Tanuki Tales ~ theReliquary

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=connieVeneracion_aug23_2007

Where humor ends

The story begins with an article published in the June issue of the People Asia Magazine. The article traces the trip of Malu Fernandez from Boracay to Greece and back. She flew via Emirates with an economy class ticket. She wrote things like she "wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane" with migrant workers. About the return flight, she wrote, "This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air." Fernandez apparently got a lot of flak and she responded to the angry readers with an article entitled "Am I being a diva? Or do you lack common sense?" published in Manila Standard Today on July 30, 2007.

I read Am I being a diva? Or do you lack common sense? long before I got wind of the People Asia magazine article. I was waiting for my Taiwan food trip article to be published in MST's The Good Life section so I was checking everyday. And that was how I got to read her article. My first reaction was shock —shock at the derisive language. But as I got to substance, I realized that most of her complaints in that article were things I had complained about too in the past —especially the parts about inefficient government employees, bad customer service in private corporations and the quality of education in the Philippines. Despite the language, I felt she was raising valid points until I got to the part about "a funny article in my magazine column" which, of course, did not make sense to me because I had not read the People Asia magazine article at that point.

Weeks later, both articles would become the basis for a campaign over the Internet against Malu Fernandez.

On Monday evening, a forwarded e-mail entitled "OFW'S all over the world deserve a public apology—ikalat nyo" reached my inbox. The e-mail was sent by a migrant worker and long-time reader of my food blog. While issues of journalistic ethics were raised, the e-mail—forwarded several times already by the time it reached me—was quite subdued. Despite the title, it was largely a for-your-information kind of thing, a judge for yourself message, with scanned pages of the People Asia article attached.

Obviously, there are two versions of the anti-Malu Fernandez campaign on the Internet. One demands a public apology; the other calls for her resignation, or firing, from People Asia Magazine and Manila Standard Today, apologies from both publications, plus a boycott of the same publications until Fernandez is fired or resigns and apologies are issued.

Malu Fernandez calls the People Asia article humor. She says her friends found it funny. Should the question of good taste be raised? "Good taste" is as subjective as subjective can be. The dead giveaway was when she said "I obviously write for a certain target audience". So, that was it—applying wit at the expense of some people, migrant workers in this case, in order to entertain the target audience.

That's media for you. That's not a mere observation—it is simply a fact. Every publication and every network will do anything to retain its audience. And that includes humor, even the kind made at the expense of others, if it will translate to readership/audience. Some even work hard at being perfectly hateful because that translates to readership too.

The sadder truth is that we, migrant workers and non-migrant workers alike, are all part of this twisted culture of cracking jokes at the expense of others. Haven't you laughed at and disseminated Erap jokes via SMS and e-mail? Don't you watch Bubble Gang and guffawed at the impersonations of politicians and media personalities? Don't you giggle at the local version of Candid Camera hosted by Michael V. which victimizes unwary people on the street, subjecting them to embarrassing and humiliating situations all for the sake of entertaining the show's viewers? See, everything is funny until we find ourselves to be the subject of the jokes. Then, it isn't so funny anymore. And, often, it is not easy to tell where the humor ends and the insult begins. Then, it becomes an emotional issue.

What amazes me that no one seems to realize that media is responsible for the workers' reaction. Media spoiled and pampered them by building them up as modern-day heroes and they have gotten used to the title. So who is this woman with the gall to look down on them? She's part of media too. Why isn't she writing the way media has always written about these migrants? Thing is, there is a way to disagree with the sensational declaration that they are nothing less than heroes without making fun of them as persons. And not everyone is incapable of discerning between an obvious insult and one that has been sugarcoated to make it appear as humor. Under the circumstances, the reaction of the workers is understandable and the demand for an apology cannot be considered unreasonable.

What is truly mind-blowing is that non-OFW sectors of the Philippine blogging community are in on the act too and demanding far more than what levelheaded migrant workers are asking for. In the e-mail I received, and this was circulating among OFWs, the demand was for an apology. There was no name-calling such as what has been going around in Web logs posts and comment threads where Malu Fernandez is referred to as Miss Piggy, slut, fatso, oink oink... Some of the worst name-calling appear on Web logs that are not even written by migrants and they go as far as calling for her resignation, or for People Asia magazine and Manila Standard Today to fire her and issue public apologies. Otherwise, a boycott. These people want blood. Why? Sympathy? Or is it something else?

I tell you, there is nothing more useless and unreasonable as an angry, unthinking mob. And there is nothing more dangerous than a mob with an agendum—lest we forget, the Philippine blogging community is a medium too and hardly exempt from the mentality that anything goes if it translates to readership/audience.

No, I didn't find the People Asia article funny. I thought it was insensitive and insulting and bordering on libelous. But neither am I amused nor impressed at some of the reactions in the Philippine blogging community—some are nothing short of libelous either.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=89652

Society columnist quits over OFW bashing

Complaints sent via the Internet and through othery types of media led a Manila-based society columnist to resign from her job following her negative comments about overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East, ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau reported Thursday.

Bureau chief Dindo Amparo reported that Filipinos in the Middle East proved they can make a difference by uniting for a cause against columnist Malu Fernandez.

In her column titled "From Boracay to Greece," which saw print on "People Asia" magazine, Fernandez detailed her unusual and spur of the moment Holy Week vacation in Greece.

Fernandez said that following a friend's advice, she flew on economy class to Greece. The plane made a stopover in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. It was her written observations during the flight and while in the city that got Fernandez in trouble.

"I forget that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of OFWs were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them," she wrote.

Fernandez said this was aggravated when one of her fellow passengers spoke to her and said, "Hey there? Where are you from? Are you a domestic helper as well?"

The columnist went further by insinuating that due to the large number of OFWs in the plane wearing cheap perfumes, the expensive brand she had on immediately evaporated into thin air.

"I had resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air," Fernandez said.

Based on prices from the Jo Malone Web site, a 100 ml bottle of cologne ranges from 30-59 British pounds (around 2,800-5,500 Philippine pesos).

Who's the diva?
Fernandez's statements spread like wildfire on the Internet and earned the ire of communities of Filipino workers abroad, especially in the Middle East.

The migrant workers immediately issued statements and sent e-mails to blogs expressing their anger against Fernandez.

The statements can be found at this special blog (http://selvo.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/mahaderang-matapobre-sa-ofws/#comment-1042).

To make matters worse, Fernandez wrote in her succeeding column in the "Manila Standard Today" that she was only being true to herself.

"Many people often find my direct attitude to be rude or obnoxious. I really don't mean to be anything but true to myself," she said.

"Now, I seriously ask you, am I being a diva or are people around me just lacking in common sense? Perhaps it's a little of both!" she added.

Her statements further enraged the Filipino workers. She later apologized.

"I am humbled by the vehement and heated response provoked by my article. To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs now sounds hollow after reading through all the blogs from Filipinos all over the world," Fernandez said in her latest statement on the online version of Manila Standard Today.

She added: "I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked.
It was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs."

Fernandez admitted being insensitive and offensive, as she apologized to the OFWs for whatever she had written.

Sought for an interview by ABS-CBN, Fernandez declined.

She, however, sent a letter, saying, "I take full responsibility for my actions and my friends and family have nothing to do with this. To date I have submitted my resignation letters to both the Manila Standard and People Asia, on that note may this matter be laid to rest."

Not yet finished
Meanwhile, abs-cbnNEWS.com received dozens of feedback e-mails against Fernandez after news broke out about her anti-OFW statements.

"We are already having a hard time here working under the hot climate, then we get a strong below the belt blow by our own kabayan who has totally no idea on being an OFW," Francis Sangalang wrote from Dubai.

Another OFW, who declined to be named, said: "I seldom come across articles that bring my blood pressure up to a record high. This article by Malu
Fernandez has led me to set a new personal record. To say that this is 'nakakakunsumi' (troubling) is an understatement of the highest degree."

The special blog was also created to compile comments against Fernandez. The comments ranged from defending her column as being about perfumes to to downright below the belt statements.

Contract worker Florencio Laron wrote from Saudi Arabia and said, "All I have to say is that may breeding siya (masama nga lang) (only, it's bad) and she [doesn't] deserve to be a Filipino."

An anonymous e-mail sender, meanwhile, said, "Her side comments were uncalled for. She should have kept them to herself. This is bigotry at its purest. What's worst is she did it to her fellow Filipinos. The bad part is her pathetic attempt to justify what she wrote."

Information from the Web site of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said a total of 462,545 OFWs or 58 percent of the total number of Filipinos employed abroad were in the Middle East as of last year.

Last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said OFWs sent a total of US$12.6 billion in remittances to their families in the Philippines.