I HAD to write in response to Zaldy Dandan’s column last Friday. I have found many of the articles written by Mr. Dandan as well as the other editorial staff to be quite negative. They seem to be unable to see things from a positive perspective. A good example is Mr. Dandan’s “Cash Register Patriotism.”
In his column he takes to task Fidel V. Ramos and the Philippine government’s referral to overseas Filipino workers as “Bagong Bayani” or “new heroes.” Now, I have not read or listened to any of the writings or speeches of those who have referred to overseas Filipino workers as “new heroes” and I am not a Filipino. However, I have known many overseas Filipino workers and their families, not only here in the Northern Marianas, but in other countries that I have visited and lived in. I was in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years and have known many.
In my mind I have not met a group of people that deserves the honor more of being referred to as “new heroes” than overseas Filipino workers. Now referring to these people as heroes does not take anything away from the heroes of the past. And just because they may not be “giving up” their life to a just cause does not make overseas Filipino workers any less of a hero than those who have. It has often been said that it is easier to die for a cause than it is to live for a cause. And it seems to me that a person who “dedicates” his life to a cause is greater than one who “gives up” his life for a cause.
Most of the overseas Filipino workers that I know are dedicated to a great cause and it’s because they are dedicated to a cause that they are overseas workers. The cause they are engaged in is the raising and education of their families. For some overseas Filipino workers it is the raising of their own children; for others it is assisting parents in the raising and educating of brothers and sisters and tending to a myriad of other pressing family needs.
Many overseas workers send almost every cent they make home to their families. They endure long separations from spouses, children, parents and other loved ones. Many of these families would have nothing if it wasn’t for the great sacrifice of these workers. Instead because of the sacrifice of these overseas workers they have a chance at everything. The “giving up” of a life only takes minutes maybe hours but dedicating one’s life to a cause adds up to years given to a cause and the overseas Filipino workers I know endure years of separation, hardship, sweat and tears to provide for the health, welfare, education, spirituality and opportunity of their families. In all my travels around the world I have never seen a people that sacrifice so much to provide for their families than do Filipinos. When it comes to family, can there be any sacrifice too great?
A great man once said, “No amount of success can compensate for failure in the home.” In 1st Timothy 5:8 it says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” This is the struggle the overseas Filipino workers I know are engaged in. They are engaged in the raising of strong righteous educated families. This type of cause does not need heroes who are willing to die, but heroes who are willing to live and that is what overseas Filipino workers do and that is what makes them in my mind, “Bagong Bayani,” or “new heroes.” I HAD to write in response to Zaldy Dandan’s column last Friday. I have found many of the articles written by Mr. Dandan as well as the other editorial staff to be quite negative. They seem to be unable to see things from a positive perspective. A good example is Mr. Dandan’s “Cash Register Patriotism.”
In his column he takes to task Fidel V. Ramos and the Philippine government’s referral to overseas Filipino workers as “Bagong Bayani” or “new heroes.” Now, I have not read or listened to any of the writings or speeches of those who have referred to overseas Filipino workers as “new heroes” and I am not a Filipino. However, I have known many overseas Filipino workers and their families, not only here in the Northern Marianas, but in other countries that I have visited and lived in. I was in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years and have known many.
In my mind I have not met a group of people that deserves the honor more of being referred to as “new heroes” than overseas Filipino workers. Now referring to these people as heroes does not take anything away from the heroes of the past. And just because they may not be “giving up” their life to a just cause does not make overseas Filipino workers any less of a hero than those who have. It has often been said that it is easier to die for a cause than it is to live for a cause. And it seems to me that a person who “dedicates” his life to a cause is greater than one who “gives up” his life for a cause.
Most of the overseas Filipino workers that I know are dedicated to a great cause and it’s because they are dedicated to a cause that they are overseas workers. The cause they are engaged in is the raising and education of their families. For some overseas Filipino workers it is the raising of their own children; for others it is assisting parents in the raising and educating of brothers and sisters and tending to a myriad of other pressing family needs.
Many overseas workers send almost every cent they make home to their families. They endure long separations from spouses, children, parents and other loved ones. Many of these families would have nothing if it wasn’t for the great sacrifice of these workers. Instead because of the sacrifice of these overseas workers they have a chance at everything. The “giving up” of a life only takes minutes maybe hours but dedicating one’s life to a cause adds up to years given to a cause and the overseas Filipino workers I know endure years of separation, hardship, sweat and tears to provide for the health, welfare, education, spirituality and opportunity of their families. In all my travels around the world I have never seen a people that sacrifice so much to provide for their families than do Filipinos. When it comes to family, can there be any sacrifice too great?
A great man once said, “No amount of success can compensate for failure in the home.” In 1st Timothy 5:8 it says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” This is the struggle the overseas Filipino workers I know are engaged in. They are engaged in the raising of strong righteous educated families. This type of cause does not need heroes who are willing to die, but heroes who are willing to live and that is what overseas Filipino workers do and that is what makes them in my mind, “Bagong Bayani,” or “new heroes.”
TIMOTHY L. HENDRICKS
San Vicente, Saipan
Zaldy Dandan replies:
A newspaper’s primary job is to point out things that have gone wrong. I don’t think you would, for example, urge a meteorologist to look at the “positive side” of an approaching typhoon.
At any rate, there is no such thing as “new” or “old” heroism. There is only the heroism that entails great courage and nobility of purpose for a cause BEYOND oneself—and one’s family. What you admire in Filipino parents—the way they provide for the welfare of their children—is expected from all parents. It is part of being a parent. I may be wrong, but I’m quite sure that “great sacrifices” do not include getting a better paying job abroad instead of doing the same thing back home and getting next to nothing.
But you are right. The Philippines is a nation of heroes indeed, although they are all there back home, organizing cooperatives in the provinces, providing medical assistance in the squatter areas, caring for abandoned and abused children, opening free schools for students whose families are too poor to buy them the cheapest shoes, and looking after the homeless, the elderly, the battered women. Sometimes you will also see them in the streets of Manila waving banners of protest, denouncing our government’s cupidity and incompetence. To do all this in our nation is to risk being labeled a “communist.” And I don’t think I can begin to explain to you how our trigger-happy police and military deal with “communists.”Zaldy Dandan replies:
A newspaper’s primary job is to point out things that have gone wrong. I don’t think you would, for example, urge a meteorologist to look at the “positive side” of an approaching typhoon.
At any rate, there is no such thing as “new” or “old” heroism. There is only the heroism that entails great courage and nobility of purpose for a cause BEYOND oneself—and one’s family. What you admire in Filipino parents—the way they provide for the welfare of their children—is expected from all parents. It is part of being a parent. I may be wrong, but I’m quite sure that “great sacrifices” do not include getting a better paying job abroad instead of doing the same thing back home and getting next to nothing.
But you are right. The Philippines is a nation of heroes indeed, although they are all there back home, organizing cooperatives in the provinces, providing medical assistance in the squatter areas, caring for abandoned and abused children, opening free schools for students whose families are too poor to buy them the cheapest shoes, and looking after the homeless, the elderly, the battered women. Sometimes you will also see them in the streets of Manila waving banners of protest, denouncing our government’s cupidity and incompetence. To do all this in our nation is to risk being labeled a “communist.” And I don’t think I can begin to explain to you how our trigger-happy police and military deal with “communists.”
