The Pinoy storyline

Pinoys are truly a unique people. In fact, they belong to a special class of people. With all their “weirdness”, Pinoys are a people “touched by God”. In my global “wandering”, I have discovered three prominent characteristics that are typically Pinoy. First is the sense of family and clan “connectedness”. They may find themselves in the remotest part of any continent or in the middle of the oceans, they may live in strange foreign lands for years and even centuries, yet they would remain Pinoys at heart. Pinoys will always find their “home” - in their hearts and blood. “Pinoy kami at Pinas ang bayan”! Today there are two powerful instruments that strengthen this Pinoy “interconnectedness”. The first is the fast and cheap communication facility through “texting” or SMS (which I believe is a wonderful invention of Filipinos). And the second is the now world-famous “balikbayan” boxes. At airports everywhere in the world, these “balikbayan” boxes – accompanied or not - all go “home” to the Philippines as if the whole world is being “delivered” to the motherland, box by box. The movement is two-way. As the whole world is “delivered” to the Philippines, Pinoys also “import” their “kin & kith” to work abroad with or without legal papers. In no time, they build a small “barangay” or network of “kinsfolk” and “townsfolk” in their adopted land. Second to family and clan is the Pinoys’ patient work and discipline. You find Pinoys doing all kinds of jobs and odd jobs. They work patiently and with great discipline and loyalty wherever they are. They are NOT beggars and they pay their taxes. In many places, they have to work double jobs and work on the weekend! They need to do so, because they support the whole tribe back home. They obey rules and they are good citizens notwithstanding the Philippine notoriety of “palusot” and connection. But the real miracle that amazes the world is the fact that they, notwithstanding the difficulties and loneliness they endure, are happy. There is always a smile in their faces and there is laughter in their hearts. They can even make jokes out of their tragedies. Pinoys are a happy people and the Philippines is a happy nation even in moments of passing insanity. The third Pinoy characteristic is their simple faith and colorful tradition. Filipinos everywhere are known for their strong belief and traditions. The Visayans bring their Santo Nino; the Tagalogs their Nazareno; Bicolanos their Virgen de Penafrancia; the Ilocanos their Santa Lucia; the Pampangos their Apo Pedro and Santiago, and Zamboangenos their Nuestra Senora del Pilar; etc. In foreign lands, they, too, read their “pasyon”; make their “visita iglesia” and celebrate the “misas de gallo”. They have owned their Castilian faith and heritage. The Pinoy faith and tradition have become not only their soul, but also the bulwark of strength against adversities and challenges, in those unfriendly foreign lands. Through time, the people, institutions, nations, communities, and individuals endure and are recognized, because of their fidelity to the values and traditions they stand for. And to Pinoys, these three values stand out and are admired. If people admire Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero or Martin Luther King Jr. or Desmond Tutu or Nelson Mandela, they do so, not because of their achievements but for the values and beliefs they stood for. They believed and lived the values they espoused with integrity and with no embarrassment. This reminds me of a story from Stephen Covey’s famous book, First Things First, with slight modification. Once there was a man/woman who began his/her career step by step. He/she first defined his/her goal; then came up with a workable plan charting his/her career and moved up, step by step, into that proverbial ladder of his/her career. Finally, he/she reached the top of the ladder - believing that it would be his/her greatest glory - but only to discover, in his/her total dismay that his/her ladder was leaning on the wrong wall! More than ever before, there is a need to “re-appreciate” and perhaps even “re-construct” the stories of successes and failures, of power and wealth in the present age now labeled as both “post modernism” and “post ideologies”. I turn to Gil Bailie (cf. Violence Unveiled: Humanity at the Crossroads: 1996) for the apt description of this age. He takes the person of Bernard (a character in Virginia Woolf’s novel, The Waves) to depict the modern person. In the novel, Bernard says: “I have made up thousand stories. I have filled up innumerable notebooks with phrases to be used when I have found the true story, the one story to which all the phrases refer, but I have never yet found that story.” I believe that Pinoys, notwithstanding their difficulties, have found the way to the writing of the needed story line that the world needs. It is there in the story of the family, tribe and clan. It is a “kindredness” shaped not only by blood, but also by the “ili” (Ilocano term that means community and domain). That story line is also rooted in faith and traditions that shape and form their values that lay the foundational set of virtues to move together forward in achieving their goals for their families, clans and for humankind. Pinoys are darn good and proud of their story (no matter how “corny’). And they share it with the world with a smile in their faces and laughter in their hearts. The world has Pinoys in great abundance and the Philippines continues to “export” them by the millions! Experts tell us that about 14 million Pinoys work outside as OFWs. They are found almost everywhere - in the desert of Sahara or in the glaciers of the South and North polar regions. They are also in the middle of the great oceans and in the middle of “nowhere” including the pirate-infested Somalian Sea. Everywhere you go, you find Pinoys who are diligently and patiently at work - making to whole world work! The truth of the matter is the fact that the Philippines would have been a classic case of a “failed state” without the 18 or so billion dollars annual remittance by the OFWs. The Pinoy story line is thus being told and repeated by millions of Pinoy workers and civil servants across borders and cultures. I have seen them in the five continents and at seas who, in season and out of season, make the global system work. A few years back, a short message in the internet came across my attention that specifically pointed to their global contribution. The title of the message was “When Pinoys went on strike”. The UN had to close down, because it could not operate without Filipinos who manage the secretariat and the general services, including the janitorial and computer network. Many oil wells will simply cease pumping oil, because they need Filipinos to keep them open and operational. The economy of Hong Kong, Singapore and most of Europe would stop if all Pinoy nannies and domestics go on strike. The crisis will be surely felt in hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and other health facilities without Pinoy doctors, nurses, technicians and caregivers. Pinoys are heath workers – doctors, nurses and caregivers – of the world. They, too, are the domestic helpers of the world. They are engineers, technicians, mariners and people who do all kinds of odd jobs. Wherever they are, they bring their smile and laughter as they tell the stories of their families, place and patron saints. To me, this is the story line that the world needs badly! Here lies the true Pinoy contribution to the new emerging social order!