Pinoy diaspora trivialized, glamorized

IT IS utterly dismaying that in his commentary titled “The Chosen People” (Inquirer, 3/19/11), Roberto F. de Ocampo, our finance minister from 1992 to 1998, should trivialize and glamorize the OFW trade, instead of using his supposed erudition and experience to seriously propose measures to keep our workers here by providing them local employment with living wages.

“The Chosen People” is a title claimed by the Jews, based on the narrative of the Old Testament. Historically, however, the Jews were associated with the phenomenon known as the diaspora—when the Jews were dispersed from their ancient homeland of Israel especially by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago. During that period, the Jews were under persecution—hounded, discriminated against and confined to ghettos (slum districts) all throughout Europe—which culminated in the holocaust when Hitler tried to incinerate them in a “Final Solution” to the “Jewish problem.” It was only when the state of Israel was forcibly recreated in the mid-20th century, allowing the Jews to return en masse, that they started living in freedom, security, progress, dignity and lamentable triumphalism.

The Jews in Israel now number just a little more than 7.6 million—about 3 million less than the 10 million Filipinos dispersed all over the rich world, serving foreign companies and households, doing mostly menial (if not degrading) work, enduring harsh exploitation, loneliness, despair and depression, and fighting for personal and family survival. Our OFWs, and by extension our nation which supply them, have become the Jews of the diaspora, but not the Jews of the Old Testament who flourished as “The Chosen People” of their god, Jehovah.

Has De Ocampo no pity for the OFWs who, in returning from the conflicts in the Middle East, were in deep dilemma over dying either from hunger in their homeland or from bullets in foreign lands?

De Ocampo trivializes our domestics abroad by quibbling that “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” In reality, the Jews who rocked the cradle for the Pharaohs never ruled Egypt. The African slaves never ruled over their white American masters. This cynical rationalization by De Ocampo is called in our borrowed language “consuelo de bobo” or a fool’s consolation.

De Ocampo extols countries with high birth rates because they produce more human exports. He ignores the fact that the regions and nations with low (declining) fertility rates and which employ foreign labor, such as Europe, Japan and America, are rich and high in human development. On the other hand, those with high fertility rates in Africa and Asia, like the Philippines and Bangladesh, are desperately poor and have to export their people for remittances that support the lifestyle of their country’s elite.

De Ocampo was named “Finance Minister of the Year” for three years by Western financial institutions. He served them well. But did he serve our people well?

—MANUEL F. ALMARIO,
spokesman,
Movement for Truth in History,
[email protected]