Trifter

Don’t look at the negative part of us Filipinos, still if those thing are done by our fellow men, it is because of our economy… So please, even if we tend to do those negative things mentioned above…there is still goodness within each and every Filipinos within their hearts.

So, i think you should stop complaining to the BBC about their being racist because some of you Filipinos do the same to the British people and not just them.

are YOU sure PHILIPINES is the ONLY COUNTRY who have terrorists,beggars,theives,etc..how bout Africa??..dUhh!!..LOSERS!!..

The Philippines, based on my experience, is one of the friendliest countries in the world.

As far as literacy is concerned – they also produce one of the smartest people around.

completely agree with you Barishnikov. i own a software company here in north california and i employ software developers from all over the world. generally, filipinos are way smarter than the chinese, indians, russians and local americans.

i only wish they were more assertive or agressive. they seem to be content to be just silent. but make no mistake, if they put their mind to whatever task is at hand, these guys are awesome!!!

completely agree with you Barishnikov. i own a software company here in north california and i employ software developers from all over the world. generally, filipinos are way smarter than the chinese, indians, russians and local americans.

i only wish they were more assertive or agressive. they seem to be content to be just silent. but make no mistake, if they put their mind to whatever task is at hand, these guys are awesome!!!

I’m not trying to be racist just want to share my experiences. But also i’m trying to write an article “Reasons to love the Philippines.”

“This act is mostly located in the Mindanao part of the Philippines.”

I think a more appropriate warning in this case should be to stay out of Mindanao. You’ll find that majority of the foreigners kidnapped by these terrorists are red cross workers, or missionaries that actually go into the more dangerous parts of this island.

“In Mindanao, there lived most of the Filipino Muslims.”

You should have phrased it “Most of the terrorists are in Mindanao.” Why specify their religion? You’re just implying that we should stay away from the Filipino Muslims.

Poverty

How does this affect your tourist experience? If anything it gives people more exposure to the life in a 3rd world country. If seeing people living in poverty truly makes you uncomfortable then there are many places you can visit where you wont see any poor people.

Thieves

This is true in some places but you’re not likely to get robbed if you act carefully and wisely. The same goes for most places in the world.

Racists

* Indian- Bumbay/5-6

The term ‘Bumbay’ comes from the word ‘Bombay’, a place in India. ‘five-six’ refers to their custom of giving loans where an interest rate is expected. These are used as racist terms, yes, but not all the time.

* ‘Instik’ literally means Chinese. ‘Intsik tulo laway’ is ‘Drooling Chinese’. I can’t give you the etymology of this term as it’s not very commonly used and I’ve never actually heard anyone using the term.

* On pronounciation:

I don’t know what nationality you are but have you noticed people saying ‘Hello’, ‘How are you?’, or ‘What is your name?’ in an admittedly poor imitation of whatever accent you have? They’re not making fun of you.

It is more likely that they were amused, perhaps fascinated, by the foreign accent.

* As for Muslims being equated with terrorists, this is hardly limited to the Philippines.Neither is it very common among Filipinos. The terrorism stems from territorial dispute rather than religion, unlike in other countries. Israel and Palestine excluded. Besides, what you wrote under the ‘Terrorist’ section can be misconstrued as your own prejudice.

I think the article is very poorly written but not because of my own biases. If you truly want to convince people that they should stay out of the Philippines try putting things in context. Give more detailed explanations of your complains.

Even better, write down the negative things you’ve experienced on your visit and find other tourists who agree with you.

how dare you?!?!
5-6 is not a racist term… its a layman’s term for us filipinos.. and what you are saying are all fallacies. not all filipinos are racist, if there are racists here you can count them with your fingers. So dont generalize. maybe there’s a problem with your attitude that’s why others call you names, well, if that’s the case.. you deserve it. you shouldnt say those things to us, coz first of all,we filipinos are working in other countries and what do we do for living? oh yeah.. serving foreigners!!! we’re doing the jobs you don’t want to do. why don’t you try taking care of children who aren’t yours while your own are those you should take care of.your so pathetic.
Watch what you’re saying. and besides, who’s supporting your ideas?

I Chatted with people from phills for 6 months and it seems from my experiece they lie 10 times more than they tell truth!!

Racism is just that…it’s when terms of abuse are adopted by the layman/laywoman and become ordinary or “amusing”…be it bumbay, instik, kano, negra, muslim etc. and their associated stereotypes…the bumbay handles 5/6, the intsik is full of sharp business practice, the kano is rich, the negra is ill-educated and the muslim is a terrorist…oh, and filipinas are all maids …they’re all rascist stereotypes! I know about racism here, I lived here for 25 years and I love the place, it’s my home, but it doesn’t stop me objecting to racism which is prevalent here (else why all the whitening creams?!!!), just as it is where I come from too. It’s usually, but not always, a product of ignorance or just a simple laziness in not being willing to look at the humanity of the “other” person who appears different or talks differently. And the racism is not always thrown at the foreigner either…hence the jibes coming from the tricycle drivers when I am in the company of a filipina friend – its her who gets the abuse at sa Pilipino pa, kasi akala nila hindi ko sila naintindihan..that’s cowardly! And yes, I know it works every which way too, as a white man I sometimes get fawned over while filipinos are made to wait in line, or (more rarely) I get ignored as someone behind a counter tries to make it abundantly clear that they;re not gonna be seen to be doing me a favor on account of my skin color. Either way its still rascist – that is it treats me on the basis of skin color and makes assumptions about me and my culture and its distasteful and uncomfortable.

Still, it doesn’t mean everyone is rascist or that all tricycle drivers are “bastos” but experience tells me a good many are and their sense of feeling small or powerless in a society that is very status-ridden makes them feel the need to draw attention to me by shouting whether by shouting “hi Joe” (which incidentally is not always friendly – believe me I heard it enough times to know when it is!) or insulting my companion. But what the hell? Bahala na ang mga yan, they’re not gonna ruin my day!

Oh and let’s not forget the internal racism of the Philippines too…the tagalogs are sharp dealers, the ilocanos are mean, the visayans are happy-go-lucky, the negrenses are full of themselves and the muslims are well..nakakatakot(scary)..and indigenous people indolent and ignorant, except for the cordillerans who are just clannish – Those are all stereotypes in case anyone can’t fathom irony!

The point is that each person we meet should be encountered as an individual human being – and that’s not always an easy thing to do because we are raised with stereotypes, every single one of us, it invades our cultures – from the TV sitcoms, to the newspaper reporting (e.g. muslim terrorist, never Iglesia ni Kristo thief, or Christian bankrobber), or the adverts saying “New arrival from the US”, to the names that kids call out at school (why else would a child exposed to a dark skinned person immediately call him/her “negro, itim, baluga, egots” and so on? where do kids learn that stuff?), to the way history is taught in school (Spanish evil greedy friars, americans ignorant imperialists but they brought education and the vote along with a few massacres – in fact it was 400,000 or 5% of the population killed by the US forces – and the tagalog provinces led the revolution – sure they did and not a hint of resistance from elsewhere!) to the descriptions we hear from our family of the japanese occupation or bad experiences with ignorant people of other races, to the fear-mongering of pseudo-nationalists on right and left or the statments of politicians such as Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago during the ZTE scandal proclaiming “China invented civilization in the East and corruption for all of civilization.”!. God’s sake that last wasn’t even satire like Chip Tsao’s piece – a satire directed at the Chinese government by the way!

So why do i stay amidst the racism in the Philippines? Because quite simply it has become my home and that is where my heart is..it doesn’t mean that the country has lost its imperfections, including the presence of abiding racism; if anything the imperfections sometimes seem to get worse (viz. ZTE, extra-judicial killings, joc-joc bolante fertilizer scam, electio scams etc.) but unlike many of my new-found compatriots here I know that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side of the pacific or anywhere else.

As one sensible commentator put it in a local newspaper recently “We are stereotyped as illegal aliens in First World capitals, and we fight it. But we cannot fight invidious stereotyping if we ourselves engage in it. We must put an end to this bigotry once and for all.”, or as that most celebrated campaigner against the politics and culture of race, Martin Luther King said to us before: “I have a dream, that someday people will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

IF YOU ARE BASING YOUR JUDGMENT ON THE PHILIPPINES ON ISSUES OF POVERTY, TERRORISM, THEFT AND RACISM THEN PEOPLE SHOULD BE AVOIDING HALF OF THE WORLD’S COUNTRIES. IF YOU EVEN EXCLUDE TERRORISM, THEN YOU ARE TALKING OF ALL COUNTRIES.

I SEE YOUR ABYSMAL IGNORANCE TO SEE CRIME, POVERTY AND RACISM EXISTING EVERYWHERE MAKES YOU THE WORST JUDGE OF ANY COUNTRY OR ANY CHARACTER. YOUR IDEAS ARE WORTHLESS AS YOUR JUDGMENTS ARE.

It would appear that Quarx has no concept of the “Caps Lock” button on his computer, or perhaps it’s broken. We’ll never know.