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Friday, October 10, 2003
Antalan: Love-hate relationship
By Roger P. Antalan
Dateline Igacos
"The brain drain however has a new disturbing twist. Doctors of medicine are feverishly reviewing to become nurses. Teachers and other professionals are attending training seminars to become caregivers."
US PRESIDENT George W. Bush is coming. As scheduled, it will be very short state visit. You can be sure the reception will also be a tumultuous one. The biggest red carpet will be laid out to welcome him. Hundreds of red banners will be waved to protest his presence.
The joint Houses of Congress and Senate, and all their fineries, will listen to his address. The so-called parliament of the street, with their cacophony of voices and slogans, will most probably burn his effigy or likeness.
Aside from the national anthems of the two countries, the unofficial song that will repeatedly played will be the pop song: "I love you. I hate you."
I will not attempt to make an in-depth analysis of this paradox, this love-hate relationship, on the part of the Filipinos towards Big Brother, America. Anyway, there will be around 200 foreign correspondents and a host of local media who will cover and write about the controversial state visit.
I cannot help however from making side comments about the long-running, on-and-off, Fil-American friendship.
Perhaps, the best description of the relationship was the parody of the activists' slogan at the height of the anti-US imperialism protests during the Marcos regime. This is the revised slogan: "Go home Yankees, and take me with you."
Funny but true. I used to know a bright UP girl. To her, the US was evil-personified. But she also hated the Marcos dictatorship. So she moved to the US and has been living there even since.
Another female activist was known to breathe fire and brimstone against the white imperialists. But she fell in love with an American and eventually married the guy. Perhaps this is what is meant by "sleeping with the enemy."
America makes many Filipinos act strangely. Many sell everything they own, leave their loves ones behind, even relatively stable jobs, just to go TNT (underground) in the States. They go through lots of trials, tribulations and humiliations, such as marriages of convenience and paying dearly for it. Happy are those who eventually got their green cards, or are now "legal," or "with papers."
Some cannot "hack" it, as they say. A couple with young kids succeeded in immigrating to the US. The couple however had a hard time raising their kids the old Filipino way. Everytime they tried to discipline the kids, the Americanized kids threatened to sue them in court. The couple decided to come back to the Philippines. Upon arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the father was supposed to have held the neck of one of the kids and said: "Now, you sue me!"
But the exodus to the land of many blue-collar opportunities continues. The "brain drain" however has a new disturbing twist. Doctors of medicine are feverishly reviewing to become nurses. Teachers and other professionals are attending training seminars to become caregivers. Hospital work and caring of the aged and the sick are not exactly attractive and easy jobs. But who can ignore the soaring exchange rate of the almighty dollar to the lowly peso?
And so the ambivalence continues. We will be losing the much-needed services of the doctors and nurses, and the good teachers. But like the other OFWs, they will be counted among the country's modern heroes. To be fair, they can always paraphrase Marc Anthony in Shakespeare's play: "Julius Caesar." "It is not that we love our country less, but we (and the country) need the dollar more."
There are countless instances that can either make the Filipino love and adore the Americans, or send him into fits of anger and paroxysms. That is how it is when one is the most powerful, if not the greatest, country in the universe. America will always be a target of derision and the object of admiration.
Anyway, we should not feel bad. As a former colony, we have decided to be independent, and not become part of the USA. The late president Manuel L. Quezon even said: "Better to be run like hell by Filipinos, than like heaven by the Americans."
But the Americans gave us our kind of government, our brand of democracy.
And so depending on which side of the fence you are, you can still indulge in the continuing love-hate relationship. As the saying goes: "All is fair in love and in war."
(October 10, 2003 issue)
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