MY TAKE ON NATIONAL SENTIMENT

Here we go again. Scriptwriters and actors continue to hit Filipinos below the belt. I understand. They wanted to make their TV programs draw more viewers. Nevertheless, if they do it at the expense of someone’s dignity, to the extent that it results to a skewed stereotyping, that’s a different story. The problem is that many actors are so irresponsible that they would just blurt anything a scriptwriter would put in their mouths and late night talk show hosts would scour for funny dialogue to keep their viewers awake.

First case was on September 30, 2007. Susan in “Desperate Housewives” boldly said, “Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines.” This was a dialogue between Susan and her gynecologist. Next was on October 25, 2007. Late night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel, while interviewing actor Josh Hartnett said, “(in the Philippines) people probably don’t speak English there”. Now, similar case has happened in the U.K. A comedian included in his performance a Filipina domestic helper, who was flirting and acting like dumb with her British master. Such irresponsible dialogue and showmanship maybe flattering to many, but (oh, boy!) it is a live coal waiting to rekindle the national sentiment to others.

National sentiment is a sense of collective solidarity by a group within identified geographical and cultural boundaries. It sparks when an outsider unfairly treats them. Such treatment, more or less, draws emotional, impulsive, irrational, regressive, with high intensity to the subjected cultural group. That has been happening among the Filipino communities, not only in USA and U.K. With easy access to electronic communication highway, such sentiment quickly spreads in other parts of the world.

Depending on the harshness of the event, responses by subjected group may vary. Anger, disgust, strike, picket, demonstration, boycott, mob, lynching, and those who see TV programs as purely entertainment see it as a matter of art. Nationalistic individuals, who have strong affinity to their country of origin or those who have experienced indifference from their host culture or another cultural group would react vehemently. Mentally unstable individual could react injuriously. Bicultural and assimilated individuals would take it ambivalent.

Just like individualistic artist, I take my national sentiment differently. Besides boycotting, (I haven’t watched “Desperate Wives” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” since then) I paint and etch the event in paper hoping that those who could read it would get a kernel of history lesson in it. Hence, I wrote this “Hey Poem”, which is an experimental performance poetry adapted from the indigenous Dasang of the Higa-onon tribe in southern Philippines against the words of the late night talk show host, Jimmy Kimmel.


LOOK! WHO’S TALKING
Edmund Melig Industan


Oh, yeah! That midnight show on ABC.
And Josh Hartnett was with Jimmy.
They talked about the film per se
That’s partly shot in the Philippines.

I watched and listened with delight. (Oh, yeah)
Nostalgia purling with my insomnia
I watched the antic with a grin until
The host said they can’t speak our English there.

Hey!
My blood has spurted so high!
Hey!
Bellagio fountain… that high!
Hey!
My head has spanned ‘round three sixty.
It triggered a fiery anxiety.

I’m pinoy! I speak English well. Not a lie!
But I’m just a piece of that whole brown pie.
I even taught English to Texan kids;
So, check your mouth, more research, you need.

It is true that some pinoys could only say,
‘Hey! Chocolate, Joe!’ ‘Hey! Cigarette, Joe!’
But, please, don’t dare say that leaf is a tree;
Don’t leave out adjective ‘some’ off the tree.

Hey!
Though we speak English with gongs;
Hey!
So loud that they’re bikers’ “broom”!
Hey!
And others need to learn it well!
But don’t dare label that all don’t speak
English that well.

Think of your name, for once, Mr. Host.
It does not sound a “Smith” or a “Post”.
Trace where your blood originally sprung;
Check if they can speak the universal tongue.


Should you find the other way, you’re lucky.
Should you find they’re like what you say?
You’re sorry! You just hammered yourself
With an infected nail that breaks our society.

Hey!
I’m going to say this to you!
Hey!
Those tactless thought and racial jokes!
Hey!
They’re hard to chew as rubbery meat.
Well-done for safety sake! It’s not worth it!

Hey!
It tastes like bile in castor oil!
Hey!
It’s bitter, cleanses…entire bowel!
Hey!
It makes cold sweat that so gooey;
It could blow someone’s head away!

But hey!
We don’t need more brutality.
We need relation…harmony!
Your role as a celebrity is
Quell the fire spreading in the city.

So hey!
You let your voice fly high so high.
Let those night owls laugh hard but have them sigh.
Fly as a dove on sleepless night
Bringing olive spray to those in-fights!

We ought to check what we say on the air
Pay attention to those modifiers!
…For labeling and generalizing?
Not the best way to peace and understanding.

© edindustan, 2007

I hope everybody will become sensitive to the feelings of other people, especially when one is talking about people outside of his race. PEACE!