No Pinoys hurt
| AN OUTSIDERS VIEW |
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| Ken Fuller |
For some time, I have been tempted to comment on the Philippine media’s habit of focusing on the number of Filipinos hurt or killed (often none) in foreign disasters, whether natural or man-made. To a degree, this practice is understandable, given the fact that Filipinos are to be found in most countries of the world. But it’s always struck me as somewhat unhealthy, conveying the impression of a compassion, to the extent that such exists, that is narrow and selfish, assigning secondary importance to the victims who are not Filipino — even if that’s all of them.
On Friday, July 22, scores of people were killed as a result of a bomb blast, followed by the lone rampage of a gunman in Norway. What was the Philippine Star’s headline on July 24? “No Pinoys hurt in Norway attacks.”
You don’t need to be a foreigner to find that offensive. Several online commentators took issue with it, one pointing out that the “attack was on Norwegian people by a Norwegian,” and therefore asking “why all this talk about Filipinos in Norway?” Another found that the article conveyed a “typical Pinoy and parochial perspective.” Why should readers’ first interest be “to know whether there are Pinoys involved? Victims of tragedy belong to common humanity…” More bluntly, a third asserted that the report merely proved that “Pinoys only care about other Pinoys,” not that “there are 91 people dead who are not Filipinos.”.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110809com5.html
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