Shot in the arm

FILIPINOS of today are unimaginable. There are a lot of behavior, characteristics and attitudes which are inherent or merely ingenuous. A number of our people try to keep up with the Joneses that their dressing, actions and manners do not conform to that of the rich and the famous. They talk about their belongings and show off that these bags, clothes or shoes which they claim, are signature or branded .Oh yes, you find a lot of these if you have the time and the patience to go over the “ukay-ukay”. But if you really want the real signature and branded goods you find them at the Green Hills Arcade or better still at Fifth Saks Avenue in New York City, Bloomingdale or in Macy’s.

We hear some say that they go eat fine dining in the middle of the day rather lunch time. With regards to fine dining it is not eating in a somewhat classy restaurant but perhaps eating in a five star or a swanky hotel where food is served with wine and all the trimmings of fine dining and the appropriate utensils to be used. Sometimes it includes candle light and small bowls with rose petals to dip fingers before eating.

The most spasmodic charm that most Filipinos prattle about “having made it” and “proven something” when one thinks how things went awry many years back before migrating to a foreign land is the sacrifice one had to go through. Leaving the Pearl of the orient is not an easy thing. There are those who made it good and made it quickly. They got the jobs they wanted, some might have even acquired a house in exurbia with the lawn being mowed every Saturday- and that sort is the living end. They sport all the prejudices of the Americans acting as though they were straight from the lineage of George Washington himself, when just few months before they got their precious green card, they used to wait for jeepneys in the heart of the cities and you could have run them down if you wished, seeing them hurrying across the street to the embassy to get in the queue to have their visas marked. I was anxious to get something in my mind, something unequivocal, a skein of thought unwound and held taut at the end so that the slightest touch would send a vibration, a zing, an unending echo in one’s life. The western countries open their gates to people seeking greener pastures.

We are a funny race. Just look around you, we do the opposite and answer queries in ridiculous reply. On sign boards such as “Do not dump garbage here” we see piles and piles of trash while in the section where it we see “dump your garbage here”, we do not see any garbage in that portion. No loading and unloading sign is where taxis and jeeps do the opposite. Why do walls stink? These are where men” face the wall” and relieve themselves. Vehicles turn where there is a “No U-Turn” sign and park in No Parking areas.

Ask someone, Anong Oras na? The answer -- Maaga pa. Anong gusto mong ulam? Kahit ano. Saan ka pupunta? Malapit lang and Sino kausap mo? The reply, Secret. We answer ridiculously. Filipinos are rare people. We must be proud and enjoy being one. It is fun to be a Filipino and it is more fun in the Philippines as being advertised.