It is good that young Filipinos here and abroad are forming discussion groups in the social networks. Those who are abroad are exposed to a wider world while those at home transmit the intensity of their dissatisfaction about life at home – its politics, its lagging economy and the seeming lack of concern from ordinary citizens. I remember while living in exile abroad, most Filipinos were interested only in their work, their pay and occasional get together parties. Politics? Problems of the country? Hindi naman kami involved dyan.
They would not even hear being asked if they knew why they should be separated from their families to earn their living abroad. That is how powerless Filipinos abroad were more than 20 years ago. But that is changing. With Facebook, Twitter, email and their mobile phones they are in touch not only with their families at home but also with each other. The upshot is a bubbling community of voices unrestrained by the strictures of oligarch-owned media. Social networking has broken the myth that communications is the business of money and power.
Let me quote from Paul Farol of the group called “Get Real Philippines”: “Best way to describe FB and all that goes on in the online world is that it is a SANDBOX — for testing ideas and getting support for them. After which, it should be easier to go out into the real world and try to implement your ideas. One thing good about (GRP) Get Real Philippnes and (AP) Anti-Pinoy as well as other groups is that you get to learn so much from interacting with so many people. With so many critical thinkers (and hecklers) around, it’s a good way to slough off misconceptions or toughen up your stand.”
* * *
This young community of FB Filipinos can learn from the 120 boys who were sent to America by the Qing Dynasty to find out what that country was all about, their technology and generally how they did things. That was in 1872. Their story is told in a book entitled “Fortunate Sons”.
It is not a well known book but I like the storyline because of our young men and women now scattered all over the world. Who knows? Maybe one day they will be called upon to do the same – learn from other more developed countries and then come back to apply what they have learned at home.
That is also the best way they can repay the hard work, often dirty work, that their parents had to go through to give them a better education and that they would ultimately come back to serve their country instead of being satisfied, as they say, with a “fistful of dollars.”
When the 120 Chinese boys went to New England, they still wore their traditional Chinese costume and tied their hair in pigtails but they knew what they were sent there for. Looking laughable hardly mattered.
Authors Liel Leibovitz and Matthew Miller have written a wonderful account of their experiences. They hope “that some credit for progress in China is given to these young boys.” This is supreme irony but useful to recall and realize how the world does turn around.
Here is a short review of the book: “It chronicles an unknown yet transformative period in the relationship between an arcane East and a progressive West. Slivers from diaries and correspondence record encounters the boys enjoyed with President Grant, life in the same New England community Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe called home, and China’s reluctance to accept the returning over-confident “Americanized” citizens.
Nevertheless, this education, combined with their ambition and bond, translates to a ‘Cantonese Clique’ that filters into high-profile government positions in China and results in revolutions in industry and international relations. Chaotic regal battles and merciless wars lead to tragedy, but the tenacity and hope displayed did bring slow reform and triumph. Though the boys were well equipped with the tools for progress, “the problems they faced are the problems still facing China today,’’ and their tale stands as a unique, engrossing, and affecting chronicle”.
The same could be done for our young Filipinos who have acquired skills while abroad. We should make use of them, many who are aching to come back and try their luck here. But they hesitate because if they did return there would be no way they will assume responsible positions in government and business. By and large, Philippine society is structured so that positions are reserved for a small clique of sons and daughters of an elite with prominent names and political connections.
We would have to change before we get the influx of talented Filipinos. We have to restructure our society through constitutional reform, open up government and civil service to capable Filipinos based on merit.
The Chinese are a proud people and stories have been told how they regarded Westerners as “barbarians.” They had centuries of tradition and could not be taught by anyone, least of all by barbarians.
But in the 19th century that attitude changed when the Qing dynasty realized that if they kept their conceit they would ultimately become the losers.
Under the auspices of the Chinese Educational Mission, the “Chinese boys were sent to the US to attend elite colleges, absorb the best this mysterious country could offer, and return to enrich China with their experiences and knowledge.”
But when the boys returned to China to assume prominent jobs, they realized that they had to cope with hostility and envy and had to walk a narrow path that while introducing the new ideas “they had to work equally hard to protect China’s sovereignty from Western nations baying at the door.”
In the concluding paragraph of the book, the authors write that the problems the boys faced when they returned is still true in China today.
“The mission graduates worked tirelessly to give China the tools it needed to bring about progress, and they worked equally hard to protect its sovereignty from Western nations eager to subdue it. The problems they faced are the problems still facing China today.
“It is impossible, then to decide whether the story of the Chinese Educational Mission ends on a happy note or a sad one. As long as China continues to address the same challenges and concerns the mission’s graduates faced, the story will continue.”