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Love Thy Country

I love to learn but hate to study That defines my entire curricular life. I hated school and the idea of it since i was a child. I didn't particularly enjoy being cooped up in my room studying for exams that, if not for fear of not graduating High School, i wouldn't have cared much about. Finally graduating from High School was for me a relief, not a new journey into Collegiate life that eventually defines the rest of our lives like most of my classmates. And although i attended College it was ephemeral. I can't imagine my life now if i never left the Philippines.

I grew up under the care of a fairly affluent family in the small town of Sta. Ignacia Tarlac, Philippines (well, affluent relative to town-size lol). A town in Northern Luzon (about 2 hrs north of Manila) population 16,000. And similar to many families in the small town, my immediate relatives dwelled in the same compound. I also had relatives from both the mom & dad side who lived abroad so i was one of the lucky kids who got to wear Nike's, Levis jeans and ate Hersheys chocolates on a regular basis. As a young child i was aware that someday i was going to leave everything behind to live in the US, everything that i knew. When you're a small child, except for the possibility of an unlimited Hersheys supply, you are not quite sure how to react to such a proposition. As i grew older i became more and more aware of the deteriorating Philippine economy, it's inferiority to the West, corrupt Government and most especially the bleak future it holds for someone like me whose lack of enthusiasm for higher learning leaves much to be desired. It was clear to me then that the life, after becoming somewhat familiar of the opportunities that lies in the US via different mediums (... TV, magazines, movies and most of all Novels) i was destined to live was abroad.

Life in the US... Without being too expounding, except for the maniacal income taxes (...price we pay for comfort i suppose) and the quasi-important-first-job at a fast food joint, life here in the US is easy. If one willingly works hard, one will survive here, comfortably at that. Unfortunately most are not so lucky to be given the opportunity to make a life here in the US. I don't envy, but give the outmost respect to all of the men and women who leave the Philippines seeking better wages, they leave their family behind, many of them with children who will grow under their grandparents care, just so they can provide for them a better life. They are the Nurses across California arguably the most noble profession, the Sailors throughout the world, the maids in the Middle East, the entertainers in Asia etc... An LA Times article on Thursday, April 20 entitled "The Overseas Class" reminded me, how dire the economic situation is in the Philippines. Living comfortably here in the US in the last 11 years regrettably taught me nothing of my Country's waning prosperity. Its economy, once one of the strongest in Asia, now ranks in the bottom... According to the LA Times article... "the government invest little in manufacturing, education or heathcare. The Economy can't create even the 1.5 million jobs a year needed to keep up with the population growth"... and even more staggering "They are the Philippines' most successful export: it's workers. Three decades ago, seeking sources of hard currency and an-outlet for fast growing population, then-president Ferdinand Marcos encouraged Filipinos to find jobs in other countries. Over time, the overseas worker has become a pillar of the economy. Nine Million Filipinos, more than one out of every 10, are working abroad. Every day, more than 3,100 leave the country. Philippine workers sent home more than $10.7 Billion last year, equal to about 12% of the gross domestic product"...

The numbers are astounding and some of the stories left me with the feeling of melancholy. Stories such as Filipino maids in Hong Kong who typically relax together each Sunday, their day off for an evening picnic at a local park with concrete grounds. And the sad and infuriating stories of Filipina workers beaten and at times sexually abused in the Middle East. The story particularly of Normina Piang 17 years of age, a resident of a small Muslim Village on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Desperate to help her family who lives in a bamboo hut without running water & electricity, she seeked work overseas and found a recruitment agency that sent her to Kuwaiit in exchange for her first three months' pay (salary is $200 per month). But like many maids she only received three-quarters of it. Normina reported the problem to the employment agency only to be turned away because the agency fee was yet to be met. She was beaten by her employers when she made it back to work and a rape attempted. Normina then asked to be taken to the Philippine Embassy , but the husband held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if she did not continue to work... At 4 am the next morning she hitch hiked her way to the Philippine Embassy but couldn't leave the country without her Passport & other documents which were being held by her employers. Two weeks later the employer turned over the documents but not before filing a trumped-up charge which subsequently sent her to jail where she was raped by three police men (an embassy worker picked her up the next day). After she filed a complaint, the officers offered to marry her (...ugh the audacity). For eight months she lived on the Embassy grounds awaiting a court date. When everything was said and done, a Kuwaiti judge convicted the three officers to 15 years in prison, however as she waited she developed a UTI (urinary tract infection) she believed was caused by the rape which went untreated causing the infection to spread to her kidneys (she was hospitalized when it became serious but she was never cured) that eventually lead to her death after coming back home. Until she died Normina was angry that she had come home with nothing:"I worry because instead of helping my family, I became a problem.". So even in her illness she carried what she thought was her innate burden....

I almost felt sick after reading this, life doesn't get any more unfair than that. But like many unfair aspects in life there isn't anything we can do about it, like say, collateral casualties in the war in Iraq or the famine in Africa... If nothing else, in Normina's case, it certainly gave me a new perspective to the proverbial saying "work sucks". A friend of mine Jesica (...who only calls me about trivial stuff like firing up a grill) coincidentally is also writing a blog about this LA Times article and said that she felt that it is incumbent of her to stop complaining about work after reading the said article (... she say's work sucks about 9 times a day, over 1500 times since i've met her... but who's counting?). I told her to think of working as a maid in Kuwaiit everytime the overwhelming urge to scream "work sucks" overcomes her. She thanked me for being Mr. Perspective...

But more so than being inept with my country's economic plight, it opened my eyes to my own personal journey here and how lucky i should feel. What if my grandparents never migrated to the US? I know for damn sure i wouldn't have finished College (or at least not in a timely manner, or i could be still be in College now haha). Maybe i'd be running wetteng routes by now(... Wetteng is the Filipino version of the lotto wherein tickets are sold not in stores but by errand boys). The point is i can't fathom how i would've turned out. At least here in the US, even without the proper college education and in many cases without any kind of skills, your chances of surviving and living in relative comfort is adequately favorable...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Friday, April 21, 2006