Accents
An inconvenient word
The highly perceptive and very academic Al Gore gave us the inconvenient truth about global warming and made "inconvenient" a popular modifier. How convenient to use it now to describe "desperate" that has become a revolting word to the Pinoy anchored here in the U.S. of A. and in other nooks and crannies of the worldwide web and the world.
If you have been so isolated and not stung by the desperate humiliation that happened two months ago, visit quick YouTube and click on the Sept. 30 episode of ABC's sit-com Desperate Housewives. In a span of less than a minute, actress Teri Hatcher delivered a racist slur that resulted in protests of tsunami proportion: "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med schools in the Philippines." To quote Ronald M. Davis, American Medical Association president, in his letter to ABC, "The statement was very insensitive and unwarranted, as well as a sweeping generalization about Philippine medical schools." Indeed, a brazen denigration of physicians with diplomas from "med schools in the Philippines."
The desperate fiasco happened nearly two months ago, and what did I do/didn't do about it? A relative wrote why not a word from me, "a protester of the first order." Well, as soon as I received in my Inbox the petition written by Kevin Nadal demanding apology from ABC, I signed up and forwarded the same to friends. I was signatory #123, 917 and thinking that affixing the name isn't enough, I added these comments: Are there any more ugly Americans out there? (My apologies to Americans equipped with sense and sensibility and possessed of a higher degree of responsibility.) Last I checked, the signatories totalled 127,572. Go to http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/petition.html, sign up and be counted.
The outrage spread like wild fire. Instantly, there was a call for a nationwide boycott of ABC and the vociferous clamor for the network to remove the offending scene. Of course, ABC caved in. You do not jeopardize 25 million or so viewers. (I wasn't one of the boycotters because not once have I watched Desperate Housewives, nor ever will. Nor my daughters, who would religiously tivo every episode of Boston Legal.)
Columnists of US-based Fil-Am newspapers were in full force taking ABC to task even as they carried ABC's apology. One wanted a lawsuit, calling ABC's apology a "band-aid." Jon Melegrito of the NaFFAA (National Federation of Filipino-American Associations (NaFFAA) wrote in a Fil-Am paper that ABC "is taking the necessary steps to make amends." What these amends are I have yet to see.
From what I gathered online, the newspapers in the homeland were not behind in their condemnation of the reckless episode. Very well said was this protestation from Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros: "It doesn't just cast aspersion on – or worse doubts, which affects employment of – Filipino doctors, it does so on Filipino professionals generally. What applies to the diplomas of Filipino doctors applies as well to the diplomas of Filipino engineers, accountants and lawyers. Left unprotested, a single line like that in a hugely popular TV series can do more harm by the incalculable power of suggestion than whole reams or airtime of diatribe in a newspaper or talk show."
After holding my column inches for weeks, I'm going personal now considering that ours is a family of doctors: all graduates of "med schools in the Philippines." Daughter Randy of the West Visayas State University (WVSU) was Best Intern, then Chief Medical Resident at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens, an affiliate of Cornell University. Daughter Raileen, who made it to the Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society, was also of WVSU. She took her internship at New York's Harlem Hospital and now has a thriving practice in California. By the remarks of their patients, you get to know their caliber. My cousin Mimi Gedang (already retired) graduated from the University of Sto. Tomas, trained at the famed Johns Hopkins and thereafter got promoted to instructor rank in the Johns Hopkins University Medical School. My nephew Edgar Alonsozana of Cebu Institute of Medicine is now an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. All four took their pre-med at UP Iloilo, now UPV. Re De Quiros' column, who can cast aspersion on the strength of the power couple, Dr. Epifanio San Juan, Jr. and Dr. Delia Aguilar? Not the Teri Hatchers of America, nor the universities that have included them in their faculty pool. Both have authored several books and award-winning, too. Nationalist writer San Juan, Jr. is the Director of the Connecticut-based Philippine Cultural Studies Center. Delia, a friend and classmate at UP, is a professor on women's studies. Their peer-reviewed articles have appeared in prestigious journals. Desperate? In their world, the word does not exist.
Me? Desperate over one thing: the proliferating gray hair. (Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)