Post by kapziel on Aug 24, 2008 4:11:31 GMT -5
NOTE: I apologize in advance to any Filipino writers that may feel hurt or offended by my piece. It is not meant to offend, it is merely meant to express my experience growing up. Thank you in advance.
"A Letter to the Philippines"
Dear Philippines,
If I could dislike you, I would hate you,
and if I could hate you, I would loathe you,
and if I could loathe you, I would have it so
my feet may never touch your shores,
where your main export is an army of nurses
and maniacal parents bent on beating their children
into a perfect GPA.
I sigh whenever I watch the garbage
that you present as Filipino Television,
because your game-shows mock your own kind,
and only show the world how illiterate
and unintelligent our people are.
I cringe when I hear our actors and actresses
and singers perform remakes
of other people's works- America can't do it right,
why should we try, when our technology
is far more underdeveloped?
I fear for the blood flowing in these veins
and arteries, because I claim to have
"dirty blood," mixed from that of
the Philippines and China,
and I know too much about the former,
and not enough about the latter,
and this is the kind of blood
a Filipino man has:
The blood that circulates and raises
a hand against a wife I will never marry,
and beat and mistreat the children
I will never have, because a man like me
is not accepted by any woman,
and no matter how much I've changed
to become gentle and patient
and passive, my skin and eyes and hair
are that of a foreigner.
I can never return to your shores
because I have learned to grow sick of it-
I have heard you whispering behind my back
about my choice in becoming a writer,
and how it is a waste of time,
and how I should have been a doctor,
or a nurse, instead.
I end this letter by saying the truth.
I cannot love you, Philippines.
I cannot even so much as like you,
because I have been, for years,
undoing the way you have raised me to be,
and I have chosen my own path,
away from you.
Good bye, Philippines, good bye,
Your son has changed, and no longer believes
your lies and your false hopes
and the way you want to run my life
and my dreams into the ground
for your benefit, for your pleasure.
Perhaps, after this, I may start
another letter, asking China
to adopt me.
"A Letter to the Philippines"
Dear Philippines,
If I could dislike you, I would hate you,
and if I could hate you, I would loathe you,
and if I could loathe you, I would have it so
my feet may never touch your shores,
where your main export is an army of nurses
and maniacal parents bent on beating their children
into a perfect GPA.
I sigh whenever I watch the garbage
that you present as Filipino Television,
because your game-shows mock your own kind,
and only show the world how illiterate
and unintelligent our people are.
I cringe when I hear our actors and actresses
and singers perform remakes
of other people's works- America can't do it right,
why should we try, when our technology
is far more underdeveloped?
I fear for the blood flowing in these veins
and arteries, because I claim to have
"dirty blood," mixed from that of
the Philippines and China,
and I know too much about the former,
and not enough about the latter,
and this is the kind of blood
a Filipino man has:
The blood that circulates and raises
a hand against a wife I will never marry,
and beat and mistreat the children
I will never have, because a man like me
is not accepted by any woman,
and no matter how much I've changed
to become gentle and patient
and passive, my skin and eyes and hair
are that of a foreigner.
I can never return to your shores
because I have learned to grow sick of it-
I have heard you whispering behind my back
about my choice in becoming a writer,
and how it is a waste of time,
and how I should have been a doctor,
or a nurse, instead.
I end this letter by saying the truth.
I cannot love you, Philippines.
I cannot even so much as like you,
because I have been, for years,
undoing the way you have raised me to be,
and I have chosen my own path,
away from you.
Good bye, Philippines, good bye,
Your son has changed, and no longer believes
your lies and your false hopes
and the way you want to run my life
and my dreams into the ground
for your benefit, for your pleasure.
Perhaps, after this, I may start
another letter, asking China
to adopt me.
