The answer, according to my objective FilAm friend, is that Trump put a valve on the emigration of Filipinos to the land of milk and honey.įilAms don’t want competition from fellow Filipinos coming in, according to this friend of mine. I hate to bring this up, but many Filipinos abroad, it seems, don’t empathize with their hapless compatriots.ĭo you know why most Filipino Americans (FilAm) fiercely supported former President Donald Trump with even one of them carrying a walis-tambo (soft broom) in the attack by dissidents on the US Capitol in Washington, DC? It’s high time foreign service personnel abroad underwent neuropsychiatric tests or are given lessons in empathy. We have several ambassadors and consuls cut from the same cloth as Mauro and Lamadrid, according to a trustworthy source at the DFA. They bring shame to the Philippines with their hateful behavior. We should stop sending people such as Mauro and Lamadrid to our foreign missions abroad. Mauro and Lamadridįirst, there was Marichu Mauro, our ambassador to Brazil that was relieved after she was caught on video, maltreating her household help. “Parang pinandidirihan kami ni amba (It seemed the ambassador found us repugnant),” said one of the women I interviewed that composed the second batch of Filipinas repatriated from Syria. In the only time that Lamadrid visited his wards, he looked queasy or nauseated talking to the women. Lamadrid reportedly held parties at the Philippine embassy in Damascus for his friends, but would not deign to talk with runaway Filipino house helpers cooped up in the embassy basement. New York: McGraw-Hill.ALEX Lamadrid, former chargé d’affaires of the Philippine embassy in Syria, has not reported to the home office in Manila after his ouster from that post, according to a trustworthy source at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). Sociology A Brief Introduction (8th Edition ed.). If everybody would work for a better Philippines P hilippines (meaning stable economy, commendable values system, and unwavering faith on future success), as what functionalists and interactionists (Schaefer, 2009) say, then it will never be too late for the Philippines to mend its damaged culture.įallows, J. And this shall come first in the support of local products, events, traditions, etc. As a Lasallian, I must imbibe the idea of nationalism and relive the true Philippine culture by putting trust back to what I know our country can do and can be. And that is because, in the interactionist perspective (Schaefer, 2009), we are becoming hopeless with our own capabilities, and the capabilities of our government. Since we are now considered to be a developing country, it is inevitable for us to be dependent on the developed ones. And in the conflict perspective (Schaefer, 2009), this may be viewed as simply an effect of social classes. It is simply saying, leaving behind the colonial mentality. We have somehow forgotten that in order to achieve stability or, more specifically, economic success, we should work together towards that and not the economic success of another country. The Filipinos are dependent on the countries we are allied with, especially the United States. And that is the attitude of the people towards their own country. In the functionalist perspective (Schaefer, 2009), one essential part of the society is dysfunctional. Thus, we lost the focus on what we already have and what we could make out of those resources. We were blinded bl inded by what the other countries have. We were influenced by too many external cultures. It may not be as a whole, but the identity of Philippine culture has been lost for a long time now. I agree with what James Fallows (1987) had said in his article that culture can make a naturally rich country poor because that is how the Philippine culture is now. Cybelle Yao INTSOCI- C31 A Damaged Culture By James Fallows (Reaction Paper)