Except for his Dark Skin, Obama Can Do No Wrong in the
Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines)
"The government can go ahead and announce that it has
initiated a campaign calling on the United States to make us the 51st state,
and not only would it be met with near-universal approval, it would set us into
a frenzy of jubilation. ... Which brings me to the other formidable Filipino
bias that at least Obama, if not all American presidents, will find less than
welcome. Obama is Black. ... Black-skinned people are objects of ridicule,
making them, along with the pandak and kinky-haired,
the foils of sitcoms."
When
Barack Obama comes here this weekend, he will run smack into two formidable
biases harbored by Filipinos.
The
first will be a welcome one for an American president: the staggering
pro-Americanism of Filipinos. We are a country and people who wave the American
flag more energetically than Americans themselves. Witness the patriotic fervor
we showed at America's response to 9/11, which was to bomb Afghanistan into the
Stone Age for harboring Osama bin Laden, and then invading Iraq for, walalang [no reason in
particular] - it happened to be there, and Saddam Hussein fit the image of a
"harborer" of weapons of mass destruction.
One
can only expect that Obama will keep the fires burning. As first Black American
president, he hasn't exactly proven to be the iconoclastic emancipator his
circumstances suggested he might be. Even less, an emancipator of people from
their mental shackles - never mind their physical ones. I was one of those who
thrilled to his tectonic victory over John McCain, and felt a jolt of
excitement when he said, "Change has come to America." Alas, not
really.
The
real change, and to the world, not just America, didn't come six years ago. It
came a year ago. And it didn't come from Obama, but from Pope Francis. That,
however, is another story.
Getting
back: Obama will be coming to a country that loves America and all things
American, something that over the last year or so has been magnified by Chinese
aggression in the South China Sea, reviving the flip side of the coin: hatred
for China and all things Chinese, except Chinese food, Chinese gold, and CDR-King.
Recently,
enhanced defense cooperation, which would give the United States wider access to
Philippine bases, which really harbor U.S. bases within Philippine ones, met
with near-universal approval from the public. Given the self-flagellation of
Filipinos into a Cold War paranoia that says not, "the Russians are
coming!" but "the Chinese are coming!," I can believe it.
It’s
all very fine, except for this: At the moment, the government could go ahead
and announce it has negotiated an agreement to bring back the U.S. bases and it
would be met with widespread public approval. Ours is a forgetful country.
April 2014 is not September 1991 [when the Philippines asked the U.S. to
leave]. The difference is not only measured in years, but in lifetimes. There
is little the United States can ask for today that wouldn't be granted by our
government, and that won’t be approved enthusiastically by us.
In
fact, the government can go ahead and announce that it has initiated a campaign
calling on the United States to make us the 51st state, and not only would it
be met with near-universal approval, it would set us into a frenzy of
jubilation. Probably even more than a Pacquiao
boxing victory. The only impediment to this being that of course, the Americans
would find the idea as welcome as a hole in the head, if for no other reason
than the plight of Filipino veterans.
I
remember that during the 1990s, several studies tried to gauge the extent of
our Filipino identity. Elementary school children were asked what nationality
they preferred. The number one answer, unsurprisingly, was American. Number two
was Saudi Arabia, reflecting a time when jeepneys
carried mud flaps that said, "Katasng Saudi." Filipino came in third, or fourth or fifth
according to some studies. I suspect it's the same today, with Saudi Arabia
changed to some other Arab (?) nationality.
Indeed,
I recall how during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's time in
office [2001-2010], a survey asked whom we trusted most. The number one answer
wasn't any Filipino official, many of whom got negative ratings, it was George
W. Bush.
Which
brings me to the other formidable Filipino bias that at least Obama, if not all
American presidents, will find less than welcome. Bush is White. Obama is
Black. Obama will be coming to a country that, if it doesn't necessarily hate
Black and all things Black, it least doesn't hold them in high regard. This is
courtesy of colonialism, of which American colonialism was a part.
Black-skinned people are objects of ridicule, making them, along with the pandak and kinky-haired, the foils of sitcoms.
This
is a country of skin whiteners - a product that is freely advertised in utter
disregard or obliviousness to the disparagement it does the darker skinned.
Indeed in utter disregard to the foreigners braving our local transport to get
to our beaches in the hope of darkening their skin.
More
to the point, this is a country that openly sympathized with Hillary Clinton
when she battled Obama in the Democratic primaries. One might imagine that this
was so for a number of ideological or programmatic reasons, but it was not. It
was, as one Filipino expostulated as if expressing a truth we hold to be
self-evident - "because he's Black."
[Former
U.S. Ambassador] Harry Thomas never became the toast of the town the way
Kristie Kenney has, even though he loved jazz and went out of his way to
frequent places that played jazz in Quezon City, while Kenney loved only Gloria
and went out of her way to dance in [the TV show] Wowowee.
Frankly, I don't know what the Americans were thinking when they assigned
Thomas to the Philippines. This is a country that takes the word of a dolt like
Dubya as gospel truth, and that of a, well, tepid
Obama, as suspect.
This
is the country that the president of the United States will be visiting next
week. The official reception will of course register as a triumphal visit to
the home of an old friend. The unofficial one, well, I’d be curious to see what
kind of jokes it spawns. Particularly when Obama gets to shake the hand of the
self-styled dark horse of Philippine elections, Jojo O’Binay. It should be fun. At least, they will be a
contrast in height.
