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Don’t we ever run out of scandals? Lately it has
been the fierce and fabulous author Malu Fernandez of People Asia
magazine. Allegedly she already resigned from her writing job due to
the numerous complaints against her article of June 2007 titled,
“From Boracay to Greece!” It is a travel piece recounting her
summer spent in the beautiful island of Boracay fighting off insects
and protecting her immaculate pedicure from the white sands and then
jetting off to Greece to see the goddesses but having to go through
ugly Filipinos en route.
What exactly did she write? She
said that to save on ticket going to Greece, she bravely took the
economy class via Emirates with a stopover in Dubai, only to
remember that the latter was the hub for OFWs. She “wanted to
slash her wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all
of them.” She was tormented in her sleep with “endless yelling
of “HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga saan ka? Domestic helper ka rin ba?
I thought I had died and God had sent me to my own private hell.”
On the return trip [of course she had to fly back somehow], she
“resigned [her]self 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.”
With these lines, Malu offended
our sensibilities, went against political correctness and doomed
herself to public condemnation.
Our sensibilities say that to
travel for leisure is a privilege and a luxury. Millions of our
countrymen brave foreign shores in search of the proverbial three
meals a day. Hence to vacation in Bora or, rather and, Greece in one
break is something we whisper a prayer for and count our blessings.
How can Malu be so ungrateful, we ask not out of envy?
Malu writes for the sosi crowd.
For outsiders, sosi means sosyal—a Filipinized word of
“social” referring to high society and the rich and/or famous.
It is obvious from her article that Malu is part of this class
(otherwise she will not be a credible source so essential in sosi
magazines). Well, she scrimped on her plane ticket to shop for more
accessories and her nose spotted the difference of AXE and Charlie,
scents of the masa (masses) and her exquisite Jo Malone. That is how
socialites are.
She flaunted political
correctness when she dared to be true to herself and called OFWs for
who they are: A noisy lot intruding into personal space sacred to
others in small places like economy seats. At least she is honest
with her thoughts. She could have injected the value of
empathy—understanding that it is beyond the OFWs themselves and
largely attributable to socio-economic factors like education and
professional attainment. She may perhaps have been trying to be cute
about it or simply reflected the elite mentality.
She is publicly condemned for
pointing out, albeit unintentionally, the stark truth that we are a
society of pretenders—of OFWs buying branded goods and perfumes
instead of saving up and matronas spending three hours at hair spas
and then going to their favorite charity balls, of migrants fighting
for survival and public servants swimming in pork barrel, of urban
professionals concerned with the next gimmick or new car or exotic
vacation and our national budget in perpetual deficit because of low
tax base and tax evasion, of mall goers hugging dogs and cats and
young children on the streets begging for alms. Damn, we sure
deserve what we see and don’t see. Don’t we just hate Malu and
hate ourselves the ugly Filipinos. How could we look away?
Malu, you are not alone, come
back and write. Let us hate the ugliness of the OFWs in us, enough
to do something about it.
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