Friday 4 May 2007

Pinoys' 'Award-itis"

I found this email in one of my egroups and would like to cross
post here in this blog.

Pinoy's severe case of 'award-itis'(and our perpetual
search for Mr. and Miss Pancit, Pinakbet, Bangus, Tinapa USA
World and Universe).

Filipino communities in various parts of the world, especially
in the US, love to give awards to each other in addition
to staging dinner dances that also feature the search
for Miss Tinapa of Los Angeles or Mrs. Mabalahibo of
San Francisco.

We are guilty of these maladies, 'beauty pageant-itis'and
'award-itis.' On virtually any weekend, a Filipino
community somewhere in America is honoring, for example,
the most outstanding Filipino-American water filter salesman
of the year or Mr. Balikbayan Box Salesman of the Year USA.

I have attended an event where folks gave each other awards.
These people basically took turns standing up and presenting
each other with a plaque until everyone had one. I did not
know whether to laugh or to cry about the absurdity of the
situation.

The plus side of these awards and beauty pageants is that
supposedly they raise funds for worthy causes. Magpapatayo
ng million dollars community center daw. Sana nga but most
of the time they only earn about close to a thousand dollars
at best. This means they will have to do a lot more of
this absurd events. See the vicious cycle perpetuated here?

Yes, there are several awards that are prestigious, given
by people with impeccable credentials. However, these awards
by respectable organizations are outnumbered by recognition
events staged by organizations of dubious integrity or by
personalities out to seek glory for themselves.

The glut of these awards events and beauty contests has
reached ridiculous proportions. As a result, a lot of
people, especially in the Fil-Am community, don't take
these occasions seriously. Except the people who are
busy giving awards to each other.

by
Ruben Napales
Freelance Writer
National Inquiry

I was emailing back Ms. Anita not to get so upset
with such postings. What I find disturbing is
the indifference of many OFS or migrants on the situation
back home. Hay naku, many would say, talagang wala nang
magagawa dyan sa Pilipinas and they would start with
the litany of corruption, abuses, high prices and all
the other "Hiobsbotschaft" bad news coming from the
home country. It makes you really so sad and so
angry. But we know that we do not stop in just
being angry.
I told Ms. Anita that as long as Ms. Tinapa
and Mr. Bagoong and the organizers of such events
share a part of their earnings to any good cause
back home, I would not mind them having fun. We just
have to be critical as to how they spend our donations.
Transparency and decency should be kept alive together
with other Filipino values which are so many that
if every Filipino would keep them, we would be
awarded with the most saintly living citizens the
world has known. In the meantime, I am running out
of convincing excuses when my in-laws ask me why is this
going on in your country?

Pina von Alemania

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