Felixberto Baguyo, Jr. posted Wage Increase A Must where he stated that wages in the Philippines aren’t rising despite the rise in cost of living. He pointed the reason that the government did not want to incur additional cost to the investors – who are foreigners and are growing in population. He is correct, however that is not why my heart is heavy on this matter.

OFW population keeps rising. We work for foreigners, while the foreigners are invading us ecconomically and making use of our resources to further advance their economies. Basically what is happening is that the foreigners are taking advantage of the resources that our social studies teachers are praising that we have plenty of, while our own people are shipped outside the country to become slaves of other nations.

It’s really frustrating because we should be the ones to take advantage of our own resources, but what is the government doing? We are deprived of our own possession, instead they are offered to the our masters. We don’t realize it yet, but we really are being colonized. We are once again under the control of other nations.

This article will guide you through applying for a dual citizenship if and only if you are already a United States of America citizen through naturalization and was a Filipino citizen by birth. The guide may also apply under other condition, but does not provide any guarantee. Listed also are the things you can have and do when you are both a citizen of the United States of America and the Republic of the Philippines.

(more…)

FEMOCRACY AND HOME ECONOMICS 5

A PLACE IN THE GLOBAL WORLD

The fact that women now choose to vigorously compete with men for high- paying jobs has serious consequences in western societies. Birth rates are well below replacement level which means that not enough workers are being born to replace the ageing population, causing a massive labour shortage - another harsh reality of the downside of femocracy.

More and more developed countries have no choice but re-evaluate their immigration policies to address the issues mentioned above.  Added to that is the constant realisation that they have to compete in today’s global market. While it is true that a lot of businesses move overseas to countries like China for their cheap labour; resourceful countries find ways to take advantage of the new economic landscape by creating new markets and opening up to new opportunities.

In a country like Australia for example,  the steel mining industry was abandoned a decade ago. Due to the lack of demand, the industry suffered and most mining towns were deserted. But now it’s different; the mining industry is in boom again due to increased demand from China. More than half of the materials used in building China’s Auditorium for the 2008 Olympics are made from mineral- rich “dirt” from Australia. China’s construction industry will continue to grow till the next decade, maybe more,  and Australia is cashing in on that. With the increased interest and growing debate on nuclear energy, the mining industry (uranium) can foresee big opportunities. There is now a big demand for labour in the rebuilding of mining towns. The housing, hospitality and entertainment industries are benefiting from it too.

Another case is the wool industry. Wool producing towns suffered due to lack of demand for wool. Again, China’s cheap labour and the use of cheaper synthetic materials decreased the demand for Australian wool from lucrative fashion industry. Sheep farming towns resembled ghost towns as young people moved somewhere else for better employment. But now there are some dramatic changes. Researchers found that there is a big market for goat meat in the U.S. for the Mexican communities there. The wool producing towns are open for business again although now they are part of Australia’s lucrative meat industry, their sheep paddocks are now being used to raise goats. And it doesn’t end there, with the health risk surrounding pork and sheep consumption, i.e. high cholesterol content causing obesity, diabetes, and heart problems, the industry can see bright lights in promoting beef, goat  and kangaroo meat in Europe, Asia and Arab countries.

In cases like these where it is not possible to move the industry overseas, the only resort for them is to bring the labour force into the country.

There are so much rhetoric in the west about the plight of illegal immigrants and what to do with them, but unbeknown to ordinary folks, these immigrants are being used ( and abused) to help their economies. The United States for example have access to cheap labour from Mexico and other nationalities who risk their lives just to set foot in that country; illegal migrants’ labour is a billion dollar industry in the U.S. Rich European countries have access to cheap labour through the decendants of colonial Africa and Asia. They also have waves of illegal migrants from poorer southern European countries, Asia and africa. But Australia has none of that and does not have to resort to cheap labour to move on. 

Being an island continent, Australia successfully controlled the number of people entering the country. They can pick and choose whom they want to allow in, which is understandable as they want to maintain their high standard of living. But, in the 21st century, Australia realised that to be successfully favoured in the growing Asian market, they have to change their tune. Australia welcomed professional and skilled people, investors , brides, sponsored relatives to legally migrate but never opened its doors to contract workers until only very recently, just last year! Filipino workers were one of the nationalities they chose to come! That was just a trial and as far as I gathered through a reputable current affairs shows on television- “Sixty Minutes” and “A Current Affair”- their employers are very happy. “They are very hardworking, you can see the desire in their eyes; they just want the work;  I will have them anytime,” one of the employer enthused. I suspect that more and more job opportunities will be offered to Filipinos.

Already, there are calls in the media complaining that local labour will be disadvantaged as business owners given a choice will prefer cheap labour from other countries.  Politicians were quick to guarantee that contract workers will be given Australian minimum wages and they will not be subject to abuse. There are heated debates going on today whether opening the country to more contract workers is the way to go. The local labour movement are dead against it but big corporations like Mcdonalds expressed their desire to hire contract workers from the Philippines as opposed to hiring Australian teenagers who are supposed to be in college learning a trade or at universities.

There is no doubt that skills migration and opening the country to contract workers is the solution but to satisfy nationalistic concerns and queries both of the leading political parties came with a criteria as to what kind of people they should let in. The preferred factors are: skills and educational qualification, English language proficiency, ability to assimilate and acceptance of the Australian culture and values. Since Filipinos are known to have this desirable qualities, they should have no problem entering the country legally.   

This is a reflection of what is happening in the rest of the western world and  Non-English speaking developed countries. There is a labour shortage and they require skilled workers to keep going and compete. Labour exporting southern European countries like Italy, Greece and Spain hired Filipinas as domestic helpers decades ago while there where restrictive policies in western European destinations like Germany and France. Today, more and more Filipinos are hired in these countries with jobs not limited to domestic duties and with better workplace conditions. Thanks to the pioneers, Filipino nurses are in great demand in the US, and now Britain and Ireland too. I heard Filipinos are needed in Scandinavian countries too.

Filipinos, without a doubt, has a place in the global world. While people from poor countries have no choice but risk their lives in entering developed countries illegally, Filipinos are being offered jobs and are invited to enter countries legally. They have more choices of countries to go to and have access to different jobs. The only thing needed is for the Philippine government to do more in choosing the right countries, negotiate a fairer and secure deals for the overseas foreign workers (OFW) and actually do something to improve the process of training and hiring. The Philippine government should not send Filipinas to countries were women are treated like second class citizens, have no respect for individual rights and freedoms, or societies whose culture is very limiting.

FEMOCRACY AND HOME ECONOMICS 4

FILIPINA, I SEEK YOU

Women giving high priority to their career is the main cause of families breaking down in the western world. As a result some disgruntled men are looking for family- oriented women from different cultural background. The majority of those that westerners seek are Filipinas.

People’s perception of the Filipina vary from country to country, some of it  are very negative indeed. Most of it are classic stereotypes that  I mentioned in the first chapter of this series. But all that are changing.

Countries who hired Filipinas in their homes soon realised that they are decent people who wants nothing more than be given a chance to work and be paid inorder to support a family back home. They soon realised that since Filipinas are educated, religious, peace- loving and clean, they can be trusted to run their homes smoothly and with ease. In some non- English speaking countries, families intentionally choose a Filipina over other nationalities for a maid because they could double as tutors as they speak English fairly well, or better that they could.  Filipinas hardly complain and just concentrate on the work at hand. It has to be said that even though they sank in the bottom of the career ladder, they tried their best to just get on with it .

The fact that many countries wanted to hire more Filipinas signifies that we have good qualities that people want us to fill that need in their homes. People observe that  and may be one of the reason why a great number of Filipina maids became brides particularly in Canada and Italy.  I remember a series in “Wakasan”, a  magazine in the Philippines when I was in high school in the 80s, (my entrepreneurial brother Alex has komiks for hire sa tyangge).  The title has something to do with “langis at tubig” (they will never mix)  where the Italian “boss” fell in love with his niece’ nanny named Laura (a Filipina), and the girl’s name was Marnelli (if I remember it right). It was a cute little series, I was just reading it for the love story element of it and was completely naive of the Filipino psyche then. 

The fact that some western men fall in love with a Filipina or in many instances deliberately choose a Filipina for a wife angers some so called elite Filipinos. It is a total impossibility to them and they take it to themselves to find a reason why those men could possibly want a Filipina. They seem to apply a counter stereotype directed to the foreigners, like they are looking for ignorant women that they can abuse; they are looking for backward women that would serve and obey them; they are looking for workers to take care of their children and clean their house for free; they will insure the Filipina (get her a life insurance policy) , kill her and claim the insurance money afterwards; and the most gruesome one: they will kill her, chop her body, keep in the freezer and consume in the winter when food is scarce.

I wonder whether these ridiculous preconceptions has something more to do with our insecurities as a country. Having been colonised for so many years,  we may not feel comfortable being directly linked to former colonisers or people from superior societies as equals. Not  wanting to accept the simple concept that these men want a woman who would make a wonderful wife and mother to their children. Someone to share their simple dreams with. While these stereotypes are mainly directed to the foreigners, I, as a Filipina who married a “foreigner” could not avoid but feel affected by it, hurt even. I used to ask myself: Are Filipinas not good enough to deserve the attention of the then colonisers? Are we that insecure?

During the mid 90’s I attended a function which the mayor in the neighbouring town organised especially for the Filipino community as part of the town’s “Beef Week” celebrations (by Filipino community, I mean Filipinas as there are only 2 Filipino men here). The Philippine government bought heads of cattle from Australia to be transported to the Philippines. In the presence of the Philippine Ambassador to Australia, the local mayor has nothing but praise for us Filipino- Australians . He stressed that since Filipinas  are “westernised”, we have no problem assimilating in the Australian society. We are always participating in events, we bring Filipino foods to share and our culture makes it easy for us to adapt and conform. Unlike other nationalities, we are comfortable in our skin, always smiling and always happy.

One of the solutions that the New South Wales government thought of to meet the challenge of nursing shortage in Australia was to offer a three- year  nursing scholarships to all migrants. More than eighty percent of those who took advantage of it and were qualified were Filipinas. The positive result reflects the fact that most Filipinas already have a college degree from the Philippines, have a good command of the English language, passed the exams and interviews.

A hospitality scholarship course was offered in a local TAFE college for migrants to prepare for tourism boom in the area, again, more than half of those who enrolled and qualified for the course were Filipinas. Some of these Filipinas were already working as cleaners in hotels or motels, but given a chance, you can see the burning desire to go in there to move up and compete.

An Australian couple, both teachers in the local private school wanted to adopt a child. They chose a boy from the Philippines. The adoption was approved and a year later, they adopted another one, this time a girl. The went back to the same excruciating adoption process and now they are proud parents of two Filipino kids. When asked why they chose Filipino children, they said, “because there are so many Filipinos here, they will never be lonely here. There will be plenty of support from the Filipino community.”

If a westerner choose a Filipina for a wife, it has to be because of the positive reasons. We are family- oriented, highly- spiritual, values friendships and simple- minded. It is not because we are stupid, ignorant, subservient, nor docile. There are instances when Filipinas find themselves in an unfortunate situation but as far as I know, in the developed world, the percentage is very low. I know of Filipinas who divorced their husbands and knows what to do when things go ugly. Filipinas are generally shy and peaceful in nature but knows how to growl when provoked.

Kuripot, Gastador, Tikalon, Damak, Maisug, Manug-Hiwit, Aswang

Philippine regionalism is one important factor to consider why Capicenos have been branded as aswangs, and in understanding why the myth has been perpetuated for over 100 years. Archipelagic Philippines has been populated by divided and competing tribes whose highest politico-economic achievement as a civilization have been the short-lived minor kingdoms in Pangasinan and Mindanao. Prior to Spanish colonialization, there was no sense of national identity, and much less appreciation about other ethic groups and cultures. The small, diverse and self-sufficient tribes have been scattered and isolated across thousands of islands. Having primitive maritime technology, they did not have active inter-island trade and much less opportunity for cultural exchange. It was only in the last 350 years, under the Spanish rule, that we evolved a concept of a nation. And even today, we are still struggling to accept it. Until the last century estrangjeros or pangayaos have been fiercely rejected by the tumandoks. Hence, whatever information we had about other regions could have just been trickles information. Bits and pieces of information are sewn together to make a derogatory collage of peoples of other regions.

Our diverse ethnicity is the foundation of our rigorous regionalism. We are a 7,000-island nation with over 100 ethnic groups. Overall, we are overwhelmingly Malayo-Polynesian under the broad Austronesian linguistic family. But underneath, we have more diverse ethnicity, subgroups, and sub-subgroups, hastily categorized into generic groupings of Ilocanos, Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Tagalog, Bicolano, Bisaya, Mindanao minorities, tribal groups, Chinese, Spanish, and Western and other minorities. Ilocanos are Ivatans and Ibanags, and their many variants; Pangasinense have the Cordilleranos (Igorots and their variants); Bisaya is classified under three main groups of Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), Cebuano and Waray. But under that, there are distinct sub-groups like the Aklanon, Karay-a, Romblomanon, Sibuyanon, Masbateno, Cuyonon. Each one of these has another layer of diverse ethnicity (e.g., Mambusaonon, Sapianon, Sijuiornon, etc.). Southern minorities include the Tausugs, Maranaos, Samals, Yakans, and the Lumads. The Lumads alone include the Manobos, Tasadays, Mamanwas, Mandayas, and Kalagans. And like our nomenclatures, they also have distinct diversity.

As indicated above, regionalism is not only a distinction due to geographic locale, rather, it is an ethnic divide highlighting cultural, social, economic and political differences - over 100 of it. In our attempt to make our region different from the others we highlight our dissimilarities. Such that, we never cease to find what is ridiculous in other cultures. We stockpile our arsenal of insults against them, so that, ultimately, we want them to be inferior to us. Sociologists point out that an individual ethnic group, united by a common language, invariably views the world from its own set of filters, experiences, beliefs, traditions, standards, biases and vantage points, a condition known as ethnocentrism. Ethnocentricism means judging other cultures as inferior based on your own culture’s superior cultural vantage point. Over time, an ethnocentrist world-view can hastily summarize a region into one common derogatory characterization. For instance, the Tagalogs have a crystallized world-view and common characterization of Bisaya as aswang, mangkukulam and katulong. The most degrading of which is aswang, and Capiz is said to have the worst concentration of aswangs.

Regional characterizations are not without bases, however. Ilocanos have been said to be frugal because their arid land does not allow large-scale cultivation of food and cash crops. Therefore, other regions dismiss them as kuripot. Tagalogs, living in the center of Philippine culture, politics and economy, having the first glimmer of electric lights and cooking gas, thought they are in the center of the universe. Anywhere outside their region had hitherto been a bundok. Hence, Americans going to the hinterlands was said to have gone to the boondocks. That literally landed into the English dictionary as a legitimate word - owing to the arrogant and ethnocentrict Tagalogs. The King of Spain gave generous encomiendas to conquestadores from northwestern Spain settling in Iloilo and Negros. In the heyday of sugar plantations, from the turn of the 20th Century to the roaring 60s, briefly disrupted by war but put to a final end by Marcos cronyism, sugar barons lived in Southern opulence and lavish lifestyles. The 3 percent Spanish sugars planter families, having their own sugar centrals, railways, piers, and shipping lines, have had every right to boast - guina pala, guina piko! But if the other 97 percent also brag, they are on their own. Hence, the Negrense and Ilonggos earned the tikalon moniker. Fierce resistance from attempts to Christianize the Mindanaonons earned them the savage, bloodthirsty reputation. Of course, regional attributions to Masbate, Siquijornons, and Samarenos as manug-hiwits could likewise be explainable. For instance, an MGB episode a few years ago featured an age-old modus operandi in one Samar hinterland about the locals secretly adding toxic herbal concoction into the beverage of strangers, only to be “healed” with an antidote for a fee. Although Bisayan and Tagalogs alphabets are almost exactly the same, our pronunciation did not highlight the different sound of paired vowels. Hence, enthocentrict Tagalogs’ criticisms against us. Remember the PLDT ad about a Bisayan katulong? “Sir, tumawag si GG.” for which the boss asked, “Si Gigi or si Jayjay?” The katulong answered, “Si GG, sir.” It would be a full time job to document all the insults, ridicules and mockeries that we hurl against each other.

But there have been tangible events that did earn a region an insulting reputation. If a province or one region was to be branded as aswang country, it should have been Samar-Leyte. There had been no single pre-Hispanic record about aswang anywhere in Philippine folktales and literature. Hence, the earliest written record about aswang in the whole 7,000 islands ever is by a Westerner, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. On February 14, 1565, in Samar, he wrote about being warned by the natives about the existence of aswang and how terrified they had been listening to howling noise around his encampment one night. But Legazpi’s account did not come without motives or reason. He came from Medieval Europe, itself rife with burning accused witches at stake, predisposed to the Count Vlad story, and with a mission to introduce faith. This perfectly jibed with the situation of Samar tribe that, without an army, only hoped to drive away Spanish colonizers with horrific tales about aswang and by actually making terrifying nighttime noise around their encampment. The reason why this first aswang manuscript did not stick to Samar-Leyte region is probably because this account had not been reinforced by other socio-cultural factors in the region. Such that, Samarenos did not create and maintain an aswang out of themselves. We did.

In summary, regionalism is partly due to the absence of a sense of nationhood - each tiny ethnic group or tribe, isolated by mountains and seas, existed alone for centuries without contact with the others. When they finally have contact, their crystallized ethnocentrict world-views, predisposed Filipinos to ridicule and degrade people from other regions. Each region had been given a brand or moniker. It is unfortunate that Capiz had been branded as aswang. The continued Filipino regionalism, along with complex web of factors that we will discuss more, sustains our aswang brand. In order to minimize it, we need to respect and be sensitive to other regional cultures.

In the succeeding posts, we will examine the other factors and elements that created, strengthened and perpetuated the aswang brand to us.

Sapianons are invariably associated with the Capiz Aswang tradition, to the extent of being ridiculed and humiliated. For decades, Capizeños, and Sapianons for that matter, have earned a moniker that is culturally derogatory, but inadvertently prank in this time and age. As you very well know, almost everyone outside Capiz is itching to ask us, given the opportunity, a standard question of whether or not aswang really exists. Generally, we would vehemently deny it. Denial would be laborious because you need to present a broad array of scientific, historical, social and cultural facts, theories, postulates and propositions, hoping that you are talking to an enlightened human being. When they insist, we would give them what they want to hear. We tell them stories from our Pandora’s box of age-old “actual” and “proven” stories from “reliable sources” passed down to several generations. We often detail the cadence of a horror event, grizzly “real” aswang episodes, even exaggerating it until they shiver and tremble in fear. A dismissing disposition could be a lamentation of how hopeless the long Philippine Airlines wait list was in Roxas City Airport, even with the evolution of domestic service and expanding capacities of Fokker-50s, to BAC-1-11s, to 737s. The same is true with the crowded, ardous and troublesome sea travel, even with today’s roll-on-roll-off (RO/RO) innovation. If we could just fly, why bother with the ordeal. Capicenos would sometimes boast that while some countries fly the best planes, we have the best pilots flying without planes. Digressing more, we could always volunteer wishful hindsight scenarios of how World War II had been averted if our vampires crushed the Japanese advance. Our forebears would have been enlisted by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to dismantle the Axis powers so Russia did not have a chance to race for Berlin. With that, the Cold War and the arms race could have never took place. By now, the whole Western world would have bowed down on our doorsteps, the Philippines had been made a U.S. state, with Roxas City as its capital. The largest air force base could be in Sapian, and genetic research would be in full swing on how to further improve the aswang DNA strains for other applications, even for space travel.

The aswang brand to us is a valid generalization, both a legacy and a birthright, of being a geographically and organically a part of the Capiz ethno-historical tradition. Filipinos are more clannish rather than ethnic, and far more regionalistic rather than patriotic. As such, they tend to promote their own region’s superiority by downgrading other regions and ethnic groups (e.g., Ilocanos vs. Visayan, Capiznon vs. Ilonggo, etc.). Talk about crab mentality. Additionally, we are part of the blame because our own local ethic traditions strengthen that myth; our folktales and superstitions highlight the aswang tradition. Local folktales, branding and ostracizing individuals and local families as aswang, confirm the belief - to the mixed pleasure and terror by our regional detractors. For generations, our culture has institutionalized the existence of soothsayers, sorjuanos and arbularyos. Professional soothsayers are the creation of the myth, and the myth lives on with our continued patronage. It is a symbiotic relationship between the mythical healers and the myth itself - each one requiring the other, sustaining each other, surviving together. More importantly, the colonialization by Medieval and monastic Spain established the foundations of an intricate anthropological and sociological web that cajoled us into creating, believing and perpetuating the aswang myth. And because of its mythological nature and the Filipinos predisposition to superstition, it has remarkably evolved to become the centerpiece and the most pronounced feature of the Capiceno and Sapianon belief system and world view. 

In the succeeding items, we will attempt to discuss, from a systems approach, the components and elements of this myth. We will also attempt to articulate how these factors interacted with each other to formulate, confirm and sustain that enduring ethno-cultural brand.

FEMOCRACY AND HOME ECONOMICS 3

US MIGRATION AND THE OTHER FACE OF THE FILIPINA

Filipino migration to the United States started way back during the era of colonisation. The Americans forced the Spanish out of the Philippines in 1898 and the new colonisers sent Filipinos to North America between 1901 and 1935. They mainly worked as errand boys, janitors and houseboys. During World War II, many of them served the US Army’s First Filipino Infantry Regiment.

Few decades after World War II, a lot of Filipino war veterans and their families were permitted to migrate to the United States. The presence of American Air Base in the Philippines also gave Filipinas a chance to migrate to the US and other allied countries as brides. They had very limited employment opportunities then and most if not all were subjected to racial abuse. We heard stories but we can not begin to comprehend the appalling treatment these pioneers had to endure before they successfully managed to adopt and assimilate to the American culture. 

Like typical Filipinos, they struggled to send their children to school. They believed that education is vital if their children were to survive and blend in to western culture. Many of these children, and their children afterwards, successfully finished their education and had decent work. They mainly found employment in industries dominated by women like nursing, teaching, child care, sales, hospitality, and factory work. Filipinas and other migrant women from different nationalities happily filled the available jobs that American women vacated to pursue better careers.

Today, there is no turning back for women in the developed societies. Their main role in society: homebuilding, care giving, raising and nurturing the next generation are all but marginalised. They argue that it is urgent and necessary to penetrate business and politics as they have social and emotional intelligence about interpersonal relationships that few men have. They claim that men are more interested in profits; they are convinced that women’s motherly qualities will put human and social concern on the agenda like children and women’s adverse conditions in other parts of the world.

While that is a valid enough reason, I tend to agree more on the notion that the real motivation is hard economics.  Now more than ever women find themselves driven by money, they simply cannot afford to stay at home . This may be due to the privatisation of health and education, the cost  of petrol, the continuing flow of digital must haves, the basic necessities of westerners like entertainment, recreation, travel; and the irrepressible urge to keep up with the Joneses e.g. second car, spa bath, pool, renovations, etc. etc.

This economic pressure is luring women to the top jobs. They don’t want just any job anymore; they are aiming for top- level, high- paying jobs that used to be dominated by men. Time is precious for high- earning busy career- women, the financial disincentives of childbearing have become so high that a great number of them now choose to shun marriage and baby- making altogether to concentrate on the pursuit of a career. The homes in the developed societies reflect the appetite of global capitalism for all talent, female and male, at the expense of the family.

Modern Filipinas are following that same path. Filipino- Americans as they rightfully call themselves successfully integrated and continue to labour and insist that young bloods attend colleges and universities and make something out of themselves. The same pride and conviction is shared by Filipinos in other western societies and in the Philippines itself. With the dawning of globalisation upon us, there is an assortment of employment opportunities for Filipinos worldwide from hard labour to top level jobs. Few Filipinos today are patiently breaking the grounds in higher education, medicine, law, engineering and business while many are successfully competing for top corporate jobs.

But while career divides homes  in western families, it has an entirely opposite result in migrant families. Through family sponsored migration, Filipino families reunite and help each other. Filipinas do not feel as much guilt and not suffer as heavy a consequence for pursuing a career compared to their western counterparts. They can look forward with confidence and go out there knowing that Nanay and/or Tatay, Mama and/or Papa, will be around to take care of the home front.

When competition in the femocracy is fierce and the going gets tough, Filipinas have large willing families to rely on.  Thus, the other face of the Filipina: qualified, capable, competitive, confident.