I was visiting the website of a twenty-something Filipino-American who lives in New York City, DJ Paris (www.djparis.com), when I came across an interesting entry in his web journal in which he recounted recently visiting his now retired parents in New Jersey with his partner. During the course of the visit, his parents revealed to him that they had discovered on a trip back to the Philippines that his mother had inherited several properties around Manila.

What was fascinating to me wasn’t the fact they had inherited property, but the fact that they had gone back to the Philippines for the first time in 30 years since emigrating. DJ was born and raised in the US, so he naturally doesn’t speak fluent Tagalog and hasn’t yet visited the Philippines as far as I know. But for his parents to turn their backs on their home country and not visit it for 30 years seems to me incredible.

But I guess it’s the usual story of most immigrants, be they Europeans fleeing persecution, Arabs moving to Brazil to find a better life, or Filipinos leaving the instability of the Philippines for the predictability and material comfort of a developed country. (Though after the horrific Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, one wonders just how safe America is now!) Struggling emigrants usually don’t have enough money to return home on regular visits, and often get caught up in the daily effort of trying to make a living and raise a family. When they finally have the means and time to return home, twenty or thirty years may have already passed.

What bothers me is how can immigrants leave the psychological comforts of their homelands behind? This must be the hardest part of migrating. Hardships and sacrifices are easily forgotten; indeed most normal people don’t want to be reminded of them. But leaving behind the familiar sights and sounds of home cooking, friends and of your own language must be disconcerting and upsetting. No wonder many immigrants look for others like themselves abroad and form little ghettoes. These are pockets of people of a similar ethnic or national background, where they can find food from back home, community newspapers carrying the latest home news, and lawyers who can help them if they get into trouble.

What is so troubling, though in some ways is also a strong point, is how easily some Filipinos assimilate abroad learning the local language and adopting local ways. Of course that is the usual accusation flung at many Pinoy-Americans: That they are more American than Anglo-Americans. This becomes troubling when they show no interest in learning about their country of origin, or indeed when they even begin to scorn their roots.

I guess what I’m saying is that I wish some Filipino emigrants would be prouder of their origins, and that they would pass on this pride and love of the Philippines to their children born abroad and who have never set foot in the Philippines. The Philippines may be a poor country with a battered economy and chaotic politics, but it’s also a joyful and rich place, a place to be proud of and to long for.

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Travel advisories and the DFA

THE TIMING of the bomb attack on a shop in Alkhobar last week, in which two Westerners were killed and four expatriates wounded (including two Filipinos), was ironic to say the least.

Some Overseas Filipino Workers had just complained to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila about the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia being placed in their advisory about areas in the Middle East where Filipinos were at risk from US military action against Afghanistan. The DFA listened and removed the Eastern Province from its list. Then the bomb went off.

For sure the Khobar bomb was an isolated incident and no direct link has been made between it and retaliation for US and British bombing of Afghanistan, although it does seem to be an anti-Western attack.

What is also ironic is that the Philippines itself has been unhappy with the US State Department’s recent advisory to US citizens not to visit Mindanao at this time because of the high danger of them being kidnapped and murdered there. Malacañang Palace itself has complained to the US State Department, claiming that not all of Mindanao is unsafe, and that the blanket advisory harms Philippine tourism and business.

I understand the need to make nuanced distinctions between certain areas being safe and others not, but in this case I must agree with the State Department. I myself wouldn’t recommend an American to visit Mindanao right now. The Philippine government may have full control over certain major urban centers in Mindanao, but once one ventures into the countryside I think it’s a different story.

As for Saudi Arabia being allegedly unsafe right now for OFWs, as some Filipino NGOs such as Migrante like to rabidly claim, I think a Pinoy is more likely to be the victim of a crime back home than he is to be bombed here. OFWs must remember that Afghanistan is at least a thousand miles from the Arabian Peninsula, so I don’t think there is a chance of the war spilling over here.

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Are 5-day holiday weekends really smart?

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Malacanang Palace this week that the Philippines’ first five-day holiday weekend would be the All Saints Day one (Oct. 31-Nov. 4), so that Filipinos could mark the holiday with all their religious fervor, struck me as especially stupid.

With the world fighting a war against terrorism in Afghanistan and most economies around the globe in tailspins, is working less really intelligent? These new mega-extended holiday weekends are supposedly the brainchild of Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon. He came up with this hare-brained scheme in the hope that by giving Filipinos more leisure time they would spend more of their disposable income touring the holiday spots of the Philippines.

But with more and more Filipinos being laid off as firms see their earnings plunge, does Gordon really expect to see anyone spending more money on leisure? Most Filipinos don’t make enough money to go on holiday, and if they do they usually like to go abroad. With Philippine productivity levels already not high enough, adding five-day holiday weekends to the country will only make things worse.