American TV, Fil-Ams and the Filipinos

PHILADELPHIA, PA -- We squirm when American TV murderously criticizes our nurses and medical practitioners in the US. We are riled and endlessly annoyed when American TV criticizes our country, our people or any of our professionals.

Yet we totally adore it when a Filipino or a Fil-Am is embraced by American media and toasted as someone extremely gifted. But we do nothing when one of our own “murders” himself on the same show that lent fame to another some years back.

We like it when we’re praised, hate it when we’re criticized. Well, criticism may not the best word to describe the statement uttered by Teri Hatcher’s character on the highly rated show Desperate Housewives. Who wouldn’t squirm? That statement was an indictment of our medical and nursing professions. It questioned the credibility of our medical professionals educated in the Philippines and working in America. It doubted our universities. In some bizarre sense, it was an indictment of the Philippines itself.

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