Bigotry in paradise

As a member of the host community, I find it very humiliating how the fate of our friends (guest workers) has escalated into incendiary commentaries, fuming with heavy racial overtones.

This is very unbecoming of a community known for its Christian values it has learned from Spain over 400 years ago. It became a matter of religious tradition on the islands since then. But then there are those who have never outgrown adolescency.

To date, I still see young kids trooping to catechism after school to learn their initial prayers. Many of us have gone through the same. We learned our religion well, including a sense of compassion for our fellow man. It requires a sense of maturity to learn being tactful and calm in emotional situations, including employing the adage, “There are things best left unsaid.”

There’s obviously a lot to learn about separating people from issues. Our guest workers understand their limit is fortified by finding an employer. Otherwise, U.S. immigration law doesn’t leave much to maneuver. Many have accepted their fate ready and are willing to return home. That some have sought court remedies is a matter of due process rights given that each is legally situated. Friends, our needs, aspirations, and dreams are all the same. Cut the shameful display of racial bias. It doesn’t help anybody at all.

After years of being spoiled royal weeds, we’ve learned to abuse them in terms of their real wages, timely payment of salaries, forced parenthood as live-in-maids while we head to happy hour and do so as though we own indentured slaves. These underpaid workers handled most hard work in submission. Most are good in their trades and professions, having done vocational training and attained degrees from institutions of higher learning. But their qualities and needs as human beings were drowned in our sea of bigotry. I quite can’t figure out how being a Chamorro grants me superiority over others.

I mean, how do I match Ivy League educated administrators and professors from the University of the Philippines with my high school diploma from once Hopwood Sr. High? How do I measure up to Monte Mayor, a famous writer who excels in philosophy? But each of these guys has also served as my sources for heavy reading materials. Mayor explained the concept of logic while I struggle to explain his explanation. It’s a difficult concept and had to return to his book to understand the basic tenets. I am a mix bag of Pinoy, Chamorro and Carolinian and darn proud of it.
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By happenstance, I walked into a huge hardware store in Manila. There were rows of the latest TV sets, modern appliances and gadgets, among others. As I was browsing around, I ran into a man who introduced himself as Roland DelRosario. We exchanged felicitations and he invited me to dinner at his palatial spread in a new for-wealthy-only real estate development. He exports to Europe, the Middle East and nearly all of Asia. He rakes in millions while I live paycheck-to-paycheck, crafting words that occasionally pay for beer to drown my sorrows.

In short, I have seen the best in the Republic of the Philippines and am not ready to boast of superiority. Though an island nation, it is a sovereign country. The country has advanced applied technology that genetically engineered coconut that produces fruit in two short years. It has become an industry in itself. They catch the sap and turn it into pellets and syrup, both of which are sweet but without sugar. It is sold in Japan to the diabetic community.

What have we produced other than boast about a new dialysis center paid for by U.S. taxpayers to help locals cleanse their toxin-filled blood as a result of kidney failure? Isn’t true that we also send critical patients to Manila because the local hospital isn’t sufficiently equipped with the back-up system to handle critical medical cases?

With a sense of humility, let’s retreat and allow our Christian values and compassion to guide us through civility and community harmony. It’s the right thing to do. Now, most would be gone and the question is: Are we ready to do the hard work they’ll leave behind? That will be the day, huh?  Will it be a happy or dreadful beginning getting our hands dirty for the first time in a long time as lord weeds?
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I’ve also learned a little gardening from one of China’s best of seven farmers. He taught me where certain crops should be planted, how to pick pumpkin tips, how to harvest green onions and tomatoes, etc. Come to think of it, he made sense all the way around. He said I should strive to produce the most marketable items first so I get quick return on my investment. The rest like taro, bananas, sweet potatoes and yams are seasonal produce. But hotels and restaurants demand fresh green onions, cucumber, green pepper, string beans, solo papaya, honeydew, water melon, etc. And I thought I was an expert on diversified farming!
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The NMI is riddled with problems it created out of its own leadership deficit—inadequacies at the helm and lack of vision. We now sit flat on our buns pondering if there’s a slight chance of an accidental phenomenon to ward off the steadily quiet assault of bankruptcy. I can’t figure the administration remitting its share of employer contribution by the millions of dollars per year.

To do so would mean it must impose severe reduction in force by more than half its current payroll. Is this feasible at a time when private industries whose revenues support local government operations consistently contracts by the year? It is quite a dilemma, isn’t it? It means that while we dance the waltz of dismissive acquiescence, the private sector has also used austerity to cut costs. It simply means it has no room to accommodate public sector employees that may suffer RIF.

The fun that isn’t funny anymore has just begun. It will be winter in hell if we could pull ourselves out of the current deepening mess. But then, we sit back and watch the parade to Debt Cliff. It’s the only major event scheduled for the next decade. Where did “experienced leadership go?” Brace for it.