave ahead of them?
Marocharim has expressed a need for narrative to fully describe the Filipino’s migrant experience. Whatever the motive word might be, it should be book-ended by two kinds of crisis – one of temporality and one of spatiality. All polities (i.e. political communities) share two things in common – an uninterrupted timeline to connect past, present and future – all to unfold in a single space. What we may be experiencing is a disintegration of both. Here the archipelago floats, bits and pieces eaten away by the Pacific.
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Your essay is so painfully honest that I ask myself why 20 years I decided to stay rather than take the route of my cousin, just 20 days my junior, to seek his fortunes abroad with his degree in Industrial Engineering from Diliman tucked under his belt.
Surveying our socio-economic and political landscape today I sometimes feel like kicking myself for not taking “the easy way out.”
But had I done so I think I would have practically waived my right to be critical of the passing scenes and try to continue making sense of things up close with all the inherent uncertainties that come with not being pro- GMA.
But UI I struggle each day to raise my kids and give them the fighting chance to be the best they can be, I have no regrets.
We’ll slug it out together rather than be comfortable but detached, nay indifferent (as a few sadly are), to our struggles as a people.
Each to his choices. I’ve made mine and by God’s grace, we’ll make.
To those who are part of the Filipino diaspora they are the continuing pride of our race and fully deserve the good life they also enjoy.
Home, after all, is where the heart is.
‘It is a given that they see a paucity in opportunities – economic, self-advancement, growth, security.’
I say different classes migrate for different reasons. The OFWs leave mainly for economic ends, but consider those who are already well-to-do here in the Philippines?
Wouldn’t you say, the upper A and B classes leave for want of a better place to live: physical environment, real rule-of-law regime, more opportunities for their offspring, etc. Can’t blame them.
When people wanted to go to America, people said it was part of colonial mentality. This time, the ‘travel bug’ has itched most Filipinos. :)
The really well-off have no reason to leave. Sure they’ll purchase properties overseas, but will not stay for good. You might say they have the travel bug. All others do migrate for economic reasons.
While the bulk of those seeking permanent residence go to North America, almost half of OFWs go to the Middle East.
Sparks,
I don’t know about that. I have many friends here who are very well off in the motherland, yet migrated because they just don’t see themselves raising their children in the Philippine environment. Some also just can’t deal with society’s worst habits (too many to list), the socio/political issues, etc. Some are just inherently more comfortable in a place with discipline, cleanliness, and a value for human life. Are they less nationalistic? I don’t know, they love their country, it’s the people who’s made a mess of it who pushed them out.
Maybe one of the reasons for such ‘travel bug’ is the dark clouds looming over the not far horizon which gives people a climate of fear of what might happen considering the political uncertainties we are facing right now.
There is so much potential for chaos if various speculations of what this current administration is up to holds true.
While people may consider the political atmosphere, I don’t believe this influences the decision to leave greatly. People leave to make good money. Otherwise they wouldn’t be choose to go to places like Iraq or Pakistan!
Leaving is like dying…it is the occasion for grieving and regret. There is no stemming a tide that has been outgoing for generations…Yet…what would bring those millions back if not success. Think what good would result from a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand Fil-Am emigres like your Canada-based friend spending four to five months a year in Disney Philippnes!
We must just make sure that those we send abroad represent us well by being stunning individual successes, one way or another, whatever their occupation, from toilet bowl cleaner to to SitCom Doctor-actor.
That way, they will come back, perhaps to some unknown, dirt poor barangay on some god forsaken island in this archipelago, and put a factory or a mall in the middle of their old home town!
The OFWs aren’t going anywhere off-planet you know. There is only one economy in the world and I am glad we are already in every corner of it with that highly mobile work force.
They are the key to our survival in the ongoing Global Bust.
What irks me, Dean, is this stop-gap measure has been going on for over three decades. Labour export has prevented the past administrations to make hard choices about where this country’s developmental trajectory is going.
Our manufacturing and agricultural sectors are being hollowed out. Do we completely let go of them and just focus on exporting people and attracting BPOs? Is this a sound way to reach ‘First World’ status?
i’d like to challenge your comment here. how do we know that labor export has distracted the (or any) administration from coming up with a domestic development plan for 30 years?
The manufacturing sector has been shrinking. There’s no ‘national industrial plan’ to begin with. Agriculture – that’s a given. We can’t even legislate a rational agrarian reform strategy.
its plain to see that manuf shrinking. its shrinking in many places.
but what i wonder is whether there is :
a) an explicit labor export policy
b) whether such a policy is a ‘distraction’
i think that there is no such policy (labor export). the govt hesitates to formulate one; i’ve no idea why!
as there is no export policy, it may not be a distraction.
Gabby, I consider the existence of the huge bureaucracies the POEA and the OWWA as evidence of an explicit labor export policy. There are labor attaches in embassies. There are pronouncements of the Prez herself. Exporting labor is national policy.
Two thoughts:
Wherever you go there you are.
Hot glass looks the same as cold glass.
—
And a third :
Someday is not a day of the week.
You cannot blame us immigrant and OFW’s, there in no real future in the philippines. Even if you are a director in a company in the philippines you cannot be sure what is ahead of you. you can earn 2 yrs of your hard work in just one month abroad. the bottom line is “secure your families future”.
Even though my family is here i still send money to pinas and Gloria is calling us BAGONG BAYANI because of the money. every year billions of dollar of remittances going to pinas but where is that money going?
“Corruption” from head to toe of our government.
Allan
UK & Dubai
where else do you think the money is going but to the people you remit it to? i bet neither you nor them pay any taxes on those remittances. am i right? i know a lot who don’t.
ben, did you know that there is a certain amount of charges including tax if you send money to the banks in the phils and then they charge again for tax if you received the money to your account. the higher the amount the higher the tax.
allan, that may be true for those who get overseas employment through dole. how about workers and professionals who work on their own and who probably make a lot more money than ofw’s? i bet, they also send a lot, if not the bulk, of money to their relatives in pinas but pay little or no taxes on them.
IGNORAMUS…. research before you speak (or write for that matter). We are being taxed for every penny we send thru the banks. Sometimes more than a peso for every dollar. And it doesn’t matter whether you are an OFW from DOLE or not (whats DOLE got to do with being an OFW anyway?? They didnt even lift a finger to help OFW’s get to where they are). The billions upon billions of dollars the OFW’s send is what keeps the Philippine economy afloat. So don’t..DON’t ever, ever give us that kind of brush-off… ever again.
great blog sparky
Migrants are hesitant to go back because most of them are not financially stable to quit their jobs and go home. Majority have bills to pay. The professional migrants like me may have an establish friendships, relationships and may find it difficult to re-adjust( lifestyle check). Many have families and children that are in school. Majority have no choice. The positive side is that the Philippines becomes their WISH. Isn’t it nice to hear that many “WISH” to see a corrupt country? Not bad at all.. :) there’s something about Philippines.
and what exactly do you mean by “corrupt country”? can you name, with certainty, one place in the world where there is no corruption?
bencard, sure we have corruption in america but did it create poverty and affect the people’s way of life? Many countries in the world can be corrupt but each has its own way of governing and fighting corruption. The Philippines is the most corrupt. That’s a fact. There’s a big difference of governing , managing and implementing guidelines between countries. Sadly to say, the Philippines is out of that league.
But the beauty is, the Philippines is a WISH :) my wish. what about you?
In addition:
Susmaryosep Bencard!
The meltdown of the American financial system is a result of corruption on a scale unimagined before. Now just like anywhere it is taxpayer that will bail the corrupt out!
Now Leyetenian please note that
The meltdown of the financial system has resulted in poverty in America.
blackshama,
“the meltdown of the financial system has caused poverty in america” how much poverty and who did the corruption are two factors that is different from Philippines. What we have in Philippines are poverty from the beginning with no end. Corruption are mostly done by almost everybody. When caught like Jocjoc, no one goes to jail. o sige puede na rin.. :)
so what has that got to do with the price of danggit in tacloban, huh. answer my question. which country has no corruption?
i suppose many countries. i don’t think many can boast a 30 percent cut though. and certainly not a first spouse who does it exceedingly well.
bert, are you saying the “FV collectives” are grandstanding politicians or “pekeng peryodistas”?
ben, almost all countries in the world have corruption. the thing is phils is in the top 10 of most corrupt country in the world. and did you know that here in UK pinoys are categorized as “magnanakaw” because of Gloria’s administration.
sparks and allan, thanks to pinoys themselves. they love “boasting” to the whole world how corrupt their government and society are. where do you think these foreigners get the idea, huh? obviously, from grandstanding politicians with axes to grind and what renato pacifico calls “pekeng peryodistas”, i think.
it seems pinoys, generally, like to pollute the water they drink from.
“pekeng peryodista?” bencard? isn’t fv an opinion forum, and therefore it is up to the readers to buy or not the opinions peddled before them? so what makes a fake opinion writer, if opinions are just that–opinions?
and you believe renato is not an alter-handle? hmm, reminds me of a fake opinion reactor not too long ago.
atty ben, that’s a stupid question coming from a lawyer. :)
trulaw, don’t take Manoy Bercard’s words too seriously. He believes the World Bank report was written by the FV collectives, heheh
bert, just in case you missed it, are you saying the “FV collectives” are either grandstanding politicians or “pekeng peryodistas”?
Too much of reductionist logic, it is so nauseating.
care to explain?
Many Filipinos will agree :roll: with you, karlpopper!!!
leytenian and others are again pushing Reductionist science that began with Newtonian mechanics, the sixteenth and seventeenth century Scientific Revolution or ‘Enlightenment…’ initiated by Descartes who brought about a ‘paradigm shift’ :idea: in thinking about the universe… away from the Islamo-Kristiano worldview of One-God-the-god-of-Abraham as creator-of-all and cause-of-all-things, to be replaced by the ‘scientific’ philosophy of Descartes based on the assumption of disconnectedness :twisted: between the material and spiritual realms of human existence. It was even thought by these :cool: reductionists that the human mind is separate from nature and was therefore in a position to control it. Descartes’ emphasis on the cause/effect relationships of the material world as the defining feature of this scientific worldview or ‘paradigm’. Natural events were thought to be governed by observable natural laws (a thought you hear often from the atheist DJB and reductionist people like him, or from leytenian with her view that graft and corruption is man-made. What is the hocus-pocus she does not say as she proposes governing , managing and implementing guidelines between countries. Does she acknowledge the special Hand at work in Pinas which is the only Christian nation in Asia?.
This reductionist logic is not only nauseating :evil:, it is to be fought on all fronts, and the dutiful parent should accept those :shock: oblique policies from the University Santo Tomas as a small price to pay :neutral: to sustain this Royal and Pontifical University as an alternative to that atheistic University Philippines Diliman :oops: and the Asian Institute of Management’s proselytizing for money, jobs and ISO-certification.
One can relate, I guess, to Ding’s post above and his decisions many years ago not to try to join the others who have become US citizens (many not choosing to return while some of them returning to Pinas). He who has have made his own bed :cool: can be comfortable with the Erap message — weather weather lang — or the more popular saying that the sun always rises from the east. :roll:
mike, why is it evil? can you give 1 example, where u spell it out?
Hesu Kristo, pati mga novels reductionist eh. Kung hindi reductionism, ano nalang?
Mike H. As far as modern rational thinking is concerned 99% is reductionism.
i don’t even know what reductionist logic is! :) what is the opposite of reductionist logic? non-reductionist? paano yun?
It’s holistic, I think, from Aristotle’s sum is greater than all of the parts. Out-moded phrase really, kind of like the phrase “edge of the world.” Reductionism, as someone mentioned, is a descartian formulation. If you study molecules, you’re a reductionist. If you apply the value of Pi, same thing, reductionist. You study a little part of the whole to find principles that will hold true on the whole. Just wikipedia it, I guess.
Mike H is probably a Christian. :)
Just to add one more thing. Calling the entireity of science as reductionist is like calling the Chinese chinks. Of course, there are some new “revolutionary” paradigms that seeks to understand the world outside the reductionist POV. Like I said, just wikipedia the bitch.
hahaha, whatever Mike H..
and what do you mean that many filipinos will agree with karlpopper? he cannot even defend his other article on UST’s reservation fee :) LOL
It’s nauseating indeed when one allows himself to get nauseated. It is also evil when one’s state of mind is maliciously evil.
and you are correct that graft and corruption are man made :)
I don’t think its proper to use the philosophy of the natural sciences to describe social phenomena. This post is hardly a scientific treatise. Gosh you people. When I write like an academic I get pilloried. When I don’t I get pilloried. Blech.
We should not view Filipinos who went and settled abroad as unpatriotic. They remit OFW money to their love ones, which fuel the
economy. People will always find ways to better their lives. If there
are no opportunities in your own country. And there are good opportunities abroad. People will migrate where there are better
opportunities.
The political situation is also the reason. No matter what we do,
people are frustrated that boneheads and crocodile politicians are
always elected, by hook or by crook. People cannot find a good
future for themselves and their children. We are losing the best
and the brightest of our generation. This is the sad situation.
We must go to the root of the problem – Filipinos are not a patriotic people. A China-like cultural revolution is needed to make the change. I have attempted to explain why Filipinos lack patriotism in my blog: “Why Filipinos are not a patriotic people.”
macapili,
nice blog you have there on ” Why filipinos are not a patriotic people” but i may have to disagree with you. Patriotism is tied to economic stability and democracy. Let’s imagine and pretend that there are opportunities and available employment created by the ACTORS and ACTRESSES in Malacanang for Mang Juan and Aling Klara, i can guarantee you both “Mang and aling” will be patriotic. Deprive them from livelihood to survive, I am sure they will not understand patriotism. When the brain lacks the nutrients, it cannot think right. It becomes an irritable brain in a normal day. It will accept 1000 pesos in every election. The weakness of these people become the strength of the powerful corrupts. Almost all presidents elected and probably majority of the actors and actresses were not truly elected by their skills and talents but from their personal dramas and agendas. These personalities should be our role model for patriotism and yet they have failed to fulfill their legal duties. If we have to apply the rule of law, these personalities can be guilty of Negligence. When the people continue to eat danggit, galunggong and tuyo almost everyday, that can be a sign of neglect. When people are leaving out of the country, that could mean that they cannot tolerate neglect. Kulang sa pansin ang mga pinoy. We need leaders who can understand our wants and needs. We need leaders that understand who we are and our capabilities. We are all neglected in economic sense. what is then the requirement to become patriotic?
But I am ready to go home and visit my beloved corrupt country. I’m sure I will have fun doing other things. :)LOL
Again, why bother with this. Nothing new here. Just old cliche stuffed sprinkled with academic jargon. Very pauce talaga trabaho dito. Kaya punta na tayo sa ibang Spat.
I love you Brian. You and I, we should meet :-)
selos naman ako niyan.
Marocharim has expressed a need for narrative to fully describe the Filipino’s migrant experience. Whatever the motive word might be, it should be book-ended by two kinds of crisis – one of temporality and one of spatiality. All polities (i.e. political communities) share two things in common – an uninterrupted timeline to connect past, present and future – all to unfold in a single space. What we may be experiencing is a disintegration of both. Here the archipelago floats, bits and pieces eaten away by the Pacific. – Sparks
If you haven’t noticed it yet, the nice thing about our dialogue is that we (well, at least those on the connected and informed sides of the digital and literacy divides) are seemed poised to resist, or maybe reverse, the flow of power and take our country back even as to those who are not there or couldn’t be there .
And aren’t we able to yell back (literally without even trying) and tell what the Empress, the taipans and the trapos are wearing or not wearing where and when before we were largely on the receiving end from the ubiquitous media (as well as the “pekeng periodista”) which have spaced out or distanced our people from politics. Isn’t that a great leap for a (borderless) democracy?
One serious challenge though: technologically enabled, we may have more democracy at present, but how could we in the future prevent certain particles of it from turning into complete nuisance or the whole project into a mob rule that alarmed the wise of the past?
I am looking at the diaspora as a possible source of resistance Manong Abe. Nick here, is an excellent example. Yes?
Now on more concrete things, I think the Overseas Voting Act was designed precisely to make it difficult for overseas Filipinos to vote. Before casting the ballot, they have to signify definitively that they would return to the Philippines! Now if that isn’t cheating the spirit of the law, I don’t know what is :-(
The temporal and spatial aspects of nationhood – may be changing as we speak, yes. The technological fixes may be shaping social forces, yes.
I think those Filipinos who said they would donate money to Gov. Panlilio for example – that is unprecedented. Again, a first. Could be a sign of things to come.
So Abe : this is just a rhetorical question (and this can also be answerd by Bencard, for equal opportunity equality) why do you think some Fil-ams like DJB return to Pinas, and many don’t?
Do you think that Fil-am’s even include “GMA’s graft/corruption” in their top 15 reasons when they think of returning to Pinas (unless they are aiming for a government consultancy)? I don’t think so that much, but that is just my personal opinion.
For me, the top 10 considerations for a FilAm thinking of where to retire will include “where my children are”, “having a maid in the house”, “personal safety against kotong-cops and house break-in’s”, clean air/clean water, “loneliness in my old-age” and “ayaw ko na ng lamig!!!”. Also “fish in small pond”-versus-”fish-in-big-pond”.
UP n,
You seem to be missing my counterpoint to Sparks, i.e., that the configuration of social relationship we call (or personify) as the Philippines is not necessarily spatial or temporal.
For example, Filipinos all over the world are celebrating their Filipinoness not because they are from Luzon, Visaya, and Mindanao but sometimes simply because they just love Manny Pacquioa.
Mike,
What makes leytenian feel jealous is beyond me. Fact is, I don’t know where she is coming from to state, however unsubstantiatedly, that I failed to defend my earlier article.
Well, as many can agree with us, it can only take a single soul – in this participatory culture – to debunk our view, to dismiss it as whatever labels they wish to attach to it, say evil if evil.
But that is their problem not mine. It is a favor not a disservice.
They can always blog – on and on – topics close to their minds or hearts but to agree is something else.
Leytenian wrongly accused me of associating herself with reyna elena? Oh the power of words!? Some even have to ask for a definition of reductionist logic? And when one already provided ample one, still the question begs to be asked. What is this?
huh? hahahaha. why would I be jealous? we don’t make money blogging here. what is there to be jealous about? It was a figure of speech. and you took it personally? oh my goodness.
ahh with the “accuse thing” i just want to clarify myself that my view is way different than reyna elena. you sounded like my view on “credentials” is the same view as “he/she”. you got it wrong.
Is karambola a sports or a betting game?
Before even asks what I could have meant by that, well isn’t it sometimes helpful to read between the lines?
before “one”
I hope that your friend does decide to return if his or her scholarship in Australia will be paid for by the Philippine Government and the Filipino taxpayer. It’s his or her right to leave the country for higher education and then to migrate. But do it honestly. If you go out as a government scholar, then for God’s sake, serve your country properly before you quit!