A VOICE FROM AMERICA
By Ernie Delfin
COMPARING THE JAPANESE, FILIPINO AND AMERICAN PEOPLE
(While Doing ‘Nothing’ in Japan
and in the Philippines )
Have you ever profited for
doing “nothing”? My recent three-week
vacation to Japan and the Philippines has
proven that it is indeed possible to do
so. Although I have not done any
business activity nor my gardening nor
my reading hobbies, I felt that I profited much from this annual break from my work and daily routine by
leisurely coasting along the day’s activities and writing some thoughts in my daily journal.
In Japan, staying with our Rotarian hosts and talking
daily with many of them for ten days has expanded my knowledge about another culture
and lifestyle that is quite different
than my Filipino and American
cultures. The Japanese culture is a
silent but proud culture making the Japanese people more formal and disciplined
people compared to the Americans and Filipinos. America is a more welcoming and more open nation as Japan is more restrictive while the Philippines seems not know which way to go. ( However, since 9-11-01, the United States
is really tightening her borders.) Many
Filipinos, mainly contract workers
especially in manufacturing, hotels or
in the entertainment professions, called
Japayukis, now reside in Japan as transients but the
majority of them cannot become permanent residents or citizens
of Japan unless they marry a Japanese citizen, unlike we Filipino nationals in the
United States.
It is also quite evident that
in many Japanese towns and cities they do not
“istambays”, the lazy
habit of many Filipinos congregating
in front of stores just talking, yakking and gossiping for lack
of real work or better things to do. The
Japanese people are apparently more
industrious people compared to the
Filipinos as a nation. The former are like ants while the latter are
like butterflies; the former love to
work, the latter prefer to talk and have fun.
This national phenomenon explains
that despite the Herculean tasks that the Japanese people have to overcome to rehabilitate their nation after their
massive defeat during World War II. Now,
the Japanese people have dramatically recovered while
the Filipinos are still
discussing and searching how to
solve their widespread poverty that
has been aggravated by the
country’s teeming population of about 80
million people.
Since high school, I
learned and still vividly remember that the two main factors
that determine the progress of any
nation are its people and the
land. Having been in America for over a
quarter of a century now and having
visited several countries the last twenty years, I can objectively now see the profound differences why the Philippines did not
progress as it should have like Japan and America. Although the Philippines possesses a lot of natural resources and fertile
land, our people are indolent
people, as observed by Jose P. Rizal
over hundred years ago. Coupled with
that national trait, our people are not disciplined to work collectively for nation building. As many provinces or islands are
semi-independent from each other, our
people also exhibit selfish regional tendencies. We are not as united people like the Japanese or the Americans. Some writers even questioned if Philippines were really a
nation.
The making of a great
nation has not been the top mission or vision of many of our past
Filipino leaders. It started when the
first president of the Philippine Commonwealth, Manuel L. Quezon, when he
said and I paraphrase “I prefer a nation run like hell by Filipinos
than run like angels by Americans.”
Although many presidents after
MLQ tried to make the “Philippines Great
Again” they failed because of lack of
vision and as energies were
spent or invested towards the perpetuation of their political dynasties
and/or increasing their family wealth. .
Most wealthy families in the Philippines ,
unlike in America , often go into politics to protect their economic or business interests.
Political campaigns and vote buying are capital
expenditures that can yield hefty
dividends once the candidate is elected
into office. Politicians although they
might be not be as rich before the election soon become filthy
rich once they are in
office. To add insult to injury,
they are even idolized by the masa as “magaling” and smart
politician. There seems no more moral outrage as in past when old fashioned
“palabra de honor” and “delicadeza” (propriety) were a way of life!
The Philippine political system is
embarrassingly flawed and it is a vicious circle since we were given independence by the Americans prematurely. (Whether we are really “independent” is
another column!) In America
or in Japan , politicians
are not normally expected to get
wealthy. Many multi-millionaires in
private sector almost always make less money when they enter the government
service, which is the exact opposite of many people in Philippine public
offices. Speaking about
“delicadeza”, the mayor of our
neighboring city of Huntington
Beach , California ,
Dave Garofalo, was forced to
resigned just for supposedly not abstaining from voting in a city contract
granting some advertising money (not even $30,000!) to his
community newspaper paper and
also supposedly receiving some preferential “treatment” without much waiting in
the legal purchase of his home from a
private developer!
The
Bible says that
people who have no vision shall perish.
I believe that in the last thirty or fifty years, the Philippines never had
a REAL visionary and selfless leaders in the caliber
of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Golda Meir, Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher or even John Fitzgerald Kennedy to lead our
country to greater heights. These
leaders were not only visionary, charismatic but also decisive in many of their
bold decisions that were done without
gauging whether their decisions would be popular or not. Weak
leaders of many countries, past
or present apparently make some of their decisions based on
“social weather” surveys!
Leaders are supposed to be like
eagles, they don’t go where the turkeys
(robbers, hold uppers or rapists are captured or presented) are
but they soar high and often think and suffer alone during their serious reflections. The greatest revolutionary leader of all times always went to the mountaintop to
pray, but always went down to the people
teaching them how to live with honesty, integrity, humility
with peace and tranquility. His name
was Jesus Christ. Of course, that is
too much to ask from any of our earthly leaders.
Philippine presidents from Cory Aquino to Fidel Ramos to
Joseph Estrada and now Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
have become presidents by sheer
“accidents of history” and were never
tested in the battle of leadership like Eisenhower nor experience bitter taste of defeat and
sacrifice like Lincoln . Compared to many
great leaders of the world, many
Philippine presidents just turned on the
cruise control and while away their term of office managing bureaucRATS but not really leading
the Filipino people to greater
heights. Poor leaders, poor
followers. We can never have a strong
republic with a weak leaders. We will always harvest what we sow. That’s
the simple law of the farm.
* * * *
The Overseas Filipinos
particularly those in North America and in the Middle East are quite riled up with the prospects of Congress not passing the
Absentee Voting Bill this year to be on
time for the 2004 presidential election. Although this right of suffrage was already allowed in the Philippine
Constitution, Congress for over l5 years has been proscrastinating in
approving and providing the mechanism to allow millions of
Filipinos working overseas to vote.
Although, many of these congressmen and senators, including
the president, have called these
hard-working and lonely overseas workers
“Modern Day Heroes and Heroines”
they are still taken for granted
and treated like bullsh..! They
politicians just want them to be the milking cows for a bankrupt government
without even giving them the right to vote for their national leaders. These politicians’ values and priorities are asinine as they are
full of crap.
What can the Overseas Filipinos do to
assert or demand their constitutional right to vote? There are many that can still be done: For instance, in no uncertain terms, warn the congressmen and senators that
they will never be forgotten for their opposition to the AV Bill. The Overseas Filipinos must also use their
hard earned money to influence their own
relatives and family to vote. They must
plead (polite way of dictating) with their families that they must never allow their votes to be bought by politicians for a few dollars worth.
If necessary, OFs
should also put some money where their mouths are by
contributing some reasonable
amounts of their money to finance and hire
an effective lobbying firm to
let their valid concerns heard
clear and loud. Anywhere in the world,
money talks and the more, the louder.
Without money allotted to advertising and lobbying, the cries and laments of the OFs will
never be heard more than a few yards
away. Contribute money to hire people to shout for you while
you are toiling in the hot sun! Your
money can provide some meals
and shirts for your “representatives” to deliver your message before these
Tongressmen and Sinators. If there is such a ‘rent-a-crowd’ as long as they remain peaceful, then
possibly “rent” thousands of them
along with your relatives and friends who depend on you although
you you are thousands of miles away
from Congress. What is good for the
goose should also be good for the gander.
Materialistic people are
often influenced by threatening
to discontinue money remittances into
their coffers or boycotting their
business establishment. There is
tremendous power in consumer power if it is harnessed and utilized very well.
It can also hurt the pocketbooks, the worst punishment, for some of our callous leaders who are
unwilling to listen to the OF cries for equity and fair play.
Another strategy that helped the Erap impeachment process is
the E-lagda or E-Mandirigma strategy
where E-mails and textings
were used to communicate
peoples’ frustration that enough
was enough. It can be done again with
more sophistication with some handsomely paid experienced coordinators
that can be hired with money contributed by overseas Filipinos. Money can provide the missing link…. All OF
s must cough up at least $50.00
each times several million overseas
Filipinos and that will be sufficient to
influence chart a new political landscape of the Philippines . (This columnist can start with $100.00 contribution, just e-mail
me where I should send)
Finally, let it NEVER
be said that the Overseas Filipinos in 2002 belonged to the
NATO (No Action Talk Only) CLUB!
It will be a shame that we Overseas Filipinos would lose by default.
Gising Bayan, Ipaglaban and Karapatan
para sa Ating Bayan! Are you
ready to do your share?
---- 3 0 ---
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writer: ernie.delfin@gmail.com or drbannatiran@yahoo.com
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