Saturday, March 04, 2006

Debating a Presidential Proclamation

While inserting my Leyte Mudslide blog into the forum of Sun Star , Cagayan de Oro’s leading newspaper, I ran across another sizzling forum topic: Presidential Proclamation 1017 declaring the State of National Emergency, following an alleged military coup d’état. What caught my attention were the amusing comments that strayed from the subject, a discourse initiated by a boorish foreigner, reproduced verbatim below.



2006-03-01 04:14:18

Foreigner " <> YOU Filipinos are the most IDIOTS in the world.You do not know how to elect your leader, you like movie actors or actress to run your country. If your new Boxing hero Mr. Pacquiao will run as a president, i think he will win because YOU FILIPINOS are crazy,, For me , you belongs to Africa and not in Asia.

2006-03-01 05:01:37 " bell-ringer " < > This is dedicated to that very impolite "foreigner" (suisse@frenchnews.fr). So, you think that Filipinos belongs to Africa and not Asia. May I cite a phrase here of Prince of Metternich. "In Europe, we have no jungle so we have no monkeys. But we have the French!" I just repeated here what this noble prince stated concerning your people.

2006-03-01 04:49:35 " RedRobin " < > To "Foreigner" (suisse@frenchnews.fr) OK. We, Filipinos, dream a lot. But we do not have the monopoly of stages and movies. Remember your burning cities in November and the "racaille" you are unable to eradicate. Remember the crowds of workers laid down by your nice companies (Arcelor, Suez to cite a few). Remember the big show your soldiers offered in Rwanda, leading to half a million deaths! Philippines problems are just a fraction of what you have in France! I am living in Europe for 17 years now and I have never encountered a harassment of that sort in my adopting country. You dare to air it here to voice your sentiment? Vous n'avez rien a dire de plus gentil où de plus important que ça? Si il 'y a quelqu'un idiot ici, c'est surement vous, pas les philippins !





Orly (moi) wades into the fray.

Foreigner, uses language that in his warped mind believes is conversation. At first glance, the rude words may seem insulting and unfair, but to the cool analytical mind with equanimity can parse the words and phrases for its accuracy value, unmindful of grammatical errors. Using this gauge, supposing we take the sentences in detail:

“YOU Filipinos are the most IDIOTS in the world” --- This could be interpreted two ways. One, that the Filipino nation has the distinction of having the highest percentage of idiots in its population, globally speaking.. Or, the author means that Pinoys collectively act like idiots. Both versions are obvious fallacies. His proof is declared in the next sentence:

“You do not know how to elect your leader, you like movie actors or actress to run your country.” --- It is a fact that ERAP (Joseph Ejercito Estrada), an actor, was elected in a landslide viictory. The author, suffering from a dearth of English words, declares his bias against entertainers as political leaders and thus unkowingly or deliberately dismissing Ronald Reagan, a two term U.S. President, as a distinguished leader. It is a devious way of validating the first assertion.

“If your new Boxing hero Mr. Pacquiao will run as a president, i think he will win because YOU FILIPINOS are crazy,” --- The hypothetical case of a Manny Pacquiao candidacy (which is not a remote possibility) winning as President of the Philippines (a likely probability) is described by the author as idiotic (crazy). Adulation is admittedly a trait of Pinoys and without doubt a primary factor in the ERAP victory, as it would in case the Pacman ( Manny Pacquiao) decides to enter the political arena.

“For me , you belongs to Africa and not in Asia” --- The author ranks Africa beneath Asia but fails to explain why. Modern anthropology has established the fact that homo sapiens evolved from humanoids in Africa. Perhaps, he is one of the survivors of Neanderthals (now believed extinct by anthroplogists who could be wrong), and his superiority complex derived from that fact.

An intriguing thing about Foreigner is his knowledge of Filipino current events that would be the envy of Pinoy college students. Okay, sleaze and bawdiness do travel faster over the electronic highway, almost as fast as the American Idol show. But Foreigner has collected so much Filipino political savvy, enough to raise his dander and outrage to be insulting. Pinoys should be flattered he cares?

The SunStar forum comments carried a number of dissenters who swallowed the bait.

bell-ringer was brief and politely erudite but fell into the trap of insult trading, and in the process deprecated the entire French nation. Metternich’s remark probably had political overtones, being Austrian. In fairness, the French have made a multitude of cultural contributions, to world progress (the French kiss, for example), to the English language (like coup d’état) and cuisine (French fries, for one) to name a few. I am positive they also have their share of idiots, but in general are decent people like us Pinoys.

RedRobin a French-speaking Filipino, assumes that the author is French. He could be Swiss, based on his email address. I cannot conceive of the author as a Filipino disguised to conceal his identity by purporting to be an alien. That would have entailed a sophistication that is extremely rare in hoi polloi chatrooms



I returned to the same forum the following day and was stunned by the volume of posts. There were literally 40 pages, almost all expressed in exuberant style their concept of freedom of speech with free-wheeling free-for-all gusto. What was astounding was not the trash, garbage, litter and yes, web grafitti, not even the large number of brickbats and insults, but the remarkable banality and mundane simplemindedness of the comments, overwhelmingly irrelevant to the topic. My search for a cogent and succinct posted gem was agonizing --- it was like prospecting for pearls in a cesspool.

Below are samples of the posts. The torrent eventually forced a disclaimer from the website administrator.

2006-03-02 21:35:53 " Zoe " < > to EUrope... You dumb a&s... 100% or not you still called yourself an idiot. And you are proud to say you're half Filipino? Oh, one more thing Filipinos are not idiots, we are just wishing and hoping for a better country..... Freedom of speech......

2006-03-02 21:32:55 " look " < > Hey Europe! I think you are 100% Filipino. (You got your own doses!) Look at your English. It's CRAP! Edit yourself well before saying anything. You are the most stupid Filipino. You are making EUROPE terrible. And why is it sad to say that you are half Filipino? I am sorry for you, you are 50% pinoy but you are 100% idiot! You don't know how to speak English. Shame on you! " Europe " < > YOU FILIPINOS are very very IDIOTS. It is also very very very sad to say that i am a half Filipino and thanks to god i am not 100% IDIOT. Corruption is on your mind you do not know how to choose a right leader you like ACTORS or Actress to run your government even though they are not qualified . For me your show business down there is one of the factor who ruin your mind. I AM SORRY I AM ALSO A HALF FILIPINO. Freedom of speech right??



(Orly comments: If Filipinos are complete idiots and author regrets but admits he is a half breed, he deems himself blessed by being only a half idiot. Psychiatrists at one time defined such an individual as a moron.)

2006-03-02 21:11:38 " Europe " < > YOU FILIPINOS are very very IDIOTS. It is also very very very sad to say that i am a half Filipino and thanks to god i am not 100% IDIOT. Corruption is on your mind you do not know how to choose a right leader you like ACTORS or Actress to run your government even though they are not qualified . For me your show business down there is one of the factor who ruin your mind. I AM SORRY I AM ALSO A HALF FILIPINO. Freedom of speech right??



2006-03-02 14:08:00 " BWAHAHAHAHAHA " < > BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA



2006-03-03 04:08:26 " sunstar " <> Views and opinions presented in this message board are solely those of the posters who forgot or violently refuse to take their daily medication and do not necessarily represent those of Sun.Star Network Online. Sun.Star Network Online will not accept any liability in respect of such opinion and the poster responsible will be personally liable for any damages or other liability arising. Every effort has been made to carefully screen all posters but unfortunately, majority of them were seriously afflicted of a debilitating mutant that severely impairs their mental capacity.

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