Balat sibuyas

So ABC apologizes for the "Desperate Housewives" joke, which was the prudent thing to do. In the US, where interest groups fuss about being politically correct and McDonalds gets sued for not warning idiots that their coffee is hot, the only thing you can do is apologize. But petition writer Kevin Nadal's statement ticks me off. In the AP article he says:

Filipinos and other minorities also should be depicted on TV as "prominent, positive role models," Nadal said.

SHOULD?!? Since when can anyone dictate how anyone is supposed to be depicted in popular media. It's one thing to bat for truth and accuracy, it's quite another to demand that writers become virtual PR guys for your countrymen.

And quid pro quo. If we want to take the moral high ground, then we should remove/edit all traces of racial insensitivity in our TV shows. We can't expect them to follow an ethical standard that we ourselves don't subscribe to. Because that would just be hypocritical of us.

* * * * *

This incident just shows how small we really are.

When I was working in government I noticed that it was the barangay officials and the city councilors who insisted on inserting "honorable" in front of their names. The latter I can blame on flunkies sucking up to their boss but the former, who type their own mail, just leaves me shaking my head. I've worked with Roco and Salonga and they never corrected anyone for not addressing them as "honorable" even though we all knew they deserved it more than anyone. It's the small people, the minor officials who insist on being treated as "prominent" and "positive."

It's a national self-esteem issue because we balk at every negative comment on our country/people instead of just laughing it off. It would've been better (and way cooler) if the medical workers association there just issued a statement saying that the Philippines is one of the US' leading sources of health care professionals. If worded diplomatically, it might've even resulted in Marc Cherry (a pretty liberal guy) including a Filipino doctor character in one episode, just to offset the previous joke.

Or the DOH and CHED could've issued a statement saying that Philippine medical schools are of high quality and that our neighboring countries send their kids here to study medicine (i.e. a Philippine diploma is a good thing). The spin is that the Philippine government is ok with it because we know it isn't true but are concerned about the possible misinformation that might be spread (among ignorant Americans, he implied).

But no. We had to huff and puff and go all drama queen screaming "racial discrimination." Which just goes to show how small we really are.

Meanwhile the veterans who defended the US in WW2 are still scrambling for their benefits from the US government.