From: albert@AMS.SUNYSB.EDU (Jose Albert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.filipino
Subject: HOME-BOUND
Date: 21 Aug 92 15:05:05 GMT

It was never my intention to incur the ire of anyone when I wrote
my previous article.   However, I hope the netters will not mind
my posting a first and last reaction to the article of
dguerrer@lyra.cel.scg.hac.com (Daniel Guerrero).
I do not want people getting the wrong impression about what
I wrote but neither do I want a tiny flame to become a huge fire.  
Moreover, I just wish to keep moving on.

To start with, I wish to elucidate on 
my statement that there is more to life than money. I 
never implied that money is unimportant.  Only nincompoops would
think such rubbish!  All I wanted to say was that
you are a moron if you believe in the equally rubbish idea 
that money makes the world go round.  (Sorry for the brutal language!!) 

Further, I never ever implied that all Filipinos should go home!  
It is healthy for peoples and cultures to mix and to learn from each
other, but what I have noticed in the US-RP relationship 
is that it has become very lop-sided (especially when taken in 
comparison with the relationships of the US with other
"developing countries").  Thus, I was glad to read news about
some Filipinos who have decided to go home for good.  

There are a lot of my very good friends who have decided otherwise.
They instead opt to find greener pastures (whether it be here, Australia, NZ, or
elsewhere) and that is why I wrote:
"  I am not critical of those who have left the Philippines
   to study or to earn, "
In fact, one of my sisters has changed her citizenship and I respect
her decision.  She fundamentally believes that
opportunities for her back home are not viable (at least not yet).  
There is nothing wrong with realizing that one has to eat.  I can not censure 
circumstances that may dictate what someone has to do.

What I am critical of are attitudes of :

(1) those who are hungry and yet do nothing 
(we have a lot of them back home, so does America and possibly
all countries in this world).

(2) those who have once come from nothing and now made a good life 
for themselves but refuse to make life easier for the millions
of others who are trying to follow their footsteps. 
(i think we can easily see some of these folks in the GOP, and
even amongst the elite back home).

(3) those who are full and yet decide to sell their vast tracts of 
lands only to come here because "this is America."  Some Filipinos 
in this category call their homeland "hell"" and America "heaven."  
These are their words, not mine.  

The last are what really irritate me, especially when I notice
that these people are "educated."   They `inhale' the 
advertised images (of this country about democracy, justice, equality, 
opportunity, freedom) without analyzing the facts.  
Certainly, there is a semblance of these ideas
around here (and perhaps a lot more here than in most countries) 
but those of us who believe in the hallucination 
that the US is a utopia are those who need to wake up.
Have we forgotten Imelda's acquital and the Rodney King case; the
unemployment statistics; the shrinking of the middle class ? 

I am not BTW saying that America is hell.  That crap, advertised
too much by the CPP (Communist Party of the Phil), is just as 
much a distortion of reality. All I am saying is that
we have to admit that there are pros and cons to everything.  
We have to be critical of any extreme views that anyone may believe 
(unless they are universal beliefs).  We should not always impose our 
opinions and beliefs on other people (as there are some things that are
not just black or white).

One tiny addendum to the host of opinions I have expressed -- 
I noticed that we seem to be afraid to 
label a lot of our attitudes as "colonial thinking."  
Are we afraid to call a spade a spade ? My own mother, for instance, thinks 
that the Philippines is better off being the next US state, that there
is no life beyond the US bases.  Can we not call this colonial mentality?  
(BTW, I love my mom very much and am willing to  die for her 
even though I do not always agree with her ideas.)  

On a final note, let me express another observation -- we Filipinos
lack a sense of vision, pride, nationhood and humanity.  
(By Filipinos, I do not mean individuals but the collective total, 
as I continue to be astounded by the profound and sometimes divergent
views of the s-c-f-ers).  The Japanese were far worse off after 
World War II than we were but, unlike us, they have 
managed to rise from their losses,
to transform their ashes into sky-scrapers.  All I hope for is that we can
learn from them.    We have to seriously 
start recognizing our mistakes and revolutionizing our hearts. 
After all, men are not to be judged by the times 
that they fall but by their ability to stand up when they fall. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jose Ramon "Toots" Albert                     "ang di lumingon sa 
albert@ams.sunysb.edu                          pinanggalingan, di
Department of Applied Math and Statistics      makararating sa
State University of New York at Stony Brook    patutungohan" 
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3600
(516) 632-2192
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P.S. FYI, Daniel, I SHALL RETURN to the Philippines with 
probability one.  I do not expect everybody to do that.  I just hope
that those who will be left behind will somehow be helping those of 
us who decide to go back.