‘OFW remittances . . . shield the elite from pressure to reform’

That’s calling a spade a spade – a point raised in the news report re ‘Arangkada Philippines 2010: A Business Perspective’ to double the pace of the country’s economic growth – and why we can’t move forward no matter how massive poverty is? Where do the elite want to see us move forward – denounce the RH bill, for instance? Do we want to: (a) preach purity, (a) fix the economy? Do we measure up to (a) or (b) or neither?

For a country that is the basket case of the region and the best example of ‘how not to’ in economic and human development, our reactions to ‘Arangkada’ are tepid at best? ‘Many of the recommendations are not radical from what we already want to do’. ‘The recommendations [are] timely because we are going to be discussing the medium term plans of the government’. And the code word to mummify our nonchalance is screaming: ‘We have to study them’? It’s the last two minutes . . . and we’re playing catch up – and we want to play footsies? ‘Execute play no. 3 from either side; hit the center if it opens up’, as Pat Riley would yell in sign language and pointing toward his brain!

And the writer’s wife shares her stream of consciousness: ‘we Filipinos never would want to raise our hands; we look around and try to sense affirmation of what we may feel inside. The reason is we don’t want to be singled out if there is no unanimity or if ever the idea flounders. We are very leader dependent, and couple that with our dislike for change and risk-taking – what Filipino would want to be outside his or her comfort zone? At the end of the day, we probably are missing a sense of community. Why did we build our dream house in a gated community and joined the country club? Remember your mother was stopped at the gate because they didn’t have the village’s pass – but she’s no pushover so the guards called us apologetically? But we care for the poor – we give alms and support worthy causes. Philippine poverty – that’s for someone else to worry about, like public servants who profess to serve the people while winking an eye! We expect the President to address the problems of the country. So long as we mind our own business that’s fine – that’s what’s expected of us.

‘When we’re outside the country we literally stand proud – because we Filipinos can do what others can do, travel and be part of the global community. (In the meantime at a border control a Filipino OFW-maid is being hassled as though she’s a victim of human trafficking, a teacher by training as she tells us embarrassed as she’s going through the episode.) We even send our children to study abroad. Of course, sometimes they need the ‘yaya’ to give them a hand. And if our kids desire independence, they would live overseas; and those who prefer the safety and comfort of home would come back. It’s family, you know – never community! The Japanese are probably an exception – they could have country and emperor above self. We’re more like the Americans even though we abhor their arrogance. We are for what suits us – their higher education, their 21^st century technology; and they are great for holidays. You can drive in America but are less comfortable driving in the UK (because they drive on the wrong side of the road) or Italy (because their drivers are daredevils), for instance.

‘So we can look foreigners in the eye, the country may be poor but we’re not. We even have a more desirable lifestyle than they do. The economic decline that we’ve seen the last 40-50 years would most likely be repeated – history repeats itself. But our family is exempt from the scourge so who cares? Of course, we’re thankful that our daughter has learned about community – leaving her Wall Street job and teaching in an inner-city school as a volunteer. Other Filipino kids have done similar things. For this generation it’s too late to change our ways – because we’ve achieved what we personally aspired for, the rewards have fortified our ways, casting them in stone. We never imagined being a model for the world because we’re a poor nation to begin with.’

What a coincidence, the writer and the wife are picking up his visiting nun-sister at their New York convent where she had completed a workshop on ‘facilitating change’, to equip her for her Baguio mission – ‘our facilitator was a business consultant out of Boston’, she says. Is it because nuns may aspire purity but being human extends to being human itself, being relevant and real – lifting man through change?