The Philippines as Open Pussy Country?

I recently started work in an online dating company based here in Oz. This explains why I haven’t written anything lately. My free time simply can’t be spent on thinking some more! But anyway, I recently read an entry over at kapenilattex about the Philippines being an “open pussy country” in the global call centre industry. Here, kapenilattex shares anecdotes about Filipinas who sleep with their foreigner bosses to either climb up the corporate ladder or get married and migrate abroad.

As one who reads through and approves profiles in our dating website, the Philippines is notorious for being nuisance members, for a number of reasons. Although we have niche markets that cater to specific regions in the world, to specific religions and even sexual orientations, Filipinos, more specifically Filipinas, can be found in any number of them. I am ashamed to say that in our training manual, the Philippines has been marked as a possible source of scammers, i.e. those who ask other members for money on grounds of extreme poverty, or those who just want a free ticket to leave the country. These Filipinas literally either sell themselves online and the line between ‘marriage’ and prostitution is blurred.

Interestingly, not a lot of our neighbours in the Southeast Asian region apply to be members of these sites. This may be explained by any number of reasons, including internet access and their limited knowledge of English. But I am afraid it is mostly explained by our pervasive colonial cum victim cum Cinderella mentality.

Taken individually, these mentalities as aspects of our culture colour our perception of self-hood as a nation, and our identities as Filipinos and Filipinas. In combination, this three-pronged mentality is detrimental to the way we situate ourselves both locally and internationally. Our colonial mentality is deep-seated. Everything Western, particularly American, is superior by all counts. Which implies that what is local is necessarily inferior. The Americans have left decades past, but we have proven to be better colonial masters than they were. 70 years later, the colonial mentality is alive and well, nurtured by pop culture, by elite culture, by us all.

From this logic it follows that we are constantly looking outward. This may be because the 'outside' has shaped our fate us a nation for so long. The 'outside' is portrayed in the media as this oasis of material comfort. So many of us have left. 1 million last year. While I do not begrudge the decision of those who have thrown in the towel, whether permanently or temporarily, those who stay are seen as idealistic fools. But the local politics and economy are powerful inducements to uproot and seek a better life elsewhere. Indeed, what rational being would choose to stay? The colonial mentality will interpret such idealistic notions as irrational, if not plain stupidity. The colonial mentality does not allow for an alternative way of looking at reality, and alternative solutions. Why isn't it rational for people to stay and fight for political stability and economic development at home?

The victim mentality goes hand in hand with our colonial past as that female 'Pearl of the Orient' fought over by male external powers of the past. This is our self-identification as a nation enshrined in our national anthem! This victimhood takes place in the context of extreme unequal distribution of wealth in our country today, where one in four is going hungry involuntarily. The poor identify themselves as such, and are powerless to see themselves as anything other. Victims of the rich, victims of the system, victims of the local. Salvation cannot be found in the Philippines. Colonial mentality, coupled with victim mentality show salvation can only be found elsewhere.

I have addressed the Cinderella mentality in a previous entry some years back. In it I question the most common narratives we see on local TV in recent years (if not since forever):

Beautiful But Oppressed hails from the hinterlands or some other rural area toiling away at the fields. Meets Dashing Rich Debonair on vacation. The two fall in love and would live happily ever after if not for the Older Baddie. And so the requisite insult-hurling, cat fighting, and not to forget Big Time Oppressing (for no apparent reason but for the sheer evil of Big Baddie) must lengthily unfold before our eyes before Beautiful But Oppressed learns to fight the dirty fight and finally triumphs over Older Baddie. Its easy enough to see the box-office appeal of these Tagalog-speaking hispanics, their soaps could have been local if not for the "better" looking actors.

Local soaps usually make the same juxtaposition of the Poor and Oppressed in the rural areas being treated cruelly by both Destiny (as though it were a given that, well, they're just poor period), and the Rich from urban Manila. Its a cheap play on modernity vs. tradition, town mouse and country mouse but its a hit for the masses (and some from the non-masses) because it must strike on similar cultural sensibilities.

The Cinderella mentality allows no other option for us as a nation but be supplicants to masculine fate, waiting, waiting to be rescued. As Filipinas, this mentality combined with the previous two, is probably why so many young ones are prostituted by their parents to foreigners, whether through bride sale or old-style prostitution. The advances in telecommunications has only facilitated this process. So many young, nubile, exotic Filipinas are foreigner-husband-hunting online today.

You might say, well, it is easy for me to deplore these practices of prostitution/mail-order-brides. Being bourgeois, I can afford my economic independence. I can afford my morals. I can afford my indignation. But for so many young women from the provinces, a full stomach in a cold clime may be enough.

Historical materialists will say, the material conditions dictate the ideological. From this follows the argument that better material conditions of living in the Philippines will lead to better ideas about the Philippines, a better self-perception as Filipinos. In this paradigm, the order of of the material and the ideological is unidirectional. Therefore better ideas about the Philippines cannot possibly precede better material living conditions. It is hopelessly pessimistic. And besides, those who are already materially well-off don't necessarily have better self-perception and self-identification as Filipinos. Arguably, it is worse for our elites.

But could it be that another approach needs to be taken? Since our culture of colonial-cum-victim-cum-Cinderella mentality reinforces the material poverty of the majority and the two are locked in a vicious cycle, why not begin with improving our ideological self-image?

Since I have been away, I can mercifully tune out of the news of the country's permanent crisis. This time last year I remember being depressed by everything. In the media, among colleagues and friends, the only alternative to hopelessness was celebrity scandals. No wonder the likes of Kris and Ruffa have gained notoriety, prostituting their lives to the public so hungry for distraction from our culture of self-defeatism and self-flagellation.

As one equally bourgeois Italian once said - pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. In colloquial terms - Habang may buhay, may pag-asa. Better yet - Wasak na wasak na wasak...pero kaya pa. :)