When I was a little girl.. I wanted what many Filipino children all over the country wanted.. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed and white.. and if I could wished hard enough and was good enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window.... and freckles across my nose.. :))
We are 13 in the family... yes.. 13!!! because I came from a big and extended family.. I grew up living with my lolo and lola, tito and titas and with my cousins na parang kapatid ko na din.. But now, they are only 8 left in the Philippines; the rest have gone abroad in search of greener pasteurs.. (kasama na kami don ng kapatid ko)... It's not just an anomaly.. It's a trend.. the Filipino diasposra.. Today millions of Filipinos are scattered around the world..
There are those who disapproved of Filipinos who choose to leave.. I used too.. tulad ng ibang mga kabataan dito sa Italy, lumaki din ako ng wala sa tabi ng mommy ko.. at ang tanong ko noon sa sarili ko, "bakityung mga friends ko nakakaraos naman kahit nasa Pinas lang ang mga magulang??" Maybe this is a natural reaction of someone who was left behind... smiling for a family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding years.. Desertion, I called it...
Our country is land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans.. to pack up and deny, that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice.
true there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the side of the world is now a 12 hour plane ride away.. But this is a borderless world, where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now.
Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of different ethnicity, with national identities and individual personalities.. Because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the world..
Seen this way. the filipino diaspora or any sort of dispersal of population is not as ominous as so many claim.. It must be understood. We came from a 3rd world country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after so many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduated from college every year. They have skills. They need jobs; and the Philippines can not absorb them all.
A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much of an abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back. Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are.
Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It is coming back, that is!! People traveled all over the middle-earth, but they choose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. Ganyan tayo, tingin natin sa mga nangingibang bansa "mayaman".. We call people like these "balikbayans" or the returnees-- those who followed their dream, yet still choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune.
I have taken advantage of every opportunities come my way.. sabi nga ng teacher ko sa school, pulutin ang lahat ng pwedeng pulutin.. But after that, I will come home. A borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a home. I am a Filipino and I'll always be one. It isn't about just geography. it isn't about boundaries.. It's about giving back to the country that shaped me.
And that's going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my window on a bright Christmas Morning..
Mabuhay and thank you.. HAHA..
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