Canadian envoy downplays
'spoon and fork' incident
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

http://www.inq7.net/globalnation/sec_new/2006/may/04-04.htm





THE CASE of a Canadian school reprimanding a seven-year-old Filipino-Canadian boy for eating with a spoon and fork, instead of a fork and knife, is "atypical" and "isolated," Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutherland said Thursday.

"I was just in Canada from the 23rd of April to the 1st of May to talk to Filipino-Canadian communities in Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, and I didn't hear about the incident then. I just heard it from the news reports here...I find that the incident is isolated and is not a cause of irritant between our two countries because again this is atypical of Canada and the issue is already being addressed," Sutherland said.

Sutherland said he couldn't comment on the case because he did not have the complete details, but added that he did not find racial discrimination undertones in the story.

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"Canada is a multi-cultural country. Practically everyone in Canada is an immigrant so we are sympathetic to the values of immigrants. Canada welcomes immigrants...[That's why] I was surprised when I read about the incident," he said.
On April 11, in a school in Roxboro, Montreal, Luc Cagadoc was reprimanded and told to eat in a separate table by the school monitor for eating with a spoon and fork. When his mother complained to the school principal, the latter took the side of the monitor and said the penalty for "eating like a pig" was appropriate.

The family has since complained before the school board while the Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose Brillantes has protested against the school officials' actions, calling it an "affront" to Philippine culture.

Brillantes said Filipinos made up the third largest group of immigrants in the last couple of years, following China and India. He said the 400,000 Filipino-Canadians in the North American country had a strong sense of community.

Last year, Brillantes said some 14,600 Filipinos migrated to Canada. "There was a 40 percent jump from the previous year, I'd say one of the highest increases we've had so far," he added.



Copyright 2006 INQ7.net. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

RP overseas body raps Canadian school over ‘fork and spoon’ First posted 08:36pm (Mla time) May 05, 2006
By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net




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(UPDATE) THE Commission on Filipinos Overseas on Friday decried the “racism and ethnocentricism” of a Roxboro town school in Montreal for chastising a seven-year-old Filipino-Canadian boy over table manners.
“Racism and ethnocentrism are an affront to human dignity and have no rightful place in any country in this modern day and age,” the government body which has Filipino immigrants abroad for its constituents said in a statement.

The commission said the principal of Ecole Lalande, Normand Bergeron, only revealed his ignorance of other cultures in punishing Luc Cagadoc, a grade two student who used a spoon and fork instead of a fork and knife during meals.

“It is not acceptable that just because the principal has never seen somebody eat with a spoon and fork at the same time, the eating technique should be called unintelligent,” the commission said, adding “for calling it unintelligent only shows an absence of exposure and/or insensitivity to other culture.”

“Cagadoc is no longer just any child with immigrant parents. He is any Canadian’s child, who could significantly contribute to the development of Canada,” the commission said.

Cagadoc was reportedly punished by his lunch monitor more than 10 times this year for his table behavior.

The commission said the punishment of isolating Cagadoc from the rest of his lunch mates and comparing his eating habits with that of a pig “is abusive and is a mockery of the vision that Canada shall be home to different races with great respect for each other.”

The Quebec Weekly News quoted Bergeron as saying it was Luc's eating technique combined with his table manners that was inappropriate.

"Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It's normal, he's a child. He is in a period of learning," Bergeron had said on the paper.

But the commission stressed that teaching children to adapt the manners and etiquette of the host country must be done without “embarrassing and emotionally abusing the child to the point that he does not want to eat anymore.”

But the commission conceded that the school, the school principal, and the lunch monitor are “not representative” of the Canadian society.

It agreed with the observation of Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutherland that the “case is isolated and atypical.”

At the same time, the CFO noted, “it still remains of great concern that an educational institution that plays a major role in the formation of correct values and respect among children can tolerate child abuse, callousness, and insensitivity to the nuances of an ethnically and culturally diverse country.”

On the complaint filed against the school, the principal, and the lunchtime monitor before the school board, the commission “trusts” the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys to “act fairly and decisively on this matter.”

I saw this topic in a Canadian site:http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/a...?noArticle=6063



Filipino table etiquette punished at local school
Lunch monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting’



Luc (right) eats in traditional Filipino fashion, with a spoon and fork, as his mother Maria Gallardo and sister Hannah look on. The seven-year-old says his school’s lunch monitor calls the habit ‘disgusting’ and has punished him for it. Filipino table etiquette punished at local school
Lunch monitor tells student his eating habits are ‘disgusting’
BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

The Chronicle


A Roxboro woman has filed a formal complaint with a local school board after her son was disciplined by a lunch program monitor at Ecole Lalande for eating in what she says is a customary Filipino manner.

Luc Cagadoc’s table behaviour is traditionally Filipino; he fills his spoon by pushing the food on his plate with a fork, his mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, says.


But after being punished by his school’s lunch program monitor more than 10 times this year for his mealtime conduct — including his technique — the seven-year-old told Gallardo said last week that he was too embarrassed to eat his dinner.

“Mommy, I don’t want to eat anymore,” Gallardo says Luc told her at the kitchen table April 11. “My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.”

When he eats with both a spoon and fork, instead of only one utensil, the Grade 2

student said the lunch monitor moves him to a table to sit by himself.

Upset over Luc’s story, Gallardo confronted the lunchtime caregiver the next day and on April 13, she telephoned the school’s principal, Normand Bergeron. His reaction brought her to tears, she says. “His response was shocking to me,” Gallardo, who moved to Montreal from the Philippines in 1999, told The Chronicle. “He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.’



“I find it very prejudiced and it’s racist. He’s supposed to be acting like a professional. This is supposed to be a free country with free expressions of culture and religion. This is how we eat; we eat with a fork and spoon.”


Luc’s father, Aldrin Cagadoc, was also surprised by the comment. “I can’t believe even the principal would say that,” he said. “A person of that calibre, I wouldn’t expect him to say that.”


Gallardo, who operates a day care out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education, wrote a letter last week and lodged a formal complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) yesterday.

She disagrees with the lunch monitor’s approach to teaching children how to eat and says it is emotionally abusive to Luc. When she questioned Bergeron about punishing students for their table habits, she says he replied that, “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”



But Bergeron says it was Luc’s eating technique combined with his behaviour at the table that was inappropriate that day, which is why he was moved. “Luc can be turbulent,” he said yesterday. “Like other children, he is frequently in situations where we have to intervene. It’s normal, he’s a child. He is in a period of learning.”

The principal of the 387-student Roxboro school said he explained his position on using two utensils to Gallardo during their telephone conversation. “I said, ‘Here, this is not the manner in which we eat.’


“I don’t necessarily want students to eat with one hand or with only one instrument, I want them to eat intelligently at the table,” he said. “I want them to eat correctly with respect for others who are eating with them. That’s all I ask. Personally, I don’t have any problems with it, but it is not the way you see people eat every day. I have never seen somebody eat with a spoon and a fork at the same time.”


CSMB spokesman Brigitte Gauvreau says the board will not comment — due to confidentiality procedures — until Gallardo’s complaint is filed and she makes a public statement.

Additional article:

Filipino mom to ask for public apology
Featured Advertiser


Automobiles Ulsan
Filipino mom to ask for public apology
BY ANDY BLATCHFORD

The Chronicle

The mother of a seven-year-old boy who was punished at a Roxboro school for his eating habits, which are customary in the Philippines, is seeking a public apology from the administrator for his comments.

Over the last couple of months, Luc Cagadoc says he was moved to an empty table about 10 times by École Lalande’s lunchtime day-care monitor for his table etiquette. The caregiver also called him “disgusting,” he says.

The Roxboro resident, whose parents originate from the Philippines, says he was disciplined for using a fork to push his food onto a spoon before bringing both utensils to his mouth — a manner used widely in the South Pacific nation.

When Cagadoc’s mother phoned the Roxboro school to inquire about the punishments, she was shocked by principal Normand Bergeron’s response.

“He said, ‘Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat,’” Maria Theresa Gallardo said. She claims Bergeron said her son eats like a “pig.”

But Bergeron told The Chronicle last week that Cagadoc sometimes acts up during the lunch hour and has been known to make a mess at the table. He says the school moves children to sit by themselves when they are misbehaving and it has nothing to do with Cagadoc’s background.

The school board received a complaint from Cagadoc’s parents on April 18, according to a Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys (CSMB) spokesman. “The story at the school’s level is that it’s a disciplinary problem,” Brigitte Gauvreau said. “We will continue to discuss with everybody together so that everyone has a good understanding of what happened.”

Meanwhile, backed by two local Filipino associations, Gallardo plans to request a formal apology from Bergeron. “They don’t want to interfere between me and the behaviour of my son at school, they just want a comment regarding the issue about the Philippines,” she said of the community groups. “They felt so insulted.”

Gallardo has applied to transfer her son to a school in neighbouring Pierrefonds next fall.

Reaction to last week’s story

Meanwhile, an article in last week’s Chronicle about the incident prompted a flurry of letters and e-mails from readers.

For instance, Rogerio Ajero wrote: “Your article just exposed how there are still some segments of Quebec society that thinks their way is the only right way. This principal has to travel himself some times and educate himself about other cultures.”

Marivic Juson wrote: “What does Canadian really mean? Is it only those people who are eating with a fork and knife? What about those people who use chopsticks? Are they Canadian, too?”



BTW : I use Spoon and Fork, Fork and Knife, Chopstick , Coconut utensils and Hands when i am eating ? so where do they put me????

Then , The principal will say : You eat like a Hippopotamus !






See the other forum sites:
ABS-CBN forum

See the other forumers opinion:
From ABS-CBN forum
According to :
The Ripper
Quote:
Yung mga puti nga hindi nag huhugas ng kamay bago kumain. At kung mag hawak sila ng sandwich or burger tinatangal pa ang wrapper. Pero tayo mga pinoy may wrapper pa yan sa portion ng sandwich na hindi pa nakain.
Pati tinapay hinuhugasan sa kape!

According to : angeline
dang it, i try to stop and u pull me back in.

and here's some irony for u, i did live in China for 2 years, at 8 and 9 and i used a fork for most of my meals. and no i never received treatment like Luc did or anything close to it.

plus ur argument about it being againts social norms isn't true. if u eat pasta, most people i know (me included here in canada) twirl the pasta on a fork against a spoon. that is perfectly accepted, so why was Luc's way frowned upon?

he's 7 years old and was made to sit alone to eat his lunch. he developed a complex about it and told his mother he didn't want to eat! there is nothing in Luc's story justifying what they put that little boy through.

if a white boy were to have done what Luc did, i doubt anything would have happened to him!

According to:tuaocagayan
Actually there's a big problem here, so to speak. It's about kinda of harrasment to a colored people. The treatment & what kind of attitude attributed to a filipino like Luc. If these are part of their school prescribe ethics to discipline their pupils is fine but the way they approached disciplining Luc is not fine because it seems that it involve RACISM especially when they're uttered eating like pigs. Proof of what I'm saying was when the parents of Luc brought this to the attention of the Principal of the school, however, supported the teacher act of racism. We can discipline a 7 years old like Luc easily by commanding him in a right manners in a good way without stating any racism remarks to the boy eating as like pigs. 7 years old boy can already easily understand bad & good statement from the old. For me, this incident was whether intentional act of racism or just plain HONEST MISTAKES from the part of the teacher & the Principal. This should be investigated by the school supervisors the veracity of the case because it involves here ETHNIC HARRASMENT. Peace.

Funny ! But the principal of the school should try to apologized to the poor boy!

According to : dame anne of ABS-CBN forum

agree again. What more if nakita nila yung kumakain tayo using our bare hands "kamayan" with added choreography like nakataas ang paa sa bangko and elbows on the table? with matching mabahong daing and sawsawang kamatis as viand? ano na kaya ang tawag sa atin? let me think...hmmmm...cannibals? baboy ramo?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From other forum site:
rajah_solimanApril 26th, 2006, 12:01 AM
what if he were using just his hands and no utensils.

cANADIAN punishment for eating with bare hands ....firing squad :laugh:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ramvingarApril 26th, 2006, 01:16 AM
I can't believe that that sort of thing still happens and in Canada of all places! It gets me so mad! Jamaicus, could you please post updates on this story if you come across some. I want to see how this develops. Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DoggMannApril 26th, 2006, 02:27 AM
what was wrong for using spoon and fork!
Montreal is Quebec region maybe thats how most of the french eat using either one... but here in Toronto they don't care, policies here I observed is more relax ...

BTW there were more asian immigrants here in Toronto than Montreal... I advise them to move over here! dami pinoy dito! hehehe
If you guys are planning to migrate, choose Toronto more neutral than Quebec (French) Region...

But there is one instance here na napatawag yun magulang nun pinoy na bata... because during recess umihi sa tabi ng puno!!! :lol: :runaway: hahaha!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GreyXApril 26th, 2006, 02:45 AM
That is absolutely hideous. I've never heard such kind of racism here in Canada. Canada is one of the most open and friendly multi-culture countries in the world. I dont know what the teacher and principal are thinking or where they have been in the past few decades, because they definitely do not represent true Canadian values. Whats so bad about eating with a fork and spoon, anyways?

but then again, i hear some racist stories from Quebec. In the news recently, this woman (caucasian) wasnt allowed in a beauty salon because she spoke english. They said they only provide service to French speaking customers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sistaApril 26th, 2006, 05:02 AM
wow. The principal must be nuts. What if they go to another country? and be forced to eat the same way as the foreigners, won't they feel bad too? I can't believe these things still happen specially in countries like Canada and to an innocent kid. I hope those involved would be punished....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OtAkAwApril 26th, 2006, 12:31 PM
^^KILL THEM ALL! If they think they can do that to us because their country is richer than us, then they should think again!!!! Rome's majestic Empire collapsed after several decades! Who knows, they might be NEXT! G7 nations have really quite a number of people who are totally self-obsessed, self-enthusiastic and proud!

And they would never do that to a Chinese kid who ate with his chopsticks because China is now becoming a SUPERPOWER! WTF, is money everything now????!!!!

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QuietLifeApril 27th, 2006, 03:18 PM
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/a...?noArticle=6063

Same article as before on Filipino eating etiquette... with a few reader comments at the end.

Here in Geneva, it's not unusual for Thai restaurants to provide a fork and a spoon (instead of a knife), and I have not heard anyone make a big deal out of it. What happened just shows how narrow-minded some people can be, probably owing to a lack of exposure to other cultures and practices.

Anyway, I found this reader's comments quite interesting:

I saw this post form Pinoy Exchange forum site:

http://www.pinoyexchange.com/forums/forumd....php?forumid=11


From a BLOG site:
http://angelozone.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_...ne_archive.html
Offensive Utensils

My parents told me a little piece of news from last week that I had a lot of trouble believing. So I looked it up and found the article written in one of those weekly Montreal suburb newspapers, the West Island Chronicle. The article was picked up and repeated halfway across the world in the Manila Times.

If you're too lazy to read a relatively short 500 to 1000 word article, I'll sum it up for you.

Basically, some ten-year-old Filipino kid in a Roxboro elementary school got punished repeatedly and was forced to eat lunch by himself because he ate using a fork and a spoon. According to the kid's parents, the lunch monitor thought that it would be best for the kid to eat away from the other kids because this eating technique (actually the customary way Filipinos eat at home) was judged as being improper, to say the least.

According to the parents, the lunch monitor said that the kid "eats like a pig" when eating like that. Apparently, Normand Bergeron, the school's principal, told the parents that because the kid is in Canada, he should eat the way Canadians eat. Bergeron continued by saying that he wants to see his students to "eat intelligently at the table" and to "eat correctly".

So the kid's mom filed a complaint to the Commission scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys about the whole thing. And people in the Filipino community are pretty angry about the whole situation.

Being of Filipino descent myself, I was actually less offended and more surprised and confused that something like this happened. When I first read the article's title Filipino Table Etiquette Punished at Local School, I thought maybe the writer was referring to some kid eating lunch with his bare hands, as this is actually quite common in many Filipino-Canadian households. I like doing that, too, every once in a while. I could understand how something like that could be seen as being messy and improper (although most Canadians usually eat meals like sandwiches, pizzas, fried chicken, barbecue, chicken wings with their hands, but that's not the point here).

But this case boggles the mind a little bit. I mean the kid was eating with utensils. For those unfamiliar with the technique, it has to do with the kind of food Filipinos customarily eat, steamed or fried rice with a meat dish. So what we usually do is we use the fork (in the left hand) to push the rice into the spoon (in the right hand). The fork is then used to pick up pieces of the meat served with the rice.

For you non-Filipino readers out there, do you find it rude or inappropriate to eat a lunch in a cafeteria in this fashion? Please give me your honest opinions on the matter.

If this school's principal really thinks that this method of eating does not qualify as eating "intelligently", I wonder how he would react if some kid pulled out a pair of chopsticks and started eating with them. What would he do if he saw some kid eating shish kebab from a stick? What would he think about some Middle-Eastern restaurants where the food on the menu is meant to be eaten with your hands.

Maybe he's like Mr. Pitt from Seinfeld and he thinks that the right way to eat a Snickers chocolate bar is with a knife and a fork. Or maybe I'm just not too well-versed in proper dining etiquette and I don't understand why someone would be so upset over this. Of course, there's the possibility that the kid was catapulting rice using his spoon, but there's probably only one small reference to behaviour like that throughout the article. But if that was the case, wouldn't the principal or the lunch monitor have explicitly said something? Or maybe this local paper is blowing things out of proportion.

What do you guys think?

I have heard before that Canada, Australia and South Africa are a very racial descriminating countries and im not surprised with the boy eating with spoon and fork incident in Canada. I know in Canada, Australia and South Africa that if you are not white, you are inferior. I have many Filipino friends in Canada and they think that Filipinos are inferior and same also with the people eating with a spoon and fork.

are you fuccking serious? ó__ô

i can understand why one would list australia or south africa, but to add canada to that list is pretty ignorant.

canada had a horrible past in terms of the treatment of minorities, but today's canada is pretty much based around diversity. americans often accuse us of having a sort of identity crisis in canada, but that's only because our identity lives in the fact that we can be whatever we want to be. i mean the whole reason why so many people move to canada is because immigrants are treated so well here.

(i know this all sounds awfully preachy since i'm canadian myself, but eh, i thought hey, might as well, eh? lol)




also interesting that you didn't include the US in your little list of racist countries


EDIT: ugh. i'm just so mad now. fu-king québeckers ruin everything. first time i read ^THAT^ about canada. i almost had a heart attack for god's sake.

Yes i should have included the US but maybe just some states.

I think Racial Descrimination in Canada still exists http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/racial_profiling/
Im glad that the Canadian govt is doing something about it.

yea. racism isn't that common, but there has been recent criticism about the way the country treats first nations people (erm, in america they're called native americans).

just kinda weird to read because i haven't experienced but racism in my life and a good 90% of those instances were in america, and i don't even live in the US (of course i go to the US every few months, but still)

The bottom line is that , That principal should learn to respect ones culture and belief.

Poor boy! I wonder if this kid still goes to school.

Using spoon and fork isn't really "traditionally" Filipino. It's Western but somehow Filipinized. The traditonal way is to use your hands.

I read somewhere that the boy was traumatize and he doesn't want to eat.

Racism exists everywhere but canada does not belong on that list. White South Africans that ive met are quite blatant with thier racism and some Aussies too but thier a little more subtle about it.

An Editorial of Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Editorial : Pigs in Canada


First posted 02:27am (Mla time) May 07, 2006
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the May 7, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

APPARENTLY, pigs in Canada dine with spoon and fork. That, at least, is what the principal of a school in Montreal seems to suggest, after describing the "table behavior" of a 7-year-old Filipino boy newly immigrated to Canada in the following educational terms: "If your son eats like a pig, he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we're going to do it every time."

That, word for word, is what the principal of Ecole Lalande, identified by a Montreal newspaper as Normand Bergeron, told the boy's mother over the phone, after she called to complain.

The object of her complaint was the repeated decision by her son's "lunch monitor" to punish the boy for eating with a spoon and fork. According to the newspaper report, which named the boy and his mother and even carried their photograph, the supervising teacher ordered the boy "more than 10 times this year" to eat at a table by himself, whenever he ate with a spoon and fork, instead of with a fork alone.

Matters came to a head when the boy finally told his mother on April 11: "Mommy, I don't want to eat anymore. My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting."

When the mother complained to the principal, Bergeron defended the teacher's decisions and then of course unburdened himself of that choice, character-forming simile. "Your son eats like a pig." (What is education, after all, but character formation?) The mother also quoted Bergeron as saying, "Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada, you should eat the way Canadians eat."

The principal has a point, of course, about the need to adapt to the requirements of a larger culture, but he misses the larger point: Canada is celebrated for its multicultural diversity, its hospitality to various cultures. Ostracizing a 7-year-old for his eating habits-shared by countless Filipino families-runs counter to Canada's own heritage.

Bergeron's unseemly conduct is based on assumptions, about culture and immigration, that can only be described as racist.

We are glad to note that the Philippine Embassy in Canada has supported the boy's mother in her complaint filed with the local school board. "The embassy considers this an affront to Philippine culture and continues to vigorously support any action that will validate a conclusion of racial discrimination," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Gilbert Asuque said the other day.

We are even more glad that a Canadian non-government organization dedicated to helping victims of discrimination, the Center for Research Action on Race Relations, has also filed a second complaint, seeking moral damages from the lunch monitor. That, we believe, is in keeping with the best Canadian tradition of putting your money where your mouth is.

Angels of Pinatubo

A GROUP of volunteers has spent the last several years doing humanitarian work involving the Aetas of Mt. Pinatubo. "We work from the shadows," the self-effacing Jennifer Wallum said the other day, by way of explaining what the Entrepreneurs Volunteers Assistance Charity Foundation has done and continues to do.

The group sources donations from the country and from around the world, as well as engages in what is called social marketing (for instance, selling bags with silk-screened Pinatubo motifs), in order to help Aeta communities. In particular, the group has helped fund Traditional Tribal Origins Ethnic Education Schools (cheekily called Toes), which allow Aetas to learn in educational settings that integrate traditional Aeta beliefs and knowledge.

"We are rarely seen in the communities," Wallum said. "If we are always appearing there, it is disruptive to the culture."

The number of Toes has grown over the years, a clear sign of both the volunteers' determination and the tenacity of the Aeta people. Today, there are eight in Bataan, four in Pampanga, 12 in Tarlac and six in Zambales.

"Although they want to conserve their culture," Wallum said, "at the same time [their openness to learning] means that they can have extra knowledge so that they can survive better in the new world."

Hope is one step, one toehold, at a time.

im gon bomb this guy's house!!! s2pid frenchy!!!!!!

Its so funny because hes french canadian he should know better .

^ye foreals

I think this is the principal E-mail:
Would you like to let school principal Normand Bergeron know how you feel
about this?

You can email, write and/or fax him at the information below. Please pass along
to anyone who would feel strongly about this.



École Lalande

50, 3ième Avenue Sud

Roxboro (Québec)

H8Y 2L5

Phone: 855-4238 (I researched and I think the area code is 514 in Canada)



Télécopieur: 684-3330




direction.lalande@csmb.qc.ca

(I think this is Bergeron's email...)

^how the hell u get this??

Try to visit the link that i have posted here!
Here is another article from Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Filipino nationalism, discrimination and racism
First posted 05:55am (Mla time) May 05, 2006
INQ7.net



ALLOW ME to provide a few insights on the Sylvia Mayuga’s article, "A Challenge to Full Humanity” posted on May 1, 2006, with regard to Filipino nationalism, discrimination and racism as it applies in North America.
Like me, most Filipinos in the US and Canada grieve over our "weak sense of nation" and barely existent "love of the motherland" as compared with other nationalities whose “sense of identity” and “love of country” are intact and very visible although they have lived here longer than we. But if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we brought these upon us.

Most of us try to erase traces of anything Filipino -- we are embarrassed about our identity and feel inferior about our ethnicity. We fully embrace everything North America offers, ape the whites, mimic their diction (to the point of ludicrousness), and are very vocal with our gratitude for the good life (material comforts). We do not even consider that these material comforts were not handed down free by Uncle Sam but were acquired through hard work, and often with not one but two or more different kinds of jobs, 24/7.

While other people sometimes go to the extreme of describing their home countries as paradise (which makes a listener wonder why they left), Filipinos do the opposite. On numerous occasions, I’ve heard compatriots describing the Philippines as the worst place on Earth. I often wonder, “What is their point? Is it to get sympathy from the listeners? Is it to soothe their souls, to justify their migration; that even if life in the host country is not what they had envisioned, that even if it is more difficult and riskier (for ‘TNTs,' or illegal aliens) than the life they left behind, it’s still much better than in the Philippines because the hardship is temporary (or so they think)?”

As a rule, we are well liked because we are perceived as "hardworking," "non-confrontational," "accepting," "nurturing," etc. Compared with other immigrants, we tend to adapt and blend easily in the host country. It would seem that the cultural and work struggles, racism and discrimination faced by other minorities are barriers that Filipinos easily overcome.

However, scratch the surface and you’ll find that we are faced with the same struggles and difficulties as the rest. But we seem blissfully ignorant of racism and discrimination, clinging to the mantra of the US and Canada as "classless societies." Here is the irony -- we, who are often labeled "non-confrontational" and "accepting," who believe in "classless" US and Canada, practice discrimination and class hierarchy among ourselves.

I still remember the very first advice I heard when I was new in Canada: "Mag-iingat ka sa kalahi natin, maraming manloloko." I thought I misheard the person so I pressed for explanation. That person gave me anecdotal examples. I took them with a grain of salt.

Though I have not experienced any unpleasant incidents so far, I have witnessed, heard and read stories of Filipinos who have fooled and tricked their countrymen, be it personal or business, especially involving money.

Much as Canada and the US try their best to promote the illusion of an open, tolerant and "classless society," we (whether in the Philippines or abroad) do everything to maintain our own version of class hierarchy (pecking order) -- the “mestizos” (fair skinned) before the “kayumanggi” (brown skinned); the Manileños before the “promdis” (provincials); the professionals before the nannies and DH (domestic helpers); the immigrants before the contract workers; etc.

While Western countries try to get rid of boundaries, we try our best to be one up in order to separate ourselves from the rest -- to be seen as above others (in the Philippines, is it so obvious from the moment one enters the international airport).

The Filipino “pecking order” is visible in Filipino organizations. In such groups, it’s assumed that officers or committee members would be doctors, accountants, engineers or another kind of professional even if these people are not able to practice their professions in the host country, and, like the rest, work in the service sectors. But since they are professionals, or used to be, there is an assumption that they occupy a higher, more visible status (most of them encourage the notion.) The caretakers (cooks, child minders, etc.) are usually the members whose jobs in the host countries are nannies, hotel or factory workers.

Among friends, comments that seem innocent or playful for the majority of Filipinos are actually mean-spirited and discriminatory: "What do you expect, probinsiyano kasi"; "Sa public school kasi natapos"; "Dating mahirap, kaya sabik"; "Masyadong trying hard, pangit naman"; “Kung hindi pa nag-DH, hindi makakarating dito"; “Sobrang arte, ang itim naman"; "Walang taste, kasi nanny"; ad nauseam.

We have a major problem. Besides not knowing, ignoring or, worse, being ashamed of who we are, we treat our own much worse than foreigners treat us. From childhood up to the present, our group behavior, idiosyncracies and peculiar manners are a constant mystery to me. Growing up poor and with a minor disability, I was always subjected to taunts and mocks (for being poor and limping), not only from classmates and neighbors but from relatives as well. In our country, one's disability or physical deformity can become one's pet name, e.g., Aimeeng pilay, Jojit ngo-ngo, Mariang pango, etc. When that child cries, chances are that he or she would be punished for being "balat-sibuyas" (overly sensitive).

But we are not an exception in practicing discrimination towards one another. Throughout history we find other races doing the same. Racism and discrimination are ongoing battles even in so-called enlightened societies.

But we can do something about it. We have to admit that the problem exists. It's our collective attitudes and the way we view things that need to change. We are by nature modest, kind, easy-going, forgiving but quick to taunt and mock others who we feel are below us. But we are also quick to bow our heads to people we perceive to be above us (we becme "bahag ang buntot," so to speak). I have yet see a white person who does not get astounded when addressed with "sir" or "ma'am" by Filipinos.

Often, when the receiving party gets hurt with our taunts, we say, "Biro lang, huwag kang pikon,” in reality the joke is on all of us. We have to realize that not everything is a joke, that for our every taunt and discriminatory action, our self respect and dignity get tarnished. And worst, we become callous and insensitive towards others, including our love ones, thereby losing a part of our humanity.

AIMEE GONZALES (via e-mail)

hahaha damn Quebecers! Watch them eat 4 litres of Poutine(fries with melted cheese and gravy)now thats just eating like a tub of lard....no wonder they're obese...

An Editorial of Philippine Star:
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/NEWS200605070413.htm

Montreal school principal clams up on ‘table manner’ incident
By Pia Lee-Brago
The Philippine Star 05/07/2006

The principal of Roxboro School in Montreal, Canada has refused to talk to Philippine Embassy officials regarding the humiliation suffered by a seven-year-old Filipino student for his table manners despite the embassy’s repeated requests to discuss the incident with school authorities, Ambassador to Canada Jose Brillantes said yesterday.

Brillantes said in an interview with Vice President Noli de Castro in his weekly radio program Para Sa Iyo… Bayan that Roxboro principal Normand Bergeron never returned his calls.

"I have been calling the school principal but he did not return my calls. The Canadians have been sending text messages to me and apologizing in his name," Brillantes said.

Brillantes said the Roxboro School officials "should air their side. They are being criticized heavily because they did not put value or give respect to the complaints of the student’s parents."

He said the school’s authorities have also been avoiding the local media in Canada when asked for interviews or comments regarding the reprimanding and punishment of Filipino-Canadian Luc Cagadoc for eating Filipino-style, with spoon and fork, during a lunch program, instead of using just a fork the way Canadians do.

"We are fully supporting the action taken by the parents. We are supporting them all the way," Brillantes said. "The issue here is what happened and the impact (of the incident) on Philippine culture, which should be rectified."

Meanwhile, an official of the Federation of Philippine-Canada Trade and Commerce (FPCTC) said the lunch program monitor and principal of Roxboro School should apologize for reprimanding and punishing Cagadoc.

"We have to do something so it will not happen again. The lunch program monitor and the principal should apologize," Grace Yit of the FPCTC said.

Yit said most of the members of the Canadian media are apologetic over Cagadoc’s reprimand and punishment.

While she said Cagadoc’s experience is an isolated case, Yit added that the FPCTC fully supports the action taken by Cagadoc’s parents, the Filipino community and the Center for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR).

Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Sutherland said Thursday that the incident is already being addressed and is not an irritant to bilateral relations between the two countries.

Sutherland said he was in Canada from April 23 to May 1 and talked to Filipino-Canadian associations in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg but it was not brought up by any of the association during the meeting.

The envoy said he was already in the Philippines when he learned about the incident, which he referred to as "atypical" and "isolated."

Sutherland added that the Filipino-Canadian community is contributing greatly to the success of the Canadian multi-culturalism.

The Philippine Embassy fully supports the actions being taken by the Filipino community in Montreal, Quebec, who were outraged over Cagadoc’s ill-treatment.

Brillantes said the embassy considers the incident an "affront" to Filipino culture.

A BLOG site of Nick Ballesteros a Filipino http://wats0n.blogspot.com/2006/04/filipin...unished-at.html


The comments of the viewers:
13 Comments:
At 10:03 AM, Sj said...
That was horrible..and horrifying!

And I can't even imagine the type of person who would find that OFFENSIVE???


At 10:54 AM, meowok said...
i don't get it... the kid got punished for using two utensils?

hanlabo...


At 4:53 PM, Toni said...
*rolls eyes*

Grabe.

Dito sa Pinas, we eat with a fork and a spoon. But when we see someone use a fork and kife lang, do we discriminate against them? And if we see someone using chopsticks to eat our cuisine, do we kick them out?

Open-mindedness people!

Poor little kid. =(


At 9:12 PM, Ed Abbey said...
Some teacher has got a little too much time on her hands. Eating etiquette should be taught at home and not at school.

I normally eat with whatever number of utensils to get the job done properly be it one or five. More often than not, it is just one but my wife still usually eats with two.


At 5:22 PM, cherry-flavored ampalaya said...
so... these people have time to punish a kid for having culturally unique eating habits while they can't control violence, premarital sex, drug abuse and other criminal acts within their school?


At 5:28 PM, PhilippinePhil said...
At that age, I don't know what the big deal is. Let the kid eat the way he is comfortable, as long as he isn't making a mess. The only exception i see is if the parents signed an agreement otherwise.

On the other hand, once children get older, they should be taught to be able to use utensils according to the situation. For instance, I wouldn't suggest that you pull up one leg under you and start mixing your rice and gravy together with your hands when you are eating at a restaurant outside of the Philippines (or even in most restaurants in the Phils, yes?).

When I was stationed in new countries, the Air Force provided us with information on what was and what was not acceptable behavior in certain situations.

You're right, it IS a global society, and we should respect each other's ways. That lunchroom "nazi" was NOT respecting that little boy, but I would hope that the boy will eventually be taught situational eating habits. Does that make sense?


At 10:50 AM, niceheart said...
Hi Watson. Pareho pa pala tayo ng post. This incident happened right here in Canada, in Montreal, Quebec to be specific. I hope this is just an isolated case because most Canadians I know are pretty tolerable with people's differences. And I haven't encountered any Canadian who said that my eating habit is disgusting.


At 2:49 AM, Major Tom said...
This one really escapes me,..I never knew the day would come that eating with spoon and fork would be deemed as improper, when we were told to eat that way by our olds ever since we can remember. I bet the lunch monitor needs some psychiatric help.


At 4:53 PM, silentmode_v2 said...
clash with the culture... differences.

but comparing a kid to a pig, that's a different story...

modern-age hitlerati.


At 8:05 PM, Lani said...
Poor kid!!!

If they want the kid to practice what they teach, they should respect his culture and his feelings.

Wala silang cultural sensitivity.


At 10:36 PM, Ate Sienna said...
mas worried ako sa magiging effect nito sa psyche ng bata. sira ulo yang prinsipal na yan...


At 5:57 AM, JMom said...
Well said WatsOn. To think that crassness came from educators is even more disappointing. This is one experience that boy could have done without.


At 5:45 PM, watson said...
SJ, grabe ano?

Meowok, next time, gumamit ka na lang ng isang utensil. Shanse.

Toni, mas open minded tayo kung tutuusin kesa sa ibang nations, I guess.

Hello Ed. How do you feel when your wife eats with a spoon and fork? Frankly, I really don't find anything wrong with it for the child to deserve such treatment.

Cherry, KOREK!

Yes Phil, that does indeed make sense. Which makes me wonder too if the media sensationalized this too much.

Hello niceheart. There have been Candians who have expressed their regret over what had happened and is assuring the rest of the world that Canada in general is not like that at all.

I know, Major Tom. I know. Grabe ano?

Hi Jeff. Oo nga e. The kid deserved better than those bastards. Carried away ako hehehe.

Hi Lani. wish this incident won't be a taint to Canadians in general though. Marami naman raw mababait dun...

Ate Sienna! Turuan mo nga ng leksyon!

hi JMom1 Thanks too for sharing this news with the rest of the berks.

eeeewwwwww im sick of poutine!!! damn looks like a bastard.

From Toronto Star:
Food fight angers Filipinos
Montreal school disciplined boy for `eating like a pig'
May 5, 2006. 06:15 PM
SEAN GORDON
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF


MONTREAL—It all began as a lunchroom dispute over a grade 2 student's table manners, but has now escalated into an international cause célèbre with Filipino authorities accusing a Montreal school board of insulting their country's culture.

The case of 7-year-old Luc Cagadoc has become front-page news in his parents' native Philippines and a Quebec-based rights group says it will haul a suburban Montreal school before the provincial human rights commission after it repeatedly disciplined the slight, bespectacled boy because he allegedly "eats like a pig."

The Philippines' ambassador to Canada issued a statement of support for Cagadoc's family and Montreal's Filipino community, which he said was rightly offended by the school's reaction to the way the boy eats using a fork and spoon.

"The embassy considers the alleged incident an affront to Filipino culture," Ambassador Jose Brillantes wrote. "To assert one's accepted eating practices, which after all are most proper and which have become part of one's cultural identity is, in fact, encouraged under the Canadian immigration policy on creating a Canadian mosaic rather than a melting pot."

School officials, for their part, contend the punishment — Cagadoc was separated from his classmates and made to eat alone — had to do with disruptive behaviour, not slovenly eating.

The Commission Scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, which operates the École Lalande where Cagadoc studies, sent a letter to his parents last month saying an April 12th "educational intervention" was "in no way aimed at the cultural practices of your community. It was very specifically linked to the way your son was ingesting his meal that day and in no way to the method or utensils used to bring his food to his mouth."

The letter, penned by the board's associate director-general, said "these types of incidents are commonplace" and that lunchroom monitors in the school were simply trying to enforce "a certain etiquette" and "the respect of food, of peers, and, of course, security."

A spokesperson for the board said the affair has taken on "astronomical and surreal proportions" and that the school considers it "an educational question first and foremost, not an inter-cultural problem"

At issue is the traditional Filipino method of using a fork to mush food into a spoon before swallowing the contents.

Cagadoc's mother, Maria Theresa Gallardo, said she's been advised not to grant interviews until the dispute is resolved, but spoke briefly about the toll the affair has taken on her son.

"It's not easy; he doesn't want to go to school," Gallardo said from the family's tidy bungalow in the leafy northwest Montreal neighbourhood of Roxboro.

According to Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Montreal-based Center for Research Action on Race Relations, Gallardo was told by the school's principal during a telephone call that "this is not the way Canadians eat; you have to adapt to Quebec society."

School officials also allegedly called Cagadoc's eating habits "disgusting."

"She was also told that it wasn't a very intelligent way to eat, and in another incident witnessed by her husband, the teacher who removed Luc from the lunch room asked whether Filipinos wash their hands before they eat," Niemi said.

Cagadoc's parents will make an application in the coming days before the Quebec Human Rights Commission seeking unspecified punitive damages for separating him from the other children on at least 10 occasions because of the way he eats.

The complaint will allege insensitive and racist behaviour on the school's part and Niemi pointed out that the board is the same one involved in the so-called "kirpan case" involving the right of a baptized Sikh student to carry his ceremonial dagger on school grounds.

The Supreme Court recently ruled in the student's favour, overturning a blanket ban on the knives.

Niemi, an outspoken activist and strident critic of racial profiling and discrimination, said he is also currently pursuing a pair of other rights complaints against the board, and added "we hope in this case that the Quebec human rights tribunal will consider the racialized aspect of some school discipline."

Niemi said he is also pursuing other rights complaints against the board.

i love poutine so much. it's awesome if you only eat it once a week, and if you share it.

i'v never eaten a full serving of poutine.t hat's just nasty.

Damn, the hardcopy news articles here in Toronto are so vague. When I first read it, I was in disbelief that something like this would happen in this country. It sounded more like the kid was punished for eating messily, throwing food, etc., and the mom calling it racism instead. But it turns out it's the school principal who's a total asshat.

What a shameful taint on Canada's image. On behalf of the rest of Canada's population, my apologies for this failed abortion of a school principal.

I thought many people moved to Canada to cross into the US. Just kidding. Couldn't resist. Most immigrants move to Canada because of the better paying jobs when compared to there own less economically advantaged nations. The Philippines use to be US territory so why aren't they give prefence in coming to US??
Has for the utensil kid, school officials handled it wrong. Kid wasn't doing anything wrong. Alot of ppl. in education that shouldn't be there.

no i meant why people move to canada instead of other countries.

i gave up poutine 3 weeks after i started eating it 6 yrs ago. since then, i rarely eat em.

To islander:

The US embassy in the Philippines is very strict in issuing any form of visas to Filipinos they are afraid that Filipinos will be coming and invade US just like what they have experience in Mexico and Latin American countries.

Here is another news from ABS-CBN news:


The boy being featured in TV Patrol World

Mom: School officials 'racist' for punishing boy's table manners


It started simply: a seven-year-old Filipino boy being punished by a lunch program monitor in Montreal, Canada, for eating with a spoon and fork. Now, the boy's Filipino mother has accused the school board in Montreal of racism and discrimination

Maria Theresa Gallardo told ABS-CBN that she has filed a complaint before the Quebec Human Rights Commission after Ecole Lalande School principal Norman Bergeron and the school's day-care monitor, Martin Bertrand, allegedly showed discrimination against her son, Luc.

Gallardo said her son had been punished by school authorities at least ten times for using both a spook and fork during meals. She added that Luc was even isolated from his classmates because of his eating habits.

Gallardo said she found out about the incidents after Luc refused to go to school because he said he was being punished for using a spoon and fork during meal times.

She said she confronted Bergeron about the incidents. The principal, however, lectured her that Luc should learn how to eat like the Canadians using only a fork.

"Like any other immigrant in Canada I feel it is prejudiced and racist. I did not expect from a principal that he will act like that. I expected more empathy," Gallardo told ABS-CBN News.

"This is how we eat in the Philippines, with a spoon and fork. This is how I was taught by my parents. How can a seven-year old old boy eat sinigang with a fork?" she added.

She said she got more angry when the principal of the 387-student Roxboro school told her: "If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time."

"I told him have you seen him eat like a pig? How can you tell me that he is eating like a pig. At that time I was furious, I was enraged. I was really mad," she told ABS-CBN.

Even Luc's father, Aldrin, was incensed after talking with one of the school officials. "He said that if you eat aside from this method, it’s not intelligent. I told him, 'You mean if you eat with chopsticks, it’s not intelligent?'" he said.

ABS-CBN tried to get the side of the school officials but they refused to be interviewed.

Gallardo, who is originally from Misamis Oriental, moved to Montreal in 1999. A former contract worker, she now operates a daycare service out of her Roxboro home and is close to completing her studies in early childhood education.

Several groups including the Federation of Canadian Associations in Quebec plan to launch protest actions against the school. They also demand a public apology from the principal, the teacher and the school board.

The Philippine Embassy in Montreal also expressed support for Gallardo's efforts to complain against the school.

"The Philippine Embassy fully supports the actions being taken by the Filipino Community in Montreal, Quebec, who were outraged by the case of a Filipino student reportedly punished at a local school for his eating habits of using spoon and fork. The Embassy considers the alleged incident an affront to Filipino culture," said a May 3 statement of the embassy.

It added that the embassy is now actively and closely monitoring and coordinating with members of the Filipino Community in Montreal on the complaint filed before the school board by the Center for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) on behalf of Luc, through its director general, Fo Nemie, to protect the Filipino student's rights and to assert his cultural heritage.

"To assert one's eating practices, which after all are most proper and which have become part of one's cultural identity is, in fact, encouraged under the Canadian immigration policy on creating a Canadian mosaic rather than a melting pot," the embassy said.

Here is the Link:
abs-cbnnews.com

Now almost every news in the USA were featuring this story....

From a forum sites:

These are the opinion of the people in that site:
http://www.topix.net/forum/world/canada/TP4D3GQDLDJUL1IGU

Lumawig Pasetes
Chicago, IL Flag for Review | Reply » Wednesday May 3
I was shocked to read how the young boy was treated by the school principal due to his manner of eating using spoon and fork as he was brought up as a Filipino. He should know that using spoon and fork in eating is uniquely Filipino. I have four kids who all grew up in the United States, use spoon and fork [the Filipino way] when [and wherever]they eat. This just shows the narrow mindedness of the school principal who proved himself to be uneducated on cultural nuances. Would he have acted the same way had the boy used chopsticks which is predominantly used by other Asians? I am sure he would not have disciplined anybody using chopstick during school lunch, which is obviously not the Canadian way of eating. Mr. Bergeron, why don't you try eating your meal the way we Filipinos do and you will learn the practicality of using those utensils?
Garry
Toronto, Canada Flag for Review | Reply » Wednesday May 3
Lumawig Pasetes wrote:
I was shocked to read how the young boy was treated by the school principal due to his manner of eating using spoon and fork as he was brought up as a Filipino. He should know that using spoon and fork in eating is uniquely Filipino. I have four kids who all grew up in the United States, use spoon and fork [the Filipino way] when [and wherever]they eat. This just shows the narrow mindedness of the school principal who proved himself to be uneducated on cultural nuances. Would he have acted the same way had the boy used chopsticks which is predominantly used by other Asians? I am sure he would not have disciplined anybody using chopstick during school lunch, which is obviously not the Canadian way of eating. Mr. Bergeron, why don't you try eating your meal the way we Filipinos do and you will learn the practicality of using those utensils?
Don't worry, nobody is arguing, the lunch monitor and anyone else involved will get sensitivity training and all will be cool.
Ino Philip
Cebu City, Philippines Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 4
I think Mr. Bergeron was brought up in a very primitive way by his parents. Maybe they used sharpened stones instead of spoon or fork when they were eating.
JDE205
Angono, Philippines Flag for Review | Reply » Friday May 5
I am just curious, do pigs in Roxboro eat with spoon and fork? Whoa, that is an amazing feat! If he has never seen anyone eat with both utensils, I am too sad for him. Why doesn't he get out of his school and see life outside. He will be surprised to see that a lot of immigrants eat differently at the table in Montreal. I read that there are some members of the "real" Canadians of the First Nations who eat with their bare hands. I don't think anyone has the right to call their table manners as "yucky and disgusting." It is because they eat like some Canadians do.

About the fork, I will try eating French fries next time with fork. Hey, I do not want to be called "uncivilized." I'd rather be civilized than stupid.
Bokyo
Pryor, OK Flag for Review | Reply » Saturday May 6
Rice originally came from southeast asia, the region where the Philippines is. To use just the fork to eat rice is pretentious, impractical, and silly. Being of a rice-eating culture, Filipinos use both spoon and fork.
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
sa totoo lang mas madaling makibagay tayo kaysa lumaban. hindi namang masam ang mag adapt sa custom ng country na umaruga sa atin.
Mr ray
Surrey, Canada Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
Hey..... when it calls you..isn't sound idiot. internationally we used spoon beside prime minester in canada and prisident of united states, are using spoon in fork at all time. it that considered as PIG... IS THAT SO.I PILIPINO WHO USED SPOON AND FORK ALL THE TIME SO THEN i considered myself human bieng not pigggggggggggggg. understand....bastard...
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
oh gusto niyong labanan ang mga canadian eh? i dont think thats right thing to do nor its proper cause the boy really eats like a pig. i saw it on tv. too much pride? but you dont have enough pride to stay home in pilipins?
shocked
China Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
to pabling, i find your comments 'disgusting and unintelligent'. assuming the boy really ate like a pig, which i know for a fact wasnt the case, it still wasn't proper for the principal and the lunch monitor to punish him the way they did. they're in the field of education...surely there must be a better way to reprimand their students without damaging the child emotionally?...not that i agree with the punishment they dished out on poor luc. and i agree with one poster's comment, to try to eat rice with a fork is very very very pretentious. eat with a fork? haha. all for what? to fit in? tsk tsk, trying to fit in in another country is just fine but to actually abandon who you really are is something already. but if you insist on forgetting you who are in pursuit of fitting in, please do so in such a way that you wont appear funny and yes, pretentious.

and no one is fighting the canadians here....we are merely after teaching the principal and the lunch monitor a lesson. i work with a french canadian and he fully supports the protest being staged against those 2 ignoramuses.

hmmm, im in the mood for pinakbet, tinola and dinuguan..pass the spoon and knife, please!
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
to shocked its really more shocking that you insist on imposing on the canadian teacher who is an authority figure on canadian school the old and improper and custom of filipinos. its not pretending at all and its not just eating with a spoon and pork. its the boys uncivilised table manner that was shown on tv. that is the point of this argument. too much pride dont get anyone anywhere except more trouble. ta taa!
shocked
China Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
pabling.......ohmigudness! now i see that it is your UNDERSTANDING that's the problem. tsk tsk. who is imposing filipino customs on the canadians? what the protesters are upset about is the disrespect of the 2 canadians for other cultures and actually calling other customs unintelligent. get it? THAT is the point of this argument. and wow, you really think filipino custom is old and improper? my french canadian says you're worse than the canadian..that's all i can say. such a good thing you're not in the philippines then...we only want well-mannered and intelligent PINOYS there.
(yours is the typical example of the 'nakatapak ka lang ng ibang bansa eh akala mo na kung sino ka. di ka marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan mo!'.)
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Monday May 8
shocking shocked...the 2 canadians are teaching the boy how to behave and succeed in this western world social environment and i dont see anything wrong with that. nakayapak lang sa ibang bansa is what i think of you. nagmamalaki kang masyado but what for? if the customs of the filipinos is so superior how come we are stuck on the mud with poverty and filthy garbage. gusto niyo lang palaging easy go lucky and laid back is that it? what so hard about following the western culture? are they getting to you and your pride? you want to be treated like civilised people then act like one. if you want to eat with your hand on public places (excluding picnic) then thats your choice. i shall say no more.
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Tuesday May 9
the pigs are crying foul the pigs are crying foul. ive been eating with fork for 40 years and i dont feel pretentious and i actually enjoy it. by the way the other orientlas chinese japanese vietnamese eeats with chopstick which as practical as fork in scooping food and it works for them. my advice is why not use shovel for your dinner table> better than kutsara. oink oink!
pokroy
Cheshire, CT Flag for Review | Reply » Tuesday May 9
alam mo pabling isa lang ang masasabi ko sa mga sinabi mo ikaw ang klase ng tao na walang prinsipyo at ipinaglalaban sa buhay.....
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Tuesday May 9
paano ka naman magpolite sa mga taong ito? simpling bagay ay hindi makaintindi.
Nikolai Dmitrievitch
Makati, Philippines Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 11
Pabling,

It is because we cannot really understand your principles if you have. I don't use spoon either 'coz I don't eat rice but I do respect the other people who do. I don't consider them as uncivilized because that's the way they eat. Now if you want to shout to the whole world that you are civilized, please do watch your yourself first. I don't know what's your job but your manner tells something....¡ "Esto es colmo"!¡Qué poca verguenza! para tu.
Pauline
London, Canada Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 11
this is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. A 7 year old child being punished for using his fork to push food on his spoon.
He was polite enough not to use his fingers! This school needs a reality check! I feel sorry for any child attending this school!
It's hard enough to get children to eat without asine rules like this.
pabling
Seattle, WA Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 11
it certainly not my principle to fight on every minor incedent that could be settled in fair and civilised manner. i see jumping the gun on the part of the filipinos. principle is not used prudently when it comes to this matter. truth always prevail at the end. tataaa.
lew
Palo Alto, CA Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 11
I dont know the whole story, but if the kid was punished because he was using the fork and spoon, well...that's just outrageous and ridiculous.

Some Italians use fork and spoon to eat spaghetti. Would they be considered uncivilized too?

FORK THOSE TWO KNUCKLEHEADS.
lew
Palo Alto, CA Flag for Review | Reply » Thursday May 11
PABLING,

GET AWAY FROM THE 'THEY'RE RIGHT CAUSE THEY'RE WHITE ATTITUDE'

almost all the post are against the principal of the school

The custom of simultaneously using a spoon and a fork is not exclusively Filipino. Here are examples of other Asian countries with similar practices:

Malaysia - "Food is cut in bite size pieces, making a knife unnecessary. Hold the spoon in your right hand and the fork in your left hand. Push your food onto the spoon with the fork and eat from the spoon."
http://www.windowontheworldinc.com/country...e/malaysia.html

Indonesia - "A traditional meal is usually eaten with a spoon in the right hand. A fork, to help put food on the spoon, is held in the left." http://www.luxurylink.com/portfolio/por_de...ave=1&id=111928

Singapore - "If given a spoon and fork, hold the spoon in your right hand and use your fork (left hand) to push food onto the spoon." http://www.windowontheworldinc.com/country.../singapore.html

Thailand - "Dine with a spoon and fork; there are no chopsticks here. The fork will stay in your left hand and the spoon in your right. Use the side of the spoon to cut, and the fork to push food onto the spoon." http://careers.berlitz.com/Asia/th/profile...nfo=TH&cCode=51

who else would they be directed towards?

BTW what is the status of the boy and the school?

I saw from the news tat the boy is again back in school.

the cafeteria lady who cant provide any friggin knife to the kid...

What is the news about this incidence? Did the school principal apologized?

the school board?