Hope springs infernal October 19, 2006
COMING home from the United States a couple of weeks ago, I got to talking on the plane with a flight attendant who said he was lucky his job allowed him to go to San Francisco periodically. His wife lived there now, working as a registered nurse in one of the hospitals and was doing quite well. He and the kids were still in the Philippines, but they too would probably be migrating to the United States soon. His youngest kid, who was finishing high school here, would probably do college in America.
He himself wasn't doing so badly here but what could he do? The long-distance marriage was taking its toll on family. Someone had to give in, and it wasn't likely going to be his wife. It wasn't just that she earned better and had a more secure job, it was that she opened doors to new vistas. She represented the future, especially for the kids. Herepresented only the past. Or a present that was going nowhere.
I know somebody else who was, or is, in the same boat. More than my flight attendant-friend, he was in even better shape here, having become by dint of pluck and hard work a well-known reporter for one of the biggest networks in the country. He married a few years ago, and his wife also managed to land a well-paying job as a nurse in the US West Coast. She left for it last year. The new marriage hanging in the balance, the guy decided after much hand wringing to follow her and plunge into the unknown. The unknown has proven less than rewarding, and he has been known to communicate his frustration and loneliness to friends here during his dark nights of the soul.
Before I left the United States a couple of weeks ago, some of my friends who now lived and worked there asked me to tell them honestly what I thought of Filipinos like them who did so. As far as they knew, they said, one congressman had called them traitors. I replied that completely honestly I was of two minds about it.
On one hand, I could understand the pull that America in particular exerted on Filipinos and the push that sent them there. Both were exceedingly powerful forces, the push alone in recent years becoming even more powerful than the pull. The utter wretchedness of the country and the blanket impoverishment of the soul as much as -- if not more so (we're becoming a nation of cheats and murderers, if we haven't done so already) -- of the body, were truly driving people away.
Quite apart from that, I said, I was impressed by the extent to which Filipinos abroad like my friends had their hearts still set on trying to help improve the land of their birth. At least they were still concerned with its concerns. That was more than could be said for many Filipinos in the Philippines, especially these days. Of course, I said, I wasn't impressed by the attitude of those who figured they should be listened to because they knew better as they were coming from a "superior position." I had met those types, too, and they had always reminded me of Oscar Wilde's brilliant aphorism that a little learning is a dangerous thing. And of course, I added, I didn't know if the Filipinos abroad who were still deeply concerned about the future of the Philippines were the teeming majority or merely the vocal minority.
On the other hand, I said, I was also deeply fazed by the depth and breadth of the exodus of Filipinos abroad. At the very least that was so because even people I never imagined would dream of leaving are not just dreaming so but are doing so, even as we speak. The two cases above are just an infinitesimal fraction of it. I know more, a lot more. With thekillings in particular raging around us, can you blame some of them? Prudence is the better part of valor, escape is the better part of standing your ground.
But more than this, I am fazed by the impact the idea of being able to migrate abroad is having on the country. That is the far greater worry, more than the sheer number, alarming enough as it is, of Filipinos actually migrating abroad.
I can believe the Pulse Asia survey that says a third of the population now wants to leave the country, as compared to 19 percent two or three years ago. I personally think it's more, if it's just a question of wanting to leave quite apart from having the ability to leave. Most Filipinos would think nothing of living abroad, especially in the United States, if only they could, or if the US Embassy would only give them visas. Most others would think nothing of becoming overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), if only they could land contracts abroad, or if they had anything left to sell to be able to apply for it.
But the possibility, or hope, or dream of being able to live and/or work abroad is there, and whether that is an impossible dream or not, it is serving precisely the same function the song, "The Impossible Dream," did for us many years ago on the road to Edsa People Power. It goads us, flails at us, even inspires us, such as clinging to a vague, amorphous or a fleeting dream can do. More than reality, being able to leave for abroad is a possibility; more than a possibility, it is a hope; more than a hope, it is a dream. And possibilities, hopes and dreams lodge deeper in the mind than anything the here and now can offer. Often, they blot out the here and now completely.
Which is the real danger. I half-suspect the so-called indifference of the Filipino today owes to this as much as to the absence of a "good" to posit against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government's "evil." The possibility, hope, or dream of being able to live and work abroad was never this bad during Ferdinand Marcos' time. Certainly, it wasn't this all-consuming. Today, people seem willing to tolerate cheating, lying and stealing -- andkilling to boot -- because they can always leave the country. Or at least die trying. Or at least live deluding. Hope springs eternal.
Hope springs infernal.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=27459
He himself wasn't doing so badly here but what could he do? The long-distance marriage was taking its toll on family. Someone had to give in, and it wasn't likely going to be his wife. It wasn't just that she earned better and had a more secure job, it was that she opened doors to new vistas. She represented the future, especially for the kids. Herepresented only the past. Or a present that was going nowhere.
I know somebody else who was, or is, in the same boat. More than my flight attendant-friend, he was in even better shape here, having become by dint of pluck and hard work a well-known reporter for one of the biggest networks in the country. He married a few years ago, and his wife also managed to land a well-paying job as a nurse in the US West Coast. She left for it last year. The new marriage hanging in the balance, the guy decided after much hand wringing to follow her and plunge into the unknown. The unknown has proven less than rewarding, and he has been known to communicate his frustration and loneliness to friends here during his dark nights of the soul.
Before I left the United States a couple of weeks ago, some of my friends who now lived and worked there asked me to tell them honestly what I thought of Filipinos like them who did so. As far as they knew, they said, one congressman had called them traitors. I replied that completely honestly I was of two minds about it.
On one hand, I could understand the pull that America in particular exerted on Filipinos and the push that sent them there. Both were exceedingly powerful forces, the push alone in recent years becoming even more powerful than the pull. The utter wretchedness of the country and the blanket impoverishment of the soul as much as -- if not more so (we're becoming a nation of cheats and murderers, if we haven't done so already) -- of the body, were truly driving people away.
Quite apart from that, I said, I was impressed by the extent to which Filipinos abroad like my friends had their hearts still set on trying to help improve the land of their birth. At least they were still concerned with its concerns. That was more than could be said for many Filipinos in the Philippines, especially these days. Of course, I said, I wasn't impressed by the attitude of those who figured they should be listened to because they knew better as they were coming from a "superior position." I had met those types, too, and they had always reminded me of Oscar Wilde's brilliant aphorism that a little learning is a dangerous thing. And of course, I added, I didn't know if the Filipinos abroad who were still deeply concerned about the future of the Philippines were the teeming majority or merely the vocal minority.
On the other hand, I said, I was also deeply fazed by the depth and breadth of the exodus of Filipinos abroad. At the very least that was so because even people I never imagined would dream of leaving are not just dreaming so but are doing so, even as we speak. The two cases above are just an infinitesimal fraction of it. I know more, a lot more. With thekillings in particular raging around us, can you blame some of them? Prudence is the better part of valor, escape is the better part of standing your ground.
But more than this, I am fazed by the impact the idea of being able to migrate abroad is having on the country. That is the far greater worry, more than the sheer number, alarming enough as it is, of Filipinos actually migrating abroad.
I can believe the Pulse Asia survey that says a third of the population now wants to leave the country, as compared to 19 percent two or three years ago. I personally think it's more, if it's just a question of wanting to leave quite apart from having the ability to leave. Most Filipinos would think nothing of living abroad, especially in the United States, if only they could, or if the US Embassy would only give them visas. Most others would think nothing of becoming overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), if only they could land contracts abroad, or if they had anything left to sell to be able to apply for it.
But the possibility, or hope, or dream of being able to live and/or work abroad is there, and whether that is an impossible dream or not, it is serving precisely the same function the song, "The Impossible Dream," did for us many years ago on the road to Edsa People Power. It goads us, flails at us, even inspires us, such as clinging to a vague, amorphous or a fleeting dream can do. More than reality, being able to leave for abroad is a possibility; more than a possibility, it is a hope; more than a hope, it is a dream. And possibilities, hopes and dreams lodge deeper in the mind than anything the here and now can offer. Often, they blot out the here and now completely.
Which is the real danger. I half-suspect the so-called indifference of the Filipino today owes to this as much as to the absence of a "good" to posit against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo government's "evil." The possibility, hope, or dream of being able to live and work abroad was never this bad during Ferdinand Marcos' time. Certainly, it wasn't this all-consuming. Today, people seem willing to tolerate cheating, lying and stealing -- andkilling to boot -- because they can always leave the country. Or at least die trying. Or at least live deluding. Hope springs eternal.
Hope springs infernal.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=27459
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home