The War At Home: Or Why Filipinos Can't Take a Joke

So I woke up on a lovely Sunday morning (and by morning I mean 2pm) to a veritable flurry of Tweets and Plurks from my friends from the Filipino blogosphere. Apparently, an article written by Chinese journalist Chip Tsao regarding the Spratly issue got most of the Filipino bloggers in a tizzy because of his rather harsh satirical humor.

You can read the article here, but here is a particularly lovely snippet to whet your appetite:

"Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

The rest of the article is more of the same, with very precise and over-the-top satire written in. I was completely unsurprised when comments from Filipinos came pouring in to argue Tsao's claims, but I was very disappointed when I actually read some of the comments.

Fighting racism with yet more racism (there were more than a few comments which resorted to name-calling and racial slurs against the Chinese), is hardly the mark of a civilized person.

I am of the opinion that Tsao was greatly exagerating the common Chinese sentiment regarding the Spratly issue precisely to show his readers how ridiculous and illogical their thought processes were. If we Filipinos stop and think for a moment, one can only come to the conclusion that this article was meant to be read by the Chinese and not us. And I'd wager that even the strongest supporter of the China-Spratly argument would think twice about their stance when reading the levels of ridiculous in the latter part of the article.

Case in point:

"Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being."

Considering that Tsao is a former reporter for the BBC, it behooves one to note that he was probably using this article to air his true sentiments in an increasingly less free Hong Kong press. His only recourse was probably satire, and rather than publicly attack his character, threaten the Chinese, or bring the Egyptian slaves into the argument (lol Christianz), it would be most prudent for the Filipinos who choose to respond to argue their points in an intelligent and rational manner.

After all, you're not trying to change Tsao's mind-- you're trying to change the minds of the people who read his article. If they read the article and beneath it is a slew of comments shouting racial slurs at the Chinese, that changes Tsao's satire and makes it True.

Hate breeds more hate, people. If we wish to be perceived as a nation of civilized and educated individuals, why not act like it?