World without Filipinos (2)

LAST Wednesday, I wrote about a film, "A Day Without Mexicans," describing the disasters that would occur -- from homes to the state government -- if Mexicans suddenly disappeared from California. Taking off from that film, I did a column speculating about what might happen if the world woke up one day to find Filipinos had disappeared from the face of the earth.

For those who missed the column, I'm giving a sample scenario, limited to Kabul, Afghanistan, sent in by one of my readers, Paul Pajo, in response to that column:

"In Kabul, the chancellor of Kabul University finds out that they don't have a free medical clinic anymore because the Filipino physician running it is gone. Same for the UN clinic since a Filipino also runs it. Food stops in the various embassies in Kabul since most of the chefs are Filipinos. The new steakhouse grinds to a halt as the Filipino manager and his Filipino staff suddenly vanish in thin air.

"Procurement in critical UN agencies suddenly grinds to a halt. Microfinance projects cannot be set up, as the Filipina who is supposed to set it up is gone also. Money for the various water projects for the Ministry of Irrigation cannot be released now. The various infrastructure projects especially the ring roads for Afghanistan cannot now be completed as the Filipino architects and engineers working on these projects vanished into thin air. Food distribution projects in the remote provinces of Afghanistan suddenly are missing their project officers.

"The turnover of the World Health Organization office also becomes moot and academic as the Filipino who headed WHO in Afghanistan for years cannot be found. Back in the university, the Afghans are at a loss over what happened to the Filipino teachers who are supposed to be teaching them English but are now nowhere to be found."

Paul was one of 86 readers who e-mailed (as of the weekend) in response to "World without Filipinos." I wanted to name all of you but that would take up the entire column, so let me just thank all those who wrote (including the one really nasty letter writer -- more about it later), while picking out some letters that further underscored the extent of the Filipino diaspora.

Predictably, most of the letters were from overseas Filipino workers, dispersed throughout the world, from Eilyn Balmes, working as a design engineer in New Zealand to Angelito Agtay in Azerbaijan! They wrote simply to say they felt good, felt proud about being Filipino. Eilyn described how she missed the "laughter and craziness of Manila."

Others wrote to point out areas where overseas Filipinos have been making a difference, and whom I had missed in my article. Several Filipinos in the United States (as well as one in Iloilo) mentioned that there are many Filipinos now teaching there in elementary and high school. Mario Diosomito writes that in the Houston Integrated School District alone, there are more than 100 Filipino teachers, with another 200 in the "South of Texas" area. I'm aware that we are exporting teachers, but I didn't know its full extent. Apparently, we have many Filipinos in the public school systems in California, Texas and New York.

Filipinos do seem to figure prominently in what I'll call the nurturing professions: from nannies to caregivers for the elderly to teachers. But here's an added twist to such roles: Puri Warren-Gonzalez comments that if Filipinos disappeared the chaos in households wouldn't be due only to the missing nannies but also because parents would find it difficult getting new comic books, "manga" [Japanese comics] and Internet games, given that so many Filipinos are illustrators and game designers.

I do know one Filipino who does the illustrations for an American company. He is one of the many Filipinos based in the Philippines who accept out-sourced contracts from the States. So, if Filipinos in the Philippines disappeared as well, we'd have some problems from the disappeared out-sourcers, whether comic book illustrators or customer service agents. (Of course, my Indian friends would argue that it'd be worse if Indians disappeared since they have a larger share of the out-sourced jobs, but that's for another article.)

Cathy Dy, apparently a graduate student in the United States, wrote to say she felt left out, given that there are so many Filipino students there who also do research. That reminded me of my own graduate work overseas, where I worked as a research assistant and met many other Filipino researchers, both students and professionals. If they disappeared, so many of the big-name scientists would be at a loss with their research projects.

Francisco Gonzalez wrote to say the US Navy would probably suffer if Filipinos disappeared. He should know, being a retired US Navy man himself.

Elmi Scott wrote about Filipinos on ships, not just as seafarers but as service crew. On a recent cruise ship she took, Elmi found out that 60 percent of the 1,000-member crew was Filipino; in fact, she was told all the engineers on the ship were Filipinos.

Tina Peralta, based in the World Health Organization office in Copenhagen, had a long letter about the Filipinos she's met while traveling throughout the world. She says there are 26 Filipinos in Greenland and, she's not sure whether it's the North Pole or Antarctica but yes, there's also a Filipino working up, or down, there.

John Taylor in Qatar describes Filipinos in the Middle East: "from construction workers to technicians/engineers to project managers," without whom petrochemical plants would stop operating.

You just never know who's working where, with New York-based Irene Alegre Hernando pointing out that there are Filipino garment workers in Madagascar. (That's off the eastern coast of Africa.)

We could go on and on with other Filipinos serving the world, but I did sense, in many of the letters, some unease, even seething anger as expressed in one e-mailed letter about this Filipino diaspora. Let me assure you that I share that terrible angst as well, and that these two "World without Filipinos" columns are not meant to deny the many problems that do exist with overseas work. I wrote these columns mainly because I felt we owe our overseas workers, so often invisible and unappreciated, a few words of encouragement. I have talked about the many problems related to this massive overseas deployment in earlier columns and will continue to do so.

Let me end on a light note. Erik A. (I wasn't sure, Erik, if you wanted your full name used) asks, why not an article about "the Philippines without Aquilino Pimentel, Vicente Sotto, Edgardo Angara, Francisco Tatad, Juan Ponce Enrile and Fernando Poe Jr.?" Hmmm, a Philippines without certain politicians could mean we wouldn't have so many Filipinos needing to work overseas. Why not? Why not indeed?

thjere's filipinos in madagascar? cool can u tell me more about this? how many?

i can't imagine a world without filoz, den der would be no more filo warmth, culture, and all those dat makes me happy 2 be a filo

imagine who was the clas clown back in hischool, flips of course.

They wom't be Flips out there!

me too!!!!

There won't be entertainers etc...............................

and us!

At makukulit.......................

Siige post pa kayo...................

uy ek-ek ngayon lang ata tayo uli nag abot dito...?
na miss kita!lolz

yup, May kaunting time ngayon..............

few assignments.................
Kaya mega post ako.....................

hehe. kaya nga napansin ko eh

ang bilis nga ni ek-ek...
hey ek.. natawa talaga ko...
nung nkita ko yung bagong tv prog. sa abs...
ek tv, naalala talaga kita!
congatz sa bago mong show!

talk show iyon...........................

i like it, kasi gusto ko si rica....

I just watch a portion of it.

its entertaining, di boring, there are a lot of stuffs they do...

well how can i be bored? eh si rica yun!!hehehe

Post ka ng Rica Peralejo topic dito!

you know amanda griffin..?
grabe magpapakalesbian nalang ako pag na meet ko sya...lolz

Post ka ng topic niya wala pa niyan dito.

Hindi ba model yan?

yup.

sige para makapag-reply kaagad ako..............

edi wala nang workers all over the country...la na ring magaganda at masisipag na filipinas....

Yes.

pwede ho bang i-send mo sa akin yung column mo? hehe eto email add: limkobai@hotmail.com.

nakakalungkot nga kung wala na Pilipino! kahit salili natin wika, intsik belsyon na! o di kaya ang Firipino, accent japanese! yay! o di keya meyheyrap keypag eyksent sleng ney English!

Well, that is funny......................