UP Ibalon Bicol: Fil-Ams don’t want bad news?

Fil-Ams don’t want bad news?

3/15/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

“I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to excape fear is to trample it beneath your feet." ----Nadia Comaneci, Olympic gymnastics gold medalist

According to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York, Filipinos residing in the USA would rather hear good news from the Philippines. Yes, we like to have the positives rather than the negatives each time we talk about the motherland. But what if there is a dearth of good news? Do we have to dodge the country’s toxic news and focus only on the good ones?

No matter how much we want to escape reality, it’s always there to challenge us. This is probably what happened when Fil-Am community leaders across the United States engaged themselves in dialogues with visiting Philippine officials----saying that they want good news, wanting the bad ones in the back burner. For so long, everybody knows our problems. They’re all over the media for us to solve.

"We thought we would be faced with disbelief and confronted with hard questions, but we were pleasantly surprised that our kababayan [compatriots] here would rather hear the positive developments in the Philippines. Our team was ready to clarify even the negative news, but no one raised them," the report quoted Edgardo Pamintuan, presidential adviser on external affairs---Inquirer (03/16/09, Balana, C).

We seem to vent a very common reaction. Most of us don’t want to be bogged down by depressing news---problems that are entrenched, those that have little chance of being solved quickly.

In America, we have our own worries to tackle in addition to those we left behind back home. That's why. Yet, being selective of what we want to do may lead to detachment, more apathy, and lack of care for the country. If we don’t bravely focus on hard truths, we won’t be able to advance ahead. We have serious problems that we must not ignore. As someone once said, “the best way to escape a problem is to solve it.” (Photo Credit: Mineke_Reinders; Akira_Minh)