MGA API SA MUNDO

Jul 8, '08 7:22 PM for everyone

Mga Api sa Mundo. – So, I can’t wait. I would now like to have the last laugh on this matter, so I thought I would share with you what I had emailed to some friends on a little “tempest in a teapot” which boiled over some time ago.

     “Tempest in a teapot.” - I know some people will not like me for this but that  furor some time ago over some snide remark made in some US TV comic soap opera (Teri Hatcher?) had me taking the less than popular view.

     Let’s face it, this world will always have its share of bigots, narrow-minded, smart-alecky, insensitive, opportunistic, irreverent, and downright unkind humans. As a puny, asthmatic grade-schooler myself, I remember my grandmother often cautioning me to simply ignore such bullies. Some people will always find something bad to say about other people. On the other hand, she would say, it will make you appreciate it even more when they do find something good to say about you. It’s like anything else, what good is sweet unless you have tasted sour, joy without pain, victory without failure.

     Also, we should understand where some of these ugly Americans are coming from. While their forefathers had to work the coal mines, dig ditches or pick cotton,  our Filipino immigrants to the US – no thanks to stringent if discriminatory US immigration policies - are well-educated, skilled or well-trained; hence, very  likely to land decent, good-paying jobs just as soon as they land in the great USA.  So what else is there to criticize about the Filipino if not his diploma, or his cute little pug nose, chinky eyes, almost-perfect tan, or “funny” accent.

     We are the new kids on the world block, and as such, the envy of our neighbors or the butt of some not-so-funny jokes. Of course, there is another downside.  We cannot all go to the USA. Many of us have to become slaves in other parts of the world.  Our diaspora has also made us, like the Jews of old, some of the world’s most oppressed people. Mga api tayo sa mundo.  Madali tayong mapag-tripan.  

     But not to fret.  If we must fret, let’s think of the starving millions inAfrica.  After all, as ERAP would say, weder weder lang. Let them laugh at us now.  Sooner or later, some hundred years from now, if we’re lucky, we might still have the last laugh. Haha, Teri, wherever you are then. JAMES L

reply

reply tomranada wrote on Jul 8, '08 Tempest fugit?

reply jeemsdee wrote on Jul 8, '08 Gud play on some Latin (?) words, Kuya. Fr. Floresca wud be proud.