Oct 3, 2007

[Philippines] About the Desperate Housewives Debacle

Just when we had a positive citation of Filipinos in the international media scene, this nasty issue popped up:


#20 - Teri Hatcher insults Filipinos


So now of course the country is up in arms and an online petition has been started against both ABC and the producers of Desperate Housewives for the racial slur. The local blogosphere is pretty miffed about it as well - just check out some of the Filipino blogs you might already read and you can expect this to be mentioned within the week.

Why do we always get into these things? Before it was about being a country known for our maids - now they're claiming we have hack doctors too? Geez.

7 comments:

  1. I can't believe it! My sister is an RN, graduated from one of the most prestigious nursing schools in the Phils and this is the first time I am totally outraged by any racial slur from foreign TV or movie regarding the Phils. Geeezz!

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  2. I have friends currently studying Med who feel equally outraged - they're the ones who forwarded the petition URL to me.

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  3. My God, so awful. About ten years ago my mother was vacationing in the U.S., she turned all yellow, and the American /white doctors couldn't determine what was wrong with her. They kept on talking about some vague "tropical disease" and "exploratory surgery"--not a very good thing to hear when you're on vacation. Anyway, when my mother got home two months later, our doctor had a very simple diagnosis: gall stones. He laughed when we told him that the American doctors were CLUELESS about what was wrong with her. Tsk tsk.

    Desperate Housewives should apologize, immediately.

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  4. Well, ABC has issued a formal apology already, although I doubt this issue is just going to go away anytime soon.

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  5. I really dont know what to say about this DH's incident. One side of my psyche tells me that I should be infuriated. I'm a nurse for god's sakes. But the other side tells me that the remarks should serve as a warning, a hint, that some changes about the Med profession has to be made. Pinas is really infamous pa naman for 1) falsified Recto diplomas, 2) MDs crossing to the nursing profession, 3) licensure exam scandals, and 4) mushrooming of substandard medical/nursing schools. It would be better siguro if we stop bickering and start making changes. Oh god I think I'm just babbling. =(

    Don't hate me. =) I signed the online petition naman eh. =)

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  6. Haha, no worries. All opinions are valid for the person after all.

    I'm thinking of writing a follow-up post just to go over the aftermath and the many interesting opinions I've heard over the course of the week.

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  7. Yeah it makes me mad...My boyfriend is from Guam...and most of his family is from the Philipines....and we've had talks about how people, like dr's cant get jobs here...just bc of green cards etc....of course if they went to school to be a dr...itd be the same as going here to be a dr, they just dont live on the mainland...people are rude and disrespectful i dont care if it was intended to be ajoke or what...and im not even from there...im from the mainland...people are just ignorant...and i cant wait to visit the philipines and the great people who live there...oh yea..i work on a cruise ship that is made up of prob 40% of people from there...and they are the best, most hard working people ive ever seen!

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