A Much Needed Paradigm Shift Regarding OFWs
With the recent Malu Fernandez controversy, as I have said in an earlier article, I certainly hope someday, sooner rather than later, that Malu’s paradigm shifts dramatically in terms of her discriminatory thinking towards Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). There is no wit that can be ascribed to her article, just plain bigotry. And thus, let us look at paradigms, and see how one can experience a shift, and how it is applicable in this very controversy that we find ourselves in.
Quoting from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
I remember a mini-paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly — some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.
Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.
The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.
It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?”
The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”
Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn’t have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man’s pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. “Your wife just died? Oh, I’m so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?” Everything changed in an instant.
Many people experience a similar fundamental shift in thinking when they face a life-threatening crisis and suddenly see their priorities in a different light, or when they suddenly step into a new role, such as that of husband or wife, parent or grandparent, manager or leader.
We could spend weeks, months, even years laboring with the Personality Ethic trying to change our attitudes and behaviors and not even begin to approach the phenomenon of change that occurs spontaneously when we see things differently.
It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.
In the words of Thoreau, “For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.” We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behavior and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviors flow.
As we can see, maybe the problem does not lie with the “annoying” OFWs who show such affection for their fellow kababayans, maybe it is the person who perceives and experiences this annoyance that has the problem of not truly seeing the entire picture.
If we truly shift our paradigm then maybe we can realize that this show of happiness, is a result of many months or maybe even years of hard work and labor in a country we call not our home. Maybe our paradigm will shift, when we suddenly realize, that for many of these OFWs they only get to go home once in every 3 to 5 years, then what could we say?
Suppose you or I were away from home for this amount of time, wouldn’t every Filipino you see, suddenly become a brother or a sister, and your deep longing for home has made you just want to embrace this person with all your soul, because this individual, whom you call a fellow Kababayan, embodies the nation that you have been away from for so many years?
Let us shift our paradigm, and realize, that not only does absence make our hearts grow fonder, but it can make our soul open to those who will let us embrace our fellow Filipino with deep affection.
When you read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and highly suggest you do, you will realize that reality is sometimes not what we perceive, and that reality is sometimes only the result of our own perception, and thus we all may have a different interpretation of reality. It is up to us to create our own reality.
While Malu’s reality is of being annoyed by OFWs, my own is very different. When I see OFWs, I immediately sense their hardships, and the many sleepless nights spent thinking about coming home. I see their sorrow and deep longing for their homeland and coming home to the embrace of their spouse, children, and other family members. I see the heart that beats for their culture and heritage. And I see the sweat and labor that they endure in other nations. This is the reality with which I see our OFWs, the paradigm needs to shift for Malu, and I sincerely hope that someday, sooner than later, that shift occurs.
I’ve said my piece here.. They shouldn’t be heroes. They should be agents of social change. They should see themselves as such.
sparks, can they not be both? These two things, aren’t exactly mutually exclusive..
They are individuals who have chosen to sacrifice for the sake of their families. In some instances, I would contend, there truly are heroes in the OFW communities. To exclude them altogether, simply on the basis or the definition of a comic book hero, complete with costume and cape is to totally miss the whole point of being a hero. It is sacrifice of oneself that contributes to being a hero, this is why, I have often said to colleagues, I consider my father to be my hero… It’s personal, but it’s no less true..
I do believe, however, they are being exploited by government, because of their remittances.. And yet, government, only pays lip service.
I give our OFWs their due Nick. Half of my relatives are OFWs themselves, and I know the kind of sacrifices they make. As I wrote in my piece, I don’t like the term “hero” because it dwells on the sacrifice, like we Catholics like to dwell on Good Friday rather than Easter. Work hard, never mind the abuse, because I’m heroic. If you change their mind set, like you said a paradigm shift, then they would have different expectations of themselves and of the society and government they support.
First and foremost they send money home for the daily subsistence of their families. Which means that folks in the Philippines cannot subsist on the local economy. It that heroic? Or tragic?
Sparks, as in the case of Ninoy, both heroic and tragic. As a nation, and maybe as humanity itself, we tend to overlook until faced with the tragedy itself. And thus we have a government who does nothing until an OFW is kidnapped, abused, or even murdered. And even then, the cure is a band-aid type of solution, without truly getting into the heart of the problem. It’s a tragedy that our OFWs have to leave their homeland at all. Of course, it would be alright, if indeed they wanted to leave, but for many, it’s not a choice. In the end, maybe the answer is truly the hero who works for social change, and participates in the change that our nation so desperately needs. I figure that with at least 5% of our GDP coming from OFWs, they would need to exert more will into the running of our government. In this sense, your thesis is correct. But again, I assert, they can be both, and must be both hero and a catalyst for change.
Sparks, I’m enjoying this very much, please come by more often.. And ditto with me as well..
We need heroes in times of crisis don’t we? Have we been in a state of permanent crisis all years that we need to send tens of thousands of our own every year to save our us? OFWs, and even Filipino migrants are an invaluable resource – not just in monetary means. Its time they realise this, and take action.
I don’t doubt the reason why this administration seems bent on making sure overseas Pinoys dont get to vote is because they fear how the results might be skewed. They have no control over what happens when these ballots are cast in other territories. I think one concrete step is to make overseas voting a reality.
Its good to have you blogging too
To me, this dialogue Pinoys are having online is nothing short of amazing.
I experienced riding on a plane full of OFWs 30 years ago when their ranks were still scant. At that time they did not yet realize their hero stature but their exuberance was like that of school kids at play. Every time the plane made a safe landing, especially on the very rough ones, they applaud with enthusiasm. Non-Pinoy passengers were at first flummoxed, then relented and joined the applauding after realizing the significance of the clapping – a prayer of thanks to the God.
As to shifting paradigms, this is whatI blogged in December 2005:
OFWs
The press calls it a “brain drain†when alarms sounded about hospitals closing down due to deserting doctors emigrating for better paying jobs abroad, a looming medical crisis. By this time, thousands of nurses had embarked on the rampant exodus for employment in the U.S. and U.K. Yet they are only the latest overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) joining the 8 million or so working overseas that remit the dollars home, the group of Pinoys praised as heroes for helping to keep the nation from going down the drain of economic disaster.
These intrepid jobseekers in alien shores have not always been appreciated. The ubiquitous Pinoy nannies in Hong Kong and housemaids in Europe were a source of embarassment for Filipino globetrotting glitterati. The majority of OFWs works in menial jobs but gets paid many times more than similar jobs locally. Work abroad means he or she must endure not just the travails of the job but also the loneliness of separation from family, disrupted social life, strange language and alien customs
The OFW influence on Philippine society has profound implications beyond their economic clout. The average Filipino family consists of the two parents and three children, a family of five. Thus the 8 million OFWs represent half of the country’s population of 80 million. These Pinoys are learning the mores and rules of their host nation, and adapt to them or risk losing their job, their freedom, a hand or even a head. Repatriating OFWs return from a developed country with a higher respect and appreciation of law and order, so their potential to enhance and enrich Philippine culture is enormous. This enlightened class just might become the reformed Pinoy middleclass that will spearhead the renaissance of Philippine society, with the hope and promise of banished corruption, dismantled political dynasties, and laundered dirty politics …
I have been taking the mass transit system in our City for more than 3 decades and since we are a city of people of the World, you could here passengers screaming in hundreds of different languages, children of different cultures doing their own things, but since we are conditioned to our Multiculturalism, not only we tolerate each other, but we accept each others defects and learn to put ourselves in each other shoes. Even the train operators and bus drivers will only tell the pasengers to move back further to give room to incoming passengers. I think respect to one another is one reason why with different cultures, we are able to get along together.
And believe me, in our mass transit, there are millionaires, CEOs, and politicians using them and you would never be able to distinquish one from the other. I always meet my doc in the subway, a specialist and University Professor and just like anyone will even give up his seat for an expectant woman….
I am a Dubai OFW and my sister and I have been talking even before this Malu Fernandez issue came up of how we want to see the
Philippines shine again and that there is a need for MAJOR CHANGE for all Filipinos! Yes, you may say we are dreamers.
We hate how Filipinos are generally perceived here in Dubai. And we hate more the likes of Malu Fernandez. We hate it when people ask us incredulously here “is there anything good to see in the Philippines?”
We would rather stay in Manila to be with friends and family but we also have big dreams. We hate that the government seems unperturbed by the exodus of Filipinos. We hate that we have all accepted this as fact.
Nick is right. Paradigm shift. But how exactly do you do this on a massive scale? How ’bout a revolution? Not in the streets but here… in our heads and with our hands and feet.
Starting from the people I know here in Dubai, I have started talking about a “small revolution”. I looked at myself as an example and I realized for all my complaints of the government, I haven’t been voting the past three years since I came to Dubai. Why? Because I always thought everyone was rotten. But I should have voted the least evil candidate if i truly cared. And that’s my personal small revolution. Imagine if more people voted, maybe the one that should win could win. What if we spend an hour each month doing something for our country? Let’s say i give an hour just talking to new Filipinos looking for a job in Dubai and giving them tips where to search, what to avoid, how to dress. Am I not helping my country?
My mom says call it a sweet revolution. Because it will not give a bitter taste because it opposes no one and promotes only the country. Would love to hear your thoughts….