SOCIAL CONSCIENCE
OPINION
Paper & People Blizzard By: Mandy Grata
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blizzard is a storm. Alvin Toffler, a Sociologist who has a fancy for reading the future of societies, probably in an effort to precisely state a desired meaning, used the concept paper blizzard. I am adding a new concept here, people blizzard, although to others, this may sound similar to the “Filipino Diaspora” that other writers use in describing the Filipino emigration. Toffler believes that societies are created by waves of civilizations. The First, Second and Third waves. The first was accordingly characterized by face
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n addressing the unique dimensions of the demands of the Filipino migrant, there is a need to settle the idea on Filipino emigration. Just like the general idea of migration, which is a tale of human settlements, Filipino emigration evolves, recorded as an institutionalized activity in the transformation of the Filipino nation. However, the story of Filipino emigration, commonly intertwined with Filipinos working abroad, more popularly referred to as OFW, have its own perplexities. When the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 was signed into law, the floodgate for
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his group of workers, the OFW, is widely revered as a workforce of the world. At home he sometimes displays a lesser interest in his work, but abroad he shines with his expertise at par with his counterpart from the host country and workers of all other nationalities. The individual OFW desires to succeed and never comes home without the bacon. Assimilating himself with his foreign counterpart, he manages to be purveyor of sort. However, the Filipino is unique, he sells not goods but services. Unlike the Chinese merchant,
to face communication, the second institutionalized the postal service, and the third saw the emergence of the media that addresses the specific needs of people. Thus the surge of papers specifically for politics, business, religion, etc.. And now, for Overseas Filipino Workers, Bagong Bayani. Thus, just like consumer products, services, entertainment and even institutions, periodicals go blizzard. By going blizzard, the media expands and diversify to cater and satisfy just about every demand of readership of the public and its many groupings.
Partly brought about by the demands of business, but more importantly, brought about by the natural progression of societies and their need to communicate. As in consumer products, services, entertainment and of course institutions, publications like this paper, are born to respond to the needs of a sector, Filipino communities outside of the Philippines. Being away from home, these communities abroad have more specific demands, and of course different from those who choose to remain home.
Filipino migration was opened. This institutionalized the so-called wave of migration. By its very wordings, “An act to institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers, their families and overseas Filipinos in distress”, the law, certainly, has only the best of intentions. Looking back decades after it was enacted however, Filipino emigration faces challenges that even the amendments to the law could not possibly immediately provide. The Filipino “Diaspora”, as many would want to call it, inspired by the Jewish Diaspora, has evolved towards
two directions. If we ask why one Filipino goes out of the country, the more common reason would be that there is no work available for him back home, and more often the blaming finger points to the government. More often economic, precisely, the popularized “OFW” phenomenon, that by the way is a concept constructed by the government. The other one, which I would consider a more serious one, is the permanent settlement, thus, the “dual citizenship” phenomenon, which we have codified into the Dual Citizenship Law and of course, the more “American” way of looking it the “Green Card”.
the Japanese manufacturer, and the corporate American, the Filipino is more of a worker, thus the label, Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW). As it is, this act of purveying, which do not only stop in the borders of our country but has conquered virtually the entire planet is sanctioned by the government. It serves not only the microcosm of the Filipino family, but inures to the benefit of the Philippine economy through the remittances to the beneficiaries back home. As the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported, around $ 17 Billion has been remitted by overseas Filipino workers last year, reaching a record high
increase of 10 % from the preceding year. Surely, these moneys, are a cause of a bundle joys. Who would not want money? But the social costs, which no statistics could accurately measure, may far outweigh the gains. Surely, the “people blizzard” may be doing us some temporal salvation. But in the long run, the sacrifices of the Filipino family may hopefully be an equal price tag that one day may evolve to narrow down the levels of social divisions among us, and not pull us down the terrain of social disintegration.