A Renewed Boycott Against Manila Standard Today
Here it is, our stand, because Manila Standard Today has chosen to hide behind their term “protocol” and issue a pardon to their most beloved columnist for all The Filipinos to see. This is a call to boycott, for the irresponsible behavior of Manila Standard Today, they have chosen to pass up the option of doing the right thing, and essentially show their true colors and the standards they are upholding.
We are launching this project, and all those who wish to participate, copy the badge code at the end of this post.
If you are new to this issue, you can read all the articles here. And see the original hateful, discriminatory, and bigoted article here.
This is also to Malu Fernandez, which from the very beginning was obviously insincere, has indeed showed her insincerity by having Manila Standard Today make the decision for her to stay. As you know, Manila Standard did not accept her resignation. But why doesn’t she just step down? As is the case with individuals who are truly never repentant, they see no need for any accountability.
Boycott! Boycott Manila Standard Today!
There are much much much better publications than what they decide to write in their paper. They are trying to run with the big boys like The Philippine Daily Inquirer, but the biggest mistake they could ever make is to keep Malu Fernandez as a columnist.
Do not go to their website, do not buy their paper, and anything that they write. Unless it is a declaration of firing Malu Fernandez, it will fall on deaf ears. We are seething with anger, because for days and even weeks they stood silent, and when they finally spoke, through their spokesperson, they did not even address it to the public, but made the statement to a television show. What cowardice being displayed by an organization.
We are not to blame for this escalation. All we wanted in the first place was a fair shake for this story to get some coverage, for the involved parties to issue apologies, and for Malu Fernandez to be made accountable by being fired from both publications. But Manila Standard, was given a chance, and they blew it. They not only blew it, but they did harm to the many individuals who were hurt by the article of Malu Fernandez and her response in her Manila Standard Today column.
Let me make it clear, an entire social class was maligned and hurled with discrimination, all of it was unprovoked! Now tell me, where is the civility in this action, and where is the civility in keeping such a person as a columnist? People Asia, even though they were slow to act, at least acted in the manner proper of a higher standard Newspaper.
THE BADGE for BOYCOTT
We need to get to other issues in The Philippines, but this issue, I promise will not be swept under the rug. No amount of Public Relations offensive will be enough, until Malu Fernandez is properly made accountable.
Karlo of Pinoyblogero.com was commissioned (actually I called him up) to create a button for the boycott campaign. He willingly accepted in such short notice, and for this I greatly appreciate his help and his talents. In one button, our stand is depicted, and those OFWs who were, for no reason at all, were thrown insult after insult, by a woman who showing her true colors as she sits in her high horse happy that Manila Standard has “refused her resignation”.
The OFW deserve our full backing and support, and the bigotry and discrimination shown by Malu Fernandez and the subsequent non-action by Manila Standard Today only shows their determination to let this issue slide without any real consequences taking place. It shows them for what they truly are, no need to elaborate further as to what kind of an organization they are. You can fill in the blanks.
This button will be on The Tingog.com sidebar. Everyone is welcome to spread this button on their blogs and/or journals.
Let me make it clear once again. Let us not read this publication, let us not buy this publication, let us not go to their website. The article is not worth the paper it’s printed on, and the website is not worth a pixel on the screen in which it is being displayed on.
THE BADGE CODE
Anyone may cut and paste this code on their blog, journal, Friendster account, Myspace account, Facebook account, or their respective e-groups . If you wish to change the url link of the badge to a post made in your blog however, you are free to do so, but please stick and adhere to the condition for which you can do this. (described in the next paragraph)
<a title="Boycott Manila Standard Today" href="http://www.tingog.com/current-events/a-renewed-boycott-against-manila-standard-today.html" target"">
<img title="Boycott Manila Standard Today" alt="Boycott Manila Standard Today" src="http://www.tingog.com/BoycottMST.JPG"></a>
PARTICIPATING BLOGGERS and Filipinos
All who wish to participate, please give me a link to your blog, and your blog will be added on to the list. We are allowing you to change the url on the code to a url of a post on your blog that must be titled Boycott Manila Standard Today only on the clear instruction that there is no name calling hurled at Ms. Fernandez lest they use this as another excuse with which they no longer need to talk about the issue and instead focus on things other than the discriminatory and bigoted comments in Ms. Fernandez’s hateful and prejudiced article. Let us take one stand, talk about the real issue of responsibility with which The Manila Standard Today is surely taking none, and let them answer to the people Ms. Fernandez maligned with her “witty” article, let them answer to us, and let them answer to The Filipino people.
As with the original call to boycott, all of these still apply.
1. Nick of Tingog.com
2. CathCath of Now What, Cat?
3. Noemi of AboutMyRecovery.com
4. Journal of The Jester-In-Exile
5. Alice Ty of FGS Philippines Blog
6. Paulding of My Pinoy Humor Blog
7. Fritz of Stacked
8. Shiera of Idle Moments
9. Tim of Symptoms Of Cretinism
10. The Paradoxic Ley Line
11. Reyna Elena of ReynaElena.com
12. Neil of A Simple Life
13. Ibyang of A Wife’s Charmed Life
14. Ner of Never Ending Resolve
15. Anna of Meowminx.com
16. BlUEPANJEET.net
17. Dexie of FeistyMomma.com
18. Mitchteryosa.com
19. Manila Bay Watch
20. Arbet of Blog @ AWB Holdings
21. Richard of JanMania.com
22. Watz of watzkulit.wordpress.com
23. Danny Arao of Rising Sun
24. Lauren of Laurganism.com
Count me In..
I’ll post this site to my e-group and my mailing list.
I will also retiterate a call to my fellow OFWs to stop name calling malu fernandez for we the OFWs need not stoop down to her level. Let us make a united stand against malu fernandez & manila standard.
Boycott manila standard by not going to their site.
Mabuhay ang Filipino! Mabuhay ang mga OFW!
Read this first please…
It will help…
The Malu Pit
Carla Montemayor
Abs-cbnnews.com
Sept. 4, 2007
I’m jumping into the Malu Fernandez melee just as it’s supposed to be ending with her apology and her resignation from the publications she wrote for. A triumph for overseas Filipinos and bloggers, it has been hailed.
But it doesn’t end there, does it? This isn’t just about OFWs. Pinoy angst about class divides has been simmering for a long, long time. Two decades of “democracy” only seem to have made it worse. You need only to look at how names for the poor have evolved: they used to be masa (a political, though somewhat clinical, description of the majority), now they’re jologs (poverty as synonymous with bad taste).
So let me, for a few moments, join in the lynching of the Anti-Poor.
First of all, a “socialite” called “Malu” is an oxymoron. Wrong name, wrong pedigree. Second, she can’t write. Hell, she can’t even tell prejudice from wit, which is just like being unable to tell your ass from your esophagus. Third, if she wants to avoid OFWs, she should fly to the moon. She went on a holiday to Greece, a country full of Filipino domestic workers and sailors. And Dubai—duh. “I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them,” she wrote. Travel with a blade, Ms. Fernandez.
Okay, that feels good but it was too easy. This controversy affords us a good opportunity to unpack our hypocrisies, mine included. So having indulged ourselves, let’s now turn to the more difficult questions.
But first, my class credentials, which I think give me a unique vantage point: I’m neither rich nor poor. My parents are retired professionals, who only one generation ago were poor. So poor that my mother and her siblings had to dig for clams for their dinner. All seven of them went to university, two of them becoming lawyers, one a physicist. My father’s paternal relatives are landlords but his mother was a peasant. He sent himself to law school by working at the Manila pier. My folks clawed their way out of poverty, sent us to good schools and thus gave us a leg up. Of that, I am fiercely proud. I believe that many Pinoy families got to be middle class this way.
Today I find myself in England as an overseas Filipino, though not quite an overseas Filipino worker. In fact I’m poorer than most OFWs because I have gone back to being a student. However, I have traveled more extensively than most Pinoys and I have been an activist all of my adult life. My family, my education and my politics have conspired to make me egalitarian to the point of neurosis. As far as I’m concerned, I am as good as anyone else, no matter how much more or less money they may have.
The condescension—the hatred, even—that I see among the upper classes in the Philippines towards the poor makes me nauseous. The only country I have seen with worse social cleavages is Nepal, where’s there’s a caste system. Elitism has become unfashionable in most places but in the Philippines it flourishes like a colony of bacteria in a petri dish of shit.
There’s something surreal and gut-churning about the rich and pseudo-rich lounging about in faux bistros, sipping lattes, pretending to be somewhere cosmopolitan when they’re in a city festering with garbage, surrounded by slums and crawling with starving, prostituted children. I’m not saying that we be paralyzed by these grim realities, though some level of social conscience would make the situation a little less disturbing. Instead we have a callous elite blaming the poor for social ills and political turmoil.
One example that makes me furious every time: calling the poor lazy (and therefore responsible for their own misery). Lazy? Working 12 hours a day and earning barely enough to feed your family is not laziness, it’s injustice. Another prejudice that ticks me off, as in the Fernandez article: What’s wrong with being a maid? For me it is a source of pride that my countrywomen are willing to scrub toilets for a living but will never beg. That’s way honorable compared to the drunks and junkies hereabouts who would rather leach money off working people.
What do Philippine upper classes have to be proud of anyway? In other countries, there have been “modernizing elites” who kick-started reforms to defeat chronic poverty and move their societies into the 21st century. In the Philippines, our leaders—who have always been from the elite, including Erap– can’t even do land reform properly. So who’s lazy and greedy and inept?
Malu Fernandez is not an isolated phenomenon; her views are shared by many of her ilk. Just a couple of months ago, there was an entry in fashion journalist Cecile Zamora’s blog suggesting proper etiquette for beggars whom she found offensive. All in jest, she claimed. I’ve read another ludicrous website suggesting that poor Pinoys be sterilized to prevent them from breeding further. I didn’t hear too many objections to these.
The indignation that spread across the blogosphere over this issue is heartening, though some of the ripostes are worrying: Malu Fernandez is not truly posh because if she were, she wouldn’t be flying coach. She’s fat. She has fake boobs. And if her breasts turn out to be genuine, would that make her insults more acceptable? What if she had a proper old rich surname, was slim and flying first class? Would the responses have been as vicious? I suspect not. Because that is the flipside of the snobbery coin: the admiration and obeisance extended by the lower and middle classes towards the truly rich.
Let’s examine the behavior and aspirations of the middle classes in particular. (And by middle classes, I mean the professional classes, as well as those with a certain level of education and income.) There’s the fixation with brands and designer clothing. The brandishing of late-model mobile phones as status symbols. Extolling the lifestyles of the wealthy. Dyed hair and nose jobs to get the mestiza look. Speaking in phony American accents. Scorning and ridiculing the jologs. Ever seen the disgraceful treatment of maids in many middle class households?
It is all well and good to expose snobbery and shame those who indulge in it, but what if they turn out to be us? We go a few rungs up the socio-economic ladder and we’re aping the worst traits of those above us. If we really abhor class prejudice and inequality, why don’t we reject those values ourselves?
Which is not to say that we should exalt the jologs and whatever qualities we associate with them. The cultural gap is vast and I’d be lying if I said I could hang out with anyone who watches Eat Bulaga. We can’t homogenize taste or outlaw snobbery. However, we can equalize rights and cultivate attitudes around equality so that when it comes to matters like the law and access to education, it shouldn’t matter whether one is jologs or conyo or something in between.
On the way there, we ought to probe our own biases. Are we ready to forego the airs, privileges and deference we get because we have a bit more money and education than the rest of our countrymen? Class-based advantages are the first things to go as a society becomes more equitable. Can we swallow that? If the answer is no, then we’re not ready for democracy.
As for the OFWs, I’m not too worried about them. They’re industrious, they’re tough, they’re becoming more assertive. They don’t need us patronizing them with that bagong bayani crap. What they need is the protection of the law, a functioning government and a better economy so that those who wish to return home can. Nothing extra, really. Just the entitlements of all law-abiding, tax-paying, passport-carrying Filipinos. In the end we’re all Pinoys working hard for a better life. Let’s not be Malu Fernandez to each other.
Count me in! I’m not a regular blogger so I don’t have my own blog site. However, I manage our temple’s website and blog. I will add the badge to our blog as a sign of support to all OFWs and Filipinos.
Our BLOG site is at http://fgsphilippinesblog.blogspot.c
count me in… let us give them what they truly deserve.
I just can’t describe how I feel about this new development - it’s like being slapped in the face publicly. Angry and frustrated, I think, is an understatement in my case. But I’m beyond name-calling and cursing already (which I’m also guilty of during the height of the controversy) and wish to take some concrete action. Your proposal, I think, is a good starting point. In fact, I’m going to raise the ante and suggest that we include in the boycott the products of the advertisers in MST. What do you think?
Also, I hope you don’t mind my informing the commenters in Selvo’s blog about your renewed call for action against MST by pasting your link and asking those who are interested to visit your blog.
BOYCOTT MST! BOYCOTT THE PRODUCTS OF MST ADVERTISERS!
count me in! we the ofw’s are bringing income to the country! if not because of our remittances day by day maybe Philippine economy will be down than before, if we OFW’s will be insulted, stop calling us heroes, try to imagine how much remittances we are sending, if not because of this dollar remittances, maybe the DOLLAR to PESO will be more than a hundred againts 1.
KEEP ON SUPPORTING OFW’s! its not that easy to live and work abroad, being away from the love ones, that is a big sacrifice already.
LONG LIVE FILIPINOS! LONG LIVE OFW’s! LONG LIVE PHILIPPINES !MABUHAY
[…] Nick renewed the call to boycott Manila Standard. Suprisingly, I am for it […]
[…] thing, and essentially show their true colors and the standards they are upholding,” the blog […]
You guys may want to exert pressures on all corners to get the cuddlers of Malu Fernandez to listen to us OFWs?
Malu Fernandez works as a Fashion Consultant for Rustans and Shopwise Hypermarkets. You will remember that Malu Fucknandez boasted about her “friendship” with Cricket Tantoco, who is the gorgeous looking wife of the President of Shopwise.
Cricket herself has a reputation of being a “temperamental” boss according to some of the employees of Shopwise. Anyways, it may not be Cricket’s fault that she has Malu as a friend and I bet she is very uncomfortable having her around nowadays because it could backfire on her “Shopwise”. But, this is a war that Malu declared against us OFWs, so the Tantocos better get out of the way…
I SUPPORT THE CALL TO BOYCOTT THE TRIVIAL AND MEDIOCRE MALOU FERNANDEZ (WHO’S SHE ANYWAY?) AND THE TABLOID SHE’S ASSOCIATED WITH, THE “MANILA STANDARD TODAY”. IT’S A SHAME THEY ARE DRAGGING DOWN THE HISTORIC “MANILA” WITH THEIR OWN BRAND OF VERY POOR JOURNALISTIC ETHICAL “STANDARD”.
THE BOYCOTT IS WITH IMMEDIATE EEFECT, AS FAR AS I’M CONCERNED. BESIDES I SELDOMLY, AS IN ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, IF AT ALL, READ OR VISIT ITS WEBSITE ANYWAY.
Tama kayo lahat dyan dahil nabasa ko kahapon na meron na namang artikulo si Malu sa Manila Standard. Ano yon..pakitang tao lang ang ginawa nila na para lang silang nag laro?
Kailangang pagdusahan ni malu ang mga pinag susulat nya at pati na rin yang Manila Standard na yan.
BOYCOTT Manila Standard
i am not an OFW but i also am so incensed with that columnist again having a new article in manila standard despite our call for her resignation. i guess, for manila standard, malu fernandez is more important than the filipino people she looks down on.
i will forward your blog to our yahoo groups!
count me in kabayan….boycotting Manila Standard Today and all columns/articles of malu fernandez, where ever they may be found,is an appropriate step to show how displeased are we - OFW’s in particular and Filipinos in general, on their discredited paper. let’s also encourage our families, friends and acquintances back home to join in this meriterious endeavor, by not wasting even a single centavo, from the dollars we’re sending back home on this insensitive, bigot-coddler and elitist newspaper. YES, LET’S BOYCOTT MANILA STANDARD TODAY! BOYCOTT ALL THE PRODUCTS MST ADVERTISE!
C’mon! Let’s give her/them the dose of their own medicine! Let us all be reunited again in seeking for the true justice that Malu Fernandez caused! Shout to the whole world, in every continent who really Malu Fernandez is!
Count me in! I would like to see the advertisers boycott the paper as well. I knwo the decline in circulation may help but we need to hit them where it hurts. Thier main “bread and butter - the advertisers!
Mabuhay tayong lahat!
you know i’m in on this, nick, right?
Im in. I have posted the logo on my blog.
Here is my entry
http://aboutmyrecovery.com/2007/09/04/boycott-manila-standard-today/
[…] am joining Nick ’s Renewed Boycott Against Manila Standard Today. Here it is, our stand, because Manila Standard Today has chosen to hide behind their term […]
[…] (via Tingog.com) […]
Count me in too! Lets all boycott Manila “Standard”. Mabuhay ang tunay na Pinoy!
[…]Until Malu Fernandez is given the axe, the Manila Standard Today remains anti-Filipino in my perspective.
Let us beat them in their own game. They want intelligent fight then we will show them that we OFWs are professionals and not “lynch mobs”.
Boycott Manila Standard and all its advertisers!! We demand apology from MST and the resignation of Malu Fernandez. There should be no forgiveness when there is no genuine repentace.
I’m not an OFW, but i have a symphathy to all those people who continue pouring dollars reserve to our country and their sacrifices
and bravery no matter what happened, they will do everything just to uplift their families lives and other OFW not knowingly they are part of the contributors to lift-up our poor country from its feet.
With respect to journal ethical and moral obligation she must be fired by MST, not to continue to write.
Harboring this person is not a part of moral obligation of ethical journalism. I’m not sure if MST knows this. Does any one of you knows the ethical protocol? This person is anti-poor…an elites
person.
Some of the OFW are suffering out-there…boycotting MST and their
product advertisement is a must.
[…] thing, and essentially show their true colors and the standards they are upholding,” the blog […]
I’ve already boycotted Manila Standard Today for quite sometime now by not accessing their on line journal even before this Fernandez drivel.
So, I’m all for it!
I join you in this crusade against the likes of Malu Fernandez and Manila Standard for their utter disregard of other people’s feelings specially the OFWs in the Middle East and all over the world.
We must not let them continue sitting in their high pedestal and tolerate their viciousness and bigotry against the innocent Filipinos in Dubai which were targeted by Malu’s tirades.
BOYCOTT MANILA STANDARD TODAY AND ALL THE PRODUCTS THAT ARE ADVERTISED IN THEIR NEWSPAPER.
To all OFWs,
Here are the list of actions you already proposed:
1. Boycotting MST or MST advertisers
2. Reduction of Remittances
3. filing a case against Malu F.
WALANG MANGYAYARI DYAN sa LAHAT ng PLANNED ACTIONS NYO, alam nyo ba kung bakit?
1. Walang congressman or senator has pick up your story
2. Only a few media outlets / columnists has sided your struggle
3. Not even Leftists has taken your proposed action
4. MST knows na walang effect itong pg-iingay ninyo kaya they retained Malu F.
Alam nyo kung bakit?
1. Kasi watak2 ang OFW - geographically and not really organized
2. Marami ang ng-iisip na magugutom ang family kung di mgpapadala ng remittance
3. Maraming OFW na walang pakialam sa ngyayari, all they do is work and send money to their families
4. ito ang main reason - sa 8M na OFW iilan lang ang registered voter kaya in effect WALA KAYONG VOTING POWER!!!
Thats the truth sa lahat na ito kaya walang pumapansin sa inyo mga OFW, all you get is Lip service from the GOVT.
What to do?
1. Mag-register lahat ng 8M OFW, then you will THE VOTING POWER!! u can even dictate sinong uupong presidente or senador! if the religious group can do it … YOU CAN HAVE THE VOTING POWER ALSO!!
2. in any protest action - signify your count by registering your voters registration number so that they can verify it.
3. Get organized.
I am not in favor of putting down any OFW, whether they be black, brown, white, yellow, red, or any color.
Whether what they wear is cheap cologne, or expensive perfumery.
I think Ms. Fernandez wrote something very irresponsible, and her later attempt to backtrack on what she wrote was rather lame, and more salt added to wounds.
Having said that, however, please note that she lives in a country, ours, where there is supposed to be freedom of speech.
If she had wanted to make an ass of herself through what she wrote, forgetting that for one finger pointed, three are pointing right back at her, then that is her right and prerogative, let her have it.
The Bible tells us that if somebody wrongs us, we ought to treat them kindly, because in so doing, we heap coals of fire on their heads.
I think more than Ms. Fernandez, the blame should be dumped squarely on the shoulders of those who are running the country.
It is they who should work hard for the Filipino man and woman to regain their dignity, and gain back the respect of the international community, not to mention those in our country such as this journalist in question who forget that a big part of the reason the country is still up and about its business is because of the dollar remittances of those she disdainfully turns her nose up on.
Those running the country should be the ones who need to be ashamed of themselves for their inability to make sure that our professionals stay and serve the country with the knowledge that their future in their own country is bright and secure.
Just my two cents’ worth.
No disrespect intended (except to Ms. Fernandez, and those seated in power).
Nick, you da man! You’re in PDI today: http://www.technology.inquirer.net/infotech/infotech/view_article.php?article_id=86618
Serves MST right. Never bought, read or browsed them before, I probably never will. Carry on, bro!
That writer can’t be called a journalist. Like her cheating nephew, the Senator from Maguindanao, they both don’t deserve their space!
Count me in…together with my friends and family, we join hands in condemning the act of utter disregard of Manila Standard and Malu Fernandez of our very existence.
Now this is the real thing. MST has got to go. It only shows what kind of people run this paper. Its all about ACCOUNTABILITY!
Also publish their major advertisers for your readers and the public to boycott their products-it’s the most effective way to send the message to the publication that what it is doing is not for its own good interest.
[…] the Bastille moment’s arrived? Tingog.com and Now What, Cat? (who originally opposed calls for a boycott, but joins them now, for reasons she […]
Malu Fernandez is a fat bigot bitch who doesn’t deserve to be called a writer and a Filipino. My friends, family (who some of them are OFWs) and colleagues condemn this ugly person and what she stands for. Shame on you ms. Fernandez!
It was wrong for the publication to publish what she wrote, and they were not sensitive enough to the hardships and sacrifices of our OFWs…no respect at all.
[…] can check the campaign here. For a recap, read the “Pinoy Press Top 10 Great Quotes from Malu Fernandez.” […]
I’m in… already added the badge to my blog.
i refuse to be a part of a lynch mob. it’s a cruel world. hypersensitivity will get you nowhere. grow up people! btw, have you tried to ascertain the position of the supposed “victim” - the ofw’s,
on the matter (i mean most, if not all, rather than a relatively few of them)? most may not exactly approve of what you are doing, you know.
Hey, count me in. Nabuhay na naman ang inis ko sa kanya. I knew that she was insincere from the start. She sucks. So does the Manila Standard Today.
my blog’s url is iamstorm.blogspot.com
manila standard sets bad precedent
Definitely boycott Manila Standard. I mean “Manila low standard newspaper.”
Talaga?
Damn MST…Lets join forces and unite our efforts to boycott MST, all magazines, newspapers that have articles written by the “witty” Malu.
Ikalat natin ang ating galit sa net, sa mga e-mail, sa blog. Ito ang gagawin ko. Ipakita natin ang buong pwersa ng Pinoy bloggers.
Anak ng pating…mga bastos.
[…] […]
I think everybody has a right. Malu Fernandez has the right to have a job. Lahat tayo alam natin ang mawalan ng trabaho. Bakit kailangan pa umabot na tanggalan mo ng trabaho ang isang tao dahil sa maling ginawa niya at nag-apologize na rin sya. Maging humble naman tayo, humility is a virtue. Sabi ng Bible: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) and “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12). Let the Lord be the judge of what Malu Fernandez did to OFWs.
“It takes humility to seek feedback. It takes wisdom to understand it, analyze it, and appropriately act on it.”
–Stephen R. Covey
Count me in but please don’t forget to support my Project: OFW Slogan & Logo Design Competition gives you Php10,000!
Thanks for that nice logo, posted it on my sidebar to remind my readers.
I think we need to boycott those advertisers at Manila Bastard as well.
she was very strong(malu)thinking that her nephew became senator only in maguindanao my advice to all OFW families here and abroad is UNITY among us i will campaign in this in my sortieJEDDAH to BOYCOTT same us you either in Europe or Africa as in the middle east thy are now starting the only answer BOYCOTT BOYCOTT all manila standard advertiser cause thy are IGNORANTS/// LET US UNITE AND GAVE THE ANSWER TO IGNORANTS…
From Kazakhstan,
Count us here and our family back home. Boycott!!!!!!!! including the owner and the advertisers ot this sub-standard(Ginamit pa Manila.. pwee)
“Let me make it clear once again. Let us not read this publication, let us not buy this publication, let us not go to their website.”
You know what,I’m reminded of the late Eleanor Roosevelt who once said,”No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
No sir, I’m sorry to say I won’t let anybody decide what site I should or shouldn’t go to or boycott some newspaper just because some fat lifestyle columnist insulted OFW’s.
Quite frankly, I’m more wary of moralists like you.
My personal opinion here is that, all is hypocrisy. MST alone. Why not the whole of the media?
We hate Malu but we love Bubble Gang, WOW Mali, those text messages poking fun at Manny Pacquaio’s English…
o kaya mga hindi mapuputi, tinatawag na ita, igorot, negro??
How plastic, sadly. Don’t be surprised if after a few months or years, another ala Malu person will pop out.
In Tagalog: Maling Solusyon. Ala-EDSA na inalis nga yung presidente pero di inalis yung korupsyon.
EDSA-like blog
Short sighted. Why not go against discrimination against the not-so-light skinned Pilipino, IPs….
Agree po ako kay Vic, please publish their major advertisers for your readers and the public to boycott their products also.
Will there be a list of MST’s advertisers provided so we know what products to boycott?
[…] you want to post the badge, copy the code from Tingog.com and paste it in your […]
Count me in!
Let’s give MST and Ms Fernandez a dose of their own medicine… let’s boycott their advertisers!!! BOYCOTT MST!!!
Count me in also!
“I don’t know what responsible journalism is now based on these events. So I take my stand in this little space of mine to boycott Manila Standard Today. Don’t buy the newspaper! Don’t visit their site! Accountability should be called for instead of prejudice! This is not just for our OFWs who were maligned in Fernandez’ column but also to the essence of social responsibility.”
count me in and please do add me on the list, nick.
here’s my share of thoughts in the blogosphere:
http://awifescharmedlife.blogspot.com/2007/09/against-bigotry.html
god bless you!
While everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion (stupied as it is), nowhere is it written that it should be enshrined. I am not so much disappointed by this self-described “bitch”’s pathetically delusional superiority complex, as shocked by a national newspaper to reinstate her. An oversight could be made the first time, but taking her on again is really a slap not just on the OFW but on the nation as a whole. The Manila Standard Today should take Ms. Fernandez’s advice, and get rid of its germs and bacteria once and for all. And it should being with Ms. Fernandez!
boycotting the newspaper is all and good. But we must hit the paper where it hurts,… which is profit, nest to paper sales there’s advertising,..if anyone knows anyone who advertises in the paper, urge them not to do so, that includes movie advertisements ( call or write the companies), include obituaries, announcements, job ads, anything..
we must continue to criticize the paper for its lack of journalistic integrity, presenting intelligent arguments would tarnish their reputation towards the reading public…
Count me in as well!
count me in….. continue the fight for our rights. We must never allow anyone to malign us OFWs. We did not do anything against Malu Fernandez for her to insult us through her column. Justice for all our fellow OFWs in Dubai, Middle EAst and all over the world.
me too, count me in.
Count me in… this is for all the OFWs who were insulted and maligned by malu f.
Let us not boycott the advertisers’ product but appeal to their conscience to withdraw their support from Manila Standard. After all, we were not the ones who started this fight. For what she has done, she has to pay the price.
For us not to be distracted from the real issue: Was Malu Fernandez’ article offensive or not? What have the OFWS in Dubai done to her to merit the insults that she wrote in her column. That is the only issue we have to settle. If Malu was sincere with her resignation and was truly repentant, she should have irrevocaby resigned. But as we see it, she only issued that statement to pacify the bloggers all over the world. As for People Asia, count me in as your new subscriber. You chose to do what is right and upheld your integrity.
The badge is up at my site : http://feistymomma.com
Me too..Count me in. I have informed my family’s and relatives back home already not to buy The Manila SUb-Standard. Stick to PDI..
I hope someone will publish the MST’s advertisers and sponsors. I will start changing products now if I could have a list..
[…] At dahil iniinis mo na naman ako, I am joining Nick ’s Renewed Boycott Against Manila Standard Today. […]
Here’s my “boycott” post : http://mitchteryosa.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/shes-back/
[…] of Tingog.com renews his campaign to boycott the Manila Standard Today in light of its decision to reject Malu Fernandez’s […]
I SUPPORT.
BOYCOTT MANILA STANDARD
Protect our OFWs from BIGOT like Malu Fernandez, and cohort Manila STANDARD.
BOYCOTT MANILA STANDARD !!!!!!!!!!!
Sama ako. Eventhough I read PDI, I’m going to send an email to the manila standard today
count me in!
[…] and blogs mentioned in the second edition of Sidetracked: Manolo, Annalyn, Tingog, AboutMy Recovery, Manuel Viloria, Anton, ExoticMaiden, ProfessionalHeckler and the famous and […]
Jove mentioned some of our blogs that mentioned (including mine) regarding the boycott against Manila Standard http://www.jovefrancisco.com/?p=654.
I also watched the youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtCFXTBmvBU
sama ako dyan. lets start informing our family back home to boycott not just MST but also the advertiser’s products. anybody who knows the products, kindly post a list.
I’m one with this move, Nick!
Have used the Boycott Badge as primary photo in my friendster account and forwarded it to others as well, together with other agencies back in the Philippines which could also help in our campaign.
Hindi ako kasama. We’re giving too much attention to Malu Fernandez and MST. The only effective way to boycott them is to ignore them to oblivion, not to generate influence the way that a boycott does.
It’s only generating publicity for them (albeit negative), you know.
Oops… what I wanted to say was “not to generate interest”, not “not to generate influence”
Can’t we all just get along? I think this issue has gone too far. So ok, if we boycott MST and Malu finally resigns, what next? What have we accomplished? I too am an OFW. I felt hurt and betrayed when I first read her article and the hundreds of forwarded e-mails I received regarding this incident. Then she decided to apologize and make ammends with us. What more do we need? We all have made mistakes in our lives. Anyone who hasn’t can cast the first stone. This is the very thing that divides us as a country. Makes me wonder who really are the bigots.
Nick, done!
Badge code posted in my blog.
Count me in. Even if i am not an OFW, i can emphatize with them. No matter how you put it, the article that was written by that woman was offending and uncalled for. Why picked on the OFW who were going about their jobs quietly? Boycott Manila Standard!!
Count me in expect it today..
To: Archie Luna,
I understand and respect your opinion but this is not about malu fernandez anymore. this is about principle and reminder for all those who abuse their privilege as writers to malign other people. this is about the supposed high standard that a newspaper must uphold at all times. this is all about the rights of ofws to protect themselves against bigotry and discrimination.
I hope we can learn to forgive Malu Fernandez. I wrote an entry about her article and I hope you can find time to read it. It’s entitled “One Voice (An OFW’s reaction to Malu Fernandez’s “From Greece to Boracay”)” and I posted it here: http://lestercavestany.com/?p=10
We would like to appeal to all the advertisers of Manila Standard to protect the rights of the OFWs and uphold what is right. We are not doing this out of hatred but out of our interest to put things in their proper perspective. Malu committed a mistake not once but twice and she deserves what she is getting now. Manila Standard must honor their oath to be fair and just.
A PIG IN A POKE
Too much had been said than done about this stinky pig. Some even portray her as a “human being” which she doesn’t belong anyway. Just ask Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and she will tell you that this one-celled maggot really belongs to the “lowest life forms” in the animal kingdom. Well, she’s really a disgrace to the nation in general and to the OFWs in particular. What a crap. Do we have to boycott Manila Standard Today? I think there’s no need to do it. Who reads Manila Standard? It’s full of pigswill and it stinks just like one of their columnists (?) named Malu Pignandez este Fernandez. In my opinion, a lifestyle columnist must be sexy, beautiful, knowledgeable and educated because what she writes will reflect her personality, but look at her picture that was circulated in the web. Oh my gosh! Mukhang bakla. Makapal pa yong makeup keysa mukha nya. Ha ha ha ha ha…. Did she ever tell us about the brands of the makup she’s wearing? And what about the brand of her cell phone? YUCKS!!! I found her article witty but do they have proofreaders to correct her grammar in their publication? Lola Malu, don’t tell me you graduated summa cum laude at the Berlitz School of English kase I found at least seven grammatical errors in that nauseating article of yours. I’m sure if you are not home-schooled (Is there any school in the planet for the pigs? Just asking.) then you just graduated from STI (Sa Tabing Ilog). Is she really rich or just pretending to be rich. Calling Paris Hilton.. Please give her a diamond encrusted knife to “slash her wrist”.Pronto!!! To sum it up I found this columnist very pig-ignorant, who looks piggish, at the same time pig-headed and must reside in a piggery and mal-educada which is not the very trait of a socialite (is she?). Her article must be titled “From BOARacay to Grease” instead of “From Boracay to Greece” Thank you…..
My email address: cozuwerethere@yahoo.com
COUNT ME IN!! I join the Boycott Campaign against Malu Fernandez & Manila Standard as a show of support for my brother who is an OFW. I am proud of you kuya and i will never let anybody put you down and insult you.
to archie: there will be no forgiveness unless there is genuine contrition and repentace from the erring party which is malu and mst. they were the ones who started it all and yet they pretend that the ofws have no legitimate cause to protest.
count me in
To forgive or not to forgive Ms Fernandez is our own personal choice. The issue here is consistency. If we allow discrimination, humiliation or degradation of any group in our society in regards to their status, jobs, age, appearance, sex or belief or conscience then we are not going anywhere towards Equality before and under the Law, which we might think we are. Democracy as we believe we maybe under is never achieved unless the semblance of Equality is achieved and as long as discrimination in any form exist or allowed to exist among us, we are lacking… Malu is not the issue, it is what she has written and the publication and the lack of sincere remorse and even the lack of any response from the publishers, the Manila Standard as to the immediate response of Asia Magazine.
nananawagan kaming lhat sa mga kumpanyang sumusuporta sa manila standard na itigil na ang pagsuport sa walang kuwentang pahayagan.
ang harapan na pambabastos ng kanilang manunulat sa mga kababayan nating ofw ay di dapat palampasin. palayasin si malu fernandez ngayon!
I’m with the project Nick, but I’m worried about the boycott tactic. It could backfire. Someone I know at MST says they realized it was publicity bonanza for their paper (the boycott calls and the controversy fueling it) which has a miniscule print run and has always traded on the cheesier, sleazier side of things…Malu being the incarnation of their editorial policy on lots of things. By boycotting the paper, are we not alienating lots of people on its staff who may actually agree with us about Malu?
A boycott is an economic weapon, but it is really the market which prefers other periodicals to the MST that keeps its circulation small. Now by launching a “boycott” online, we are just publicizing the paper’s very existence (which I suspect most OFWs did not even know exists!).
I’m sure others have pointed some of this out. My tack would be to attack the paper on its own terms. For now we may only be helping Malu and MST become famous or infamous.
Take a look at the Daily Tribune. It achieved a Google Page Rank of 6 (same as the PDI!) on the strength of the attempt of the govt to shut it down. I think we may now be doing that for Malu and MST when really it’s a bush league paper.
I guess we should also concentrate on the positive side of the OFW story, which is still the most undercovered, unrepresented story in the Main Stream Media. The OFWs need a strong voice to drown out the Malu Fernandez’s. The real outrage and travesty is that a small insignificant newspaper and a small insipid mind now has real power and influence in the world, while the OfWs continue to toil in anonymity and neglect.
There was a time when even the PDI’s big columnists (de Quiros, Palabrica) used to describe OFWs as traitors, deserters, or “toilet bowl cleaners of the world.” I suspect some of them still harbor such notions, but it is the victory of the OFW to have withstood the brickbats and forged ahead with saving their families, that represses the crab mentality.
Perhaps that is the nub of it: it is failed local ruling class that is envious of OFW success outside their nationalist parameters and prescriptions that engenders abominations like Malu. For the virtues and ambitions of OFWs are greater than nationalism!
Nick, sorry I misplaced my piece on the wrong bin. I have but praises for you as a true makabayan and a fighter. Keep it up. I was an OFW myself. But if you may allow that I place it here, thanks.
Kutkut on September 6th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Nick and the rest,
I took the liberty of your invitation to put in a comment here. If we can forgive the heinous criminals from the Saudi gallows for a song, cant we just leave this issue behind and go to the next important local issues? With your prowess of inciting minds for a cause, lets hear other things you consider helpful and not become a part of further problems. I guess you have already touched the guts of your targets and thats enough. Do you want more mouths to go hungry with the closure of the newspaper? I enjoy reading blogs but I enjoy more reading the news of any leanings.
I’m in. Though I’ve made a vow to refrain from blogging about Malu Fernandez, I will still put this badge on my blog.
Add me to the list.
To Archie!…. Man you can’t impose/dictate your will just like that for us to forgive this stinky lady (MF)….maybe you have the ability to cope, accept and forget those very irresponsible statement of MF easily but not me and the majority of our fellow OFW’s, just respect our stand for the meantime bro… WE’RE STILL IN PAIN AND LITERALLY GRIEVING, and pinoy DUBAI’ans are the one that are affected the most…
Yes! count me in to this noble cause… BOYCOTT MST forever….
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL….. KAYA SAMA SAMA TAYO MGA OFW.. MABUHAY!
i’m in.,
http://janmania.blogspot.com
What can we, as Pinoys, especially those of us away from the Philippines, what can we take from this whole Malu Fernandez insanity? How can we use her unfortunate perspective to improve our own and help the Philippines?
http://watzkulit.wordpress.com
Kaisa nyo ako sampu ng aking pamilya.
[…] can check the campaign here. For a recap, read the “Pinoy Press Top 10 Great Quotes from Malu […]
tuloy ang boycott laban sa manila standard! malu fernandez, walang karapatang magpatuloy magsulat.
Hi. This is Danny Arao of UP Diliman, Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly. I just want to inform you that I posted the “Boycott Manila Standard” badge on my blog at http://risingsun.dannyarao.com. I also invite concerned online users to read my recent column article titled “Bukas na liham kay Malu Fernandez” which I just uploaded today (September 7). Thank you.
[…] September 4, Nick has announced a renewed call to boycott Manila Standard as a sign of saying that Filipinos will fight for the image of the OFWs and they would not accept […]
I do not read much the Standard. I write to ask you to leave alone the newspaper. Marami ang magugutom na naman kung magsara. Di naman sala ng lahat ang inyong lalapastanganin. Mabuti sa inyo naka angat na kayo.At kung maari lamang ay huwag naman ipagmalaki ang dollar ninyo. Sa totoo lang wala akong pakinabang sa P8B na bukang bibig ninyo.S family lang naman ninyo binibigay at mga kumpare. Kung napunta man sa govt, kinukurakot lang yan. Maari pang ako ang higit na tuutulong sa inyo. Sa pagpauwi ng mga namemerhuisong tulad ninyo, ako ang nagbabayad sa inyong pasahe galing sa tax at OWWA contribution ko. Kung may malapit na mapupugutan, masuwerte kayo at may sinungaling na govt natin na nagsasabing walang binayad na blood money. Kuwarta ko ang binayad. Ang ibig ko lang naman ay magreview kayo ng bible. Mapagpatawad ang Lord. Wala na bang makadios sa inyo porke nakatikim na kayo ng steak? You are lucky you are not around to taste our kind of life here. Now you want more people to go hungry. Please sleep tonight and pray you never hated anyone in your life. Huminahon naman kayo. This goes true to those other hate bloggers.
@Kutkut, are we to blame for this escalation? You talk about Makadiyos? when clearly you may want to look at all the verses in the bible that talk about justice. Even Jesus Christ did not mince words when it came to the Pharisees.
******************
Who are these hate bloggers? Is it not out of love that we write about such discrimination against our Filipino brothers and sisters? Who served the hate, was it not Malu? Who condones this hateful columnists, is it not Manila Standard?
******************
Before you judge, look at the facts, and you will notice that the decision lies with Manila Standard. They are milking this to the fullest. Do you think they have the workers in mind, or the profits?
******************
Who eats steak, I myself like Paksiw na Isda, what does food have to with this anyway?
******************
I am restful in my sleep, I’m not so sure about Manila STandard and Malu.
******************
So to end, my dear Kutkut, you talk peace, but what about accountability? In the end, will not evil always persist, without those who wish to fight it? Is it not our duty, or do we stand idly by, while our nation, and our brothers and sisters get screwed?
BOYCOT MANILA STANDARD TODAY & PEOPLES ASIA. Fellow ofw kindly use the pyramid principle and multiply our downline. Whoever can send message to manila standard and inform “WALA NA SILA KARAPATAN MAGBALITA TUNGKOL SA OFW” kapal ng mukha nila. Matapos nilang laitin ang ofw me article pa silang nilalabas tungkol sa ofw. KAPALLL TALAGA NG PAGMUMUKHA NILA…
tuloy ang laban. pag itinigil natin ang pagpressure sa kanila, lalabas na di tayo seryosong nasaktan at uulitin nila ang ginawa nilang panlalait sa atin. boycott manila standard. fire malu fernandez. walang mangaapi kung walang magpapaapi. laban mga ofws.laban natin eto. for them to respect us, we must stand and show them that we are respectable.
Here is another from the same newspaper. Educating migrants.
The man who wrote this needs to be educated about OFW, the same, I say must be given to the guy who said “these are not the people na mataas ang pinag-aralan” (bakit di ba nagmumura or marunong mambastos ang mga matataas ang pinagaralan na hindi ofw?) who was in that interview with the media in focus that is actually out of focus.
They must read the statistics provided by the Dubai press people so they will not generalize about us. True, there are few among us who do not behave the way they think must behave but we are not at all the same.
Going by this writer’s idea then we could say that if there are 100 arrogant and irresponsible journalists therefore all filipino journalists are arrogant and irresponsible.
To all out there, stop talking as if you know all the OFW’s around the world.
Nick,
We have courts to settle complaints. But if you insist on this kind, there were more unsavory words mentioned here already. I went to the asia article here and I didnt see anything wrong with cologne, etc. Like our big fight with the neighbor who called my sister PILYA. Some words we use are meant in many ways but more of humour. Pilya pala means daughter. Filho or pilyo means son. Filipina could mean something else. Its only a play of words to cater to a certain audience. But some people easily get drawn to big profile politicos or incitors and turn things around to suit their plight. They could topple goverments. Specially a govt using them as palabigasan. Or telling lies. I have no qualms if you roast anyone but I say again, I plead to all to please do not add more mouths to go hungry around me. I may not be able to feed them all.
The issue is a renewed call for a boycott. I do agree many people were hurt by a person called Malu. but must you lynch the innocent people at the printing house? But some in this blog are addicted to peeping at the paper anyway. It must be a good paper. They saw Emil Jurado telling stories about the new heroes’ conduct. Well we all understand his sympathies naturally. I disagree with his choice of words though calling you new heroes. If you go on with your heart’s desire of killing the people in the paper, you might as well confirm a new tag “the New Horrors” of the world. Understand that I am also an OFW and I am not connected in anyway with the Manila Standard. I hate people making our people go hungry I only stumbled upon the melee when some bloggers here started to recruit in the blog next door. I was even telling my group Tingog cant stand our messy name calling there. I was wrong, pala. If you feel you are wronged, go to the courts. If you are happier in your country of refuge, dont tell us to help you finish us here. You can come and join us in the street protests, its better.
@Kutkut, clearly you are swayed by the words of Malu Fernandez. Picking up her line of “lynch mob” even though it does not apply to a boycott.
****************8
A Boycott is an actual form of protest which last I heard, did not involve lynching. Please choose your words adequately, lest you make a mockery of the word Boycott. Understand its meaning, because many justified men have used this avenue. Just because you don’t agree with the boycott, does not give you a right to define what it is. It’s a withdrawal of support for a paper that supports a writer who has used discrimination in order to uplift herself, and to oppress an entire group of people.
******************
Again, read the articles fully. Read my preceding comment fully. In there, I have given you a clear rebuttal, of which, you have not responded.
******************
And killing the people in the paper? Must you exaggerate, just to make a point. We have made a point of the plight of our OFWs, who long for their homeland. Are we truly killing the people of Manila Standard, who are basking in the glory of negative PR to boost their readership? After all, scandal must be good for this paper.
******************
Tell me, who decides whether Malu’s article is to see print, is it not the editors? And who decides that Malu stays? Is it not the Management? Believe me, there is no high morality in this decision to keep Malu Fernandez. None.
*******************
There are checks and balance in a nation, and the people are the ultimate check whether in public or private sector. The courts are not the only means with which we can express our disdain, and protest with clarity. Unlike the courts, this is all out in the open, let each individual decide on the merit of the case.
*********************
Country of Refuge? My home is The Philippines, the home of all OFWs is The Philippines. I seek refuge only in our land of birth, and let no man tell me I am unworthy just because of my location. We are but travelers here on Earth, and it is our hearts that decide our home.
********************8
Are you still not Cebuano even though you live in Manila? ARe you still not Samareño even if you are situated in Pampanga? Get real, and don’t use the argument of location to further your stand. the issue, again, is discrimination, and if we can just blow over this case, when can we decide to stand up? Is it on a case by case basis? Shouldn’t we remain consistent?
*********************
Let the boycott continue, whether you agree or not, it is not a selfish cause, but it is born out of love for a group we call the OFWs.
*********************
And by the way, “New Horrors”, did you make that up yourself? Now who’s into name-calling?
***********************
And stop with your nonsensical defense of people will go hungry. Why not direct it to the government. After all, if the economy is so good, one need not fear to lose the few jobs that Manila Standard has to offer, for certainly, as reported by the current Administratin, everything is in the up and up and one should be able to acquire a job in no time right?
***********************8
Now, tell me Kutkut, just exactly how many jobs are up for grabs at Manila Standard, except for the still occupied position of Unworthy Columnist?
***********************
Wow, give me a break, the arguments you lay out here, are so freshman in nature, it breaks my heart, that some people can actually agree with the drivel.
***********************8
Manila Standard is to blame. They hold the key to stopping this whole fiasco. They choose not to, and Malu chooses to stay (so much for sincerity).. No accountability, I assume, you also agree with the new rounds of Amnesty for all? Even for Gloria and her cohorts?
I’D SAY BOYCOTT MANILA STANDARD TODAY..
BOYCOTT MALOU’s BOUTIQUE “LUSCIOUS”…
and BOYCOTT HER POLITICIAN RELATIVES , INCLUDING SEN MIGZ ZUBIRI…!!!!….MALOU HAS NO CREDIBILITY WRITING A TRAVELOGUE BECAUSE ALL SHE DOES IS ENDORSE PRODUCTS….IT ONLY PROVES THAT THIS MAMMOTH IS ONLY FOR FREEBIES….MAHILIG SA LIBRE..!!!!…AND HOW DARE SHE IS TO DISCUSS ABOUT BEAUTY ENHANCEMENT AND TIPS..!!!!….WERE YOU A BEAUTY QUEEN..???…PWE..!!!..I WANNA PUKE..!!!….
there are some people who visit this blog who are from malu’s camp. they are trying to discourage us from continuing our cause. there are also a lot of people who are underestimating our capacity to unite and make our presence felt by those who did us wrong. continue the fight ofws. boycott manila standard and malu fernandez.
count me in….. many have already expressed their disappointment about how manila standard treated this issue. reading back the article that malu fernandez wrote, any self respecting newspaper could have chastised here right then and there but it seems that the paper’s management doesn’t care about the ofws feeling. who are these uneducated,uncultured and low class people anyway, as malu fernandez put it. if only the ofws read books, they could have understood her acerbic wit. do you accept that argument?
count me in. i shall make a new post today regarding the issue as my form of participation against malu fernandez.
i am an ofw myself, working in saudi arabia, and i detest this form of disdrimination. i am insulted by her and i shall be greatly disappointed if she will be back to say whatever she wants to say again in a legitimate broadsheet. i am an ofw but unlike what she has said, I have read books, I have even read law books while I was in the College of Law in San Beda. malu fernandez is nothing but a no good, social climbing pig.
sali na ako… di sana ako sasama sa boycott movement pero nakikita ko ang punto ng mga ofws na nagsusulat dto. di naman sila ang nagsimula ng gulo. dapat pagbayaran ni malu ang isinulat nya at dapat kastiguhin ng manila standard ang kanilang nagkamalling manunulat.
[…] you feel the same way, go to http://www.tingog.com/current-events/a-renewed-boycott-against-manila-standard-today.html leave a comment, and place the pre-made badge on your blog/site to show your stand against […]
Nick,
You really have good points there. But still I cannot agree with you. I guess our oils dont mix at all. So I leave the matter to the readers.
So you go into politics also. I’ll have to read the tricky fine prints of the amnesty first, though generally, its a sweetener to get more mileage with the downtrodden or the enemy. And you mentioned GMA and cohorts? Thats a good one that I can use those terms also. Maybe we are on the same boat here. I hope.
DELUSIONADA By CARLA MONTEMAYOR
It is all well and good to expose snobbery and shame those who indulge in it, but what if they turn out to be us?
I’m jumping into the Malu Fernandez melee just as it’s supposed to be ending with her apology and her resignation from the publications she wrote for. A triumph for overseas Filipinos and bloggers, it has been hailed.
But it doesn’t end there, does it? This isn’t just about OFWs. Pinoy angst about class divides has been simmering for a long, long time. Two decades of “democracy” only seem to have made it worse. You need only to look at how names for the poor have evolved: they used to be masa (a political, though somewhat clinical, description of the majority), now they’re jologs (poverty as synonymous with bad taste).
So let me, for a few moments, join in the lynching of the Anti-Poor.
First of all, a “socialite” called “Malu” is an oxymoron. Wrong name, wrong pedigree. Second, she can’t write. Hell, she can’t even tell prejudice from wit, which is just like being unable to tell your ass from your esophagus. Third, if she wants to avoid OFWs, she should fly to the moon. She went on a holiday to Greece, a country full of Filipino domestic workers and sailors. And Dubai—duh. “I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them,” she wrote. Travel with a blade, Ms. Fernandez.
Okay, that feels good but it was too easy. This controversy affords us a good opportunity to unpack our hypocrisies, mine included. So having indulged ourselves, let’s now turn to the more difficult questions.
But first, my class credentials, which I think give me a unique vantage point: I’m neither rich nor poor. My parents are retired professionals, who only one generation ago were poor. So poor that my mother and her siblings had to dig for clams for their dinner. All seven of them went to university, two of them becoming lawyers, one a physicist. My father’s paternal relatives are landlords but his mother was a peasant. He sent himself to law school by working at the Manila pier. My folks clawed their way out of poverty, sent us to good schools and thus gave us a leg up. Of that, I am fiercely proud. I believe that many Pinoy families got to be middle class this way.
Today I find myself in England as an overseas Filipino, though not quite an overseas Filipino worker. In fact I’m poorer than most OFWs because I have gone back to being a student. However, I have traveled more extensively than most Pinoys and I have been an activist all of my adult life. My family, my education and my politics have conspired to make me egalitarian to the point of neurosis. As far as I’m concerned, I am as good as anyone else, no matter how much more or less money they may have.
The condescension—the hatred, even—that I see among the upper classes in the Philippines towards the poor makes me nauseous. The only country I have seen with worse social cleavages is Nepal, where’s there’s a caste system. Elitism has become unfashionable in most places but in the Philippines it flourishes like a colony of bacteria in a petri dish of shit.
There’s something surreal and gut-churning about the rich and pseudo-rich lounging about in faux bistros, sipping lattes, pretending to be somewhere cosmopolitan when they’re in a city festering with garbage, surrounded by slums and crawling with starving, prostituted children. I’m not saying that we be paralyzed by these grim realities, though some level of social conscience would make the situation a little less disturbing. Instead we have a callous elite blaming the poor for social ills and political turmoil.
One example that makes me furious every time: calling the poor lazy (and therefore responsible for their own misery). Lazy? Working 12 hours a day and earning barely enough to feed your family is not laziness, it’s injustice. Another prejudice that ticks me off, as in the Fernandez article: What’s wrong with being a maid? For me it is a source of pride that my countrywomen are willing to scrub toilets for a living but will never beg. That’s way honorable compared to the drunks and junkies hereabouts who would rather leach money off working people.
What do Philippine upper classes have to be proud of anyway? In other countries, there have been “modernizing elites” who kick-started reforms to defeat chronic poverty and move their societies into the 21st century. In the Philippines, our leaders—who have always been from the elite, including Erap– can’t even do land reform properly. So who’s lazy and greedy and inept?
Malu Fernandez is not an isolated phenomenon; her views are shared by many of her ilk. Just a couple of months ago, there was an entry in fashion journalist Cecile Zamora’s blog suggesting proper etiquette for beggars whom she found offensive. All in jest, she claimed. I’ve read another ludicrous website suggesting that poor Pinoys be sterilized to prevent them from breeding further. I didn’t hear too many objections to these.
The indignation that spread across the blogosphere over this issue is heartening, though some of the ripostes are worrying: Malu Fernandez is not truly posh because if she were, she wouldn’t be flying coach. She’s fat. She has fake boobs. And if her breasts turn out to be genuine, would that make her insults more acceptable? What if she had a proper old rich surname, was slim and flying first class? Would the responses have been as vicious? I suspect not. Because that is the flipside of the snobbery coin: the admiration and obeisance extended by the lower and middle classes towards the truly rich.
Let’s examine the behavior and aspirations of the middle classes in particular. (And by middle classes, I mean the professional classes, as well as those with a certain level of education and income.) There’s the fixation with brands and designer clothing. The brandishing of late-model mobile phones as status symbols. Extolling the lifestyles of the wealthy. Dyed hair and nose jobs to get the mestiza look. Speaking in phony American accents. Scorning and ridiculing the jologs. Ever seen the disgraceful treatment of maids in many middle class households?
It is all well and good to expose snobbery and shame those who indulge in it, but what if they turn out to be us? We go a few rungs up the socio-economic ladder and we’re aping the worst traits of those above us. If we really abhor class prejudice and inequality, why don’t we reject those values ourselves?
Which is not to say that we should exalt the jologs and whatever qualities we associate with them. The cultural gap is vast and I’d be lying if I said I could hang out with anyone who watches Eat Bulaga. We can’t homogenize taste or outlaw snobbery. However, we can equalize rights and cultivate attitudes around equality so that when it comes to matters like the law and access to education, it shouldn’t matter whether one is jologs or conyo or something in between.
On the way there, we ought to probe our own biases. Are we ready to forego the airs, privileges and deference we get because we have a bit more money and education than the rest of our countrymen? Class-based advantages are the first things to go as a society becomes more equitable. Can we swallow that? If the answer is no, then we’re not ready for democracy.
As for the OFWs, I’m not too worried about them. They’re industrious, they’re tough, they’re becoming more assertive. They don’t need us patronizing them with that bagong bayani crap. What they need is the protection of the law, a functioning government and a better economy so that those who wish to return home can. Nothing extra, really. Just the entitlements of all law-abiding, tax-paying, passport-carrying Filipinos. In the end we’re all Pinoys working hard for a better life. Let’s not be Malu Fernandez to each other.
Nick,
By all means, thanks. Lets shake on it.
I am with you nick
http://halalan-2007.blogspot.com/2007/09/boycott-manila-standard.html
The oxymoron of the Pinoys, really.
Nick, continue to fight on.
I urge all OWFs to walk on with the Boycott no matter if there are still a few people, who could be counted on my ten fingers, who oppose and try to sway the movement.
In whatever endeavour, the end result should be for the common good. I believe that this is the selfless and real motive of true warriors.
I couldn’t understand how Kutkut could use the words “namemerwisyong tulad ninyo”, “ako ang mas higit na nakakatulong” and “Kung may malapit na mapupugutan, masuwerte kayo at may sinungaling na govt natin na nagsasabing walang binayad na blood money. Kuwarta ko ang binayad.”
” I was even telling my group Tingog cant stand our messy name calling there. I was wrong, pala. If you feel you are wronged, go to the courts. If you are happier in your country of refuge, dont tell us to help you finish us here. You can come and join us in the street protests, its better.”
Who are you? Are you a real OFW?
“At kung maari lamang ay huwag naman ipagmalaki ang dollar ninyo. Sa totoo lang wala akong pakinabang sa P8B na bukang bibig ninyo.S family lang naman ninyo binibigay at mga kumpare. Kung napunta man sa govt, kinukurakot lang yan.”
Or are you just another blogger who wants to shake the foundation of what Tingog.Com through its website owner, Nick, has laid down?
To my co-OFWs, Let us not be derailed nor be intimidated by such words and