English getting lost in translation in Philippines
By Carlos H. Conde

MANILA: "We grow our hogs in our own farms so you're sure to get meat that is grown."

"The city's voice is soft like solitudes."

"He found his friend clowning himself around."

"He seemed to be waiting for someone, not a blood relation, much less a bad blood."

Such phrases, lifted from government-approved textbooks used in Filipino public schools, are reinforcing fears that crucial language skills are degenerating in a country that has long prided itself on having some of the world's best English speakers. At a time when English is widely considered an advantage in global competitiveness for any country, many fear this former U.S. colony is slipping.

English is an official language here, along with the native Tagalog. Yet the U.S. State Department, in its "2007 Investment Climate Statement," released this month, concluded: "English-language proficiency, while still better than in other Southeast Asian nations, is declining in the Philippines."

The article from the Herald Tribune is news only to those who live outside of the Philippines. We are all abundantly aware here. How can you expect these kids to learn English when they don’t even have schoolrooms and sturdy desks? And let’s not even talk about the more than 50,000 teachers who have left the country. We need to be teaching these children LOVE for country. Will you expect them to clean their surroundings, respect the rule of law, conserve natural resources, learn and earn abroad and return from abroad if they don’t give a rat’s ass about their country?

An educator who recently attended a seminar for teachers in Tokyo told me that Korean, Japanese, Chinese students had the following priorities in descending order: country, family, education, health and work. Here we have family, God, education. Education I presume being the stepping stone to foreign shores. Nothing about the country. You think Japan became the second largest economy on the strength of the English skills of its citizens? And Koreans? Ever wonder why there have been many Filipino physicians in the US and hardly any Koreans? Because Korean doctors have a difficult time passing the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language).

It’s never been about language. It’s always been about love.

Big news for the day is the 12 peso a day wage hike that labor groups are denigrating as “alms” next to the 125 peso increase they had been demanding. Both Lee Kuan Yu and Henry Ford advised paying your employees well in order to increase productivity. Ay there’s the rub, fair wages, land reform, universal healthcare and free education are all predicated on the principle that in order to produce competitive and productive and happy citizens, essential investments will have to be made with the costs borne by everybody. You want a First World country, everybody will have to chip in. Let’s face it, even if our 4 billionaire Filipinos and all the millionaires were to donate their entire estates to the national patrimony, we still will not be able to achieve significant gains in standard of living because apart from pushing the few mightily motivated people into hibernation the underlying problem of under productivity will continue to drag us all down.

We are able to build plush new residences only because these developments are prepaid with overseas remittances. Our shopping malls are full and there is a big market out there for gyms and spas because from all the money pouring from all those service-related jobs. Nothing wrong with this but we have to accept the reality that unless we are all prepared to sacrifice (and I know this sounds a bit unfeeling because how do you expect the many poor to sacrifice even more?) we can never hope to attract the potential billions of dollars that foreign direct investments bring. Why should you invest in our country when the peso is strong, the bureaucracy corrupt, the highways congested and crumbling, the electricity expensive and the minimum pay in Metro Manila is close to $8 a day, against Thailand’s $6.35, Beijing’s $3.43, Indonesia’s $3.25 and Vietnam’s $1.27?

It doesn’t have to be this way. We had a larger economy than South Korea in 1970. In 20 years, South Korea vaulted into the top 10 economies in the world. No new economic thought was required. There wasn’t a secret formula they stumbled into. All that it took was a different way and a new group of committed people to conduct an already existing orchestra to produce harmonious music. And, as in a ceasefire, we need people with credibility to coax us into entering an arena with mutual trust and a clear understanding that in order to build a nation of character we must all sacrifice together.

This from the wire service: “A hostage-taking incident at a manpower placement agency ended peacefully after the suspect released his victim and gave up to police.

The suspect, applicant Gilbert Ember, 23, held Ergie Alcala, 27, officer-in-charge of the Triple I Manpower Agency with a jungle bolo, allegedly to demand the refund of his P40 registration fee.”

We are talking about an amount less than a dollar here but I hope it is clear to one and all that the desperation stems from the kind of work these people apply for and the $125 that they can potentially send back home very month if they don’t spend hardly anything on themselves, meaning they rely on kindly employers and friends for toothpaste and soap.

It takes a major investment to be “deployed” abroad. This is an operation that requires the efforts of the whole family. If you are going to work as a “domestic” (euphemistic term for maid) in Lebanon, it will take you about 18 months to break even with your initial investment. And the work is drudgery, manual and above all, lonely. And we are not factoring yet the abundant cases of abuse that are overwhelmingly kept secret.

Meanwhile your family back in the Philippines becomes inured to the monthly stipend and the kids, to compensate for your absence are allowed every whim and fancy to remind them that they are loved and not forgotten. This is an opportune period for the stay-behind spouse to ponder his/her human need for companionship.

It’s a tough life these “applicants” are headed for. In many countries, there is no religious freedom and in a court of law, all it takes is the testimony of the employer to secure a conviction. So understand why even you will reach for a machete when you realize the rape begins at home.

August 19 and 21 are coming up. Birthday of Quezon and the other, the day Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. I think it’s safe to judge these 2 men by now: vainglorious patriots, heroes. My grandfather, Jose S Bautista worshipped Quezon who appointed him Judge over half of all Mindanao (Davao and Cotabato) during the Commonwealth. Out of respect I never argued with him whenever he’d begin extolling Quezon’s achievements. Until he died at the age of 102, my grandfather regarded Manuel Luis Quezon as the Filipino Prometheus. I was born 18 years after Quezon died and thus I was free to form my own objective judgment on the man. Remember, I am Quezon City-born and I frequently went to the Quezon Memorial Circle when I was a child and I was exposed to all those exhibits about his life and accomplishments. I saw Pope Paul VI at the Quezon Memorial and I can clearly recall the colored fountains that entertained us, the hoi polloi during summer evenings. We always set aside a “Linggo ng Wika” (week of the native language) throughout grade school and high school to learn and appreciate the greatness and patriotic foresight of Quezon. At first I felt MLQ compromised too much and sought political power too fiercely; I thought he was inordinately awed by Douglas MacArthur. It didn’t help that he clearly relished the trappings of pomp. I did get to know him a lot more from his speeches and from the numerous books and essays by historians who were eager to weigh-in with their own opinions about the man. And all in all, considering he came from the rugged remote eastern coast of Luzon facing the Pacific, and taking advantage of whatever education available to the natives at that time Quezon will be remembered well because of his love for the Philippines and for this alone, all his human failings will be forgiven.

Ditto on Aquino. These days all we hear about him are his daring exploits, courageous speeches as well as his unshakeable faith and unwavering bravery. Hagiography, they call it. Not that Ninoy is entitled to every bit of it but a major part of the lesson will be lost if we don’t consider that he had many moments of doubt and fear. That he succumbed to temptation often. Ninoy Aquino should rightfully be venerated because he was able to overcome his core of ambition and ruthlessness and arrogance and pride and sacrifice all that he had for his country.

Our country is on a dangerous drift . We have almost completely rehabilitated the Marcos dictatorship. Many ignorant people even hearken back to those imagined halcyon times. And who is to blame? Many benefited and got away scot-free. There are no lessons to be learned. Nothing personal on Marcos here. He was as human as our heroes and the rest of us and he simply took advantage of his superior political instincts and skills to promote a culture of unsurpassed corruption and rapacious personal aggrandizement. It is that we should not idealize what went on during that period which was the complete opposite of the communitarian patriotism that Quezon and Aquino lived and died for. We need to be ever vigilant not to allow our base nature to take over because just as the crowd chose Barabbas, we will do the same if we are not careful.

Spent my final day in LA visiting the Reagan library in Simi Valley. These libraries are the modern day equivalent of the pyramids and the architecture, setting, contents reflect how a former president wants to be remembered. This place was redolent with Reagan-era memorabilia and properly reflected what defined the Reagan magic: heavy on show biz and light on substance. There was the entire Boeing 707 Air Force 1 on display in a specially-built hangar as well as the Marine 1 helicopter that he frequently used throughout his term. His years with the movie industry were well documented and the Iran-Contra scandal was justifiably downplayed.

Reagan represented what a good ordinary man can become with extraordinary luck. Talk about a charmed life. His worldview was simple and his faith in his country was absolute. He strove to leave the world a better place. Unlike his predecessor Jimmy Carter who was considerably more nuanced and thoughtful, Reagan sought to define his leadership with uncomplicated choices. If his style sometimes worked against the less-fortunate it was because Reagan did not fully comprehend the almost limitless amount of good that his position endowed.