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| Anti-Americanism By Antonio C. Abaya Written Feb. 23, 2005 For the Philippines Free Press, March 05 issue As this is being written, US President George W. Bush is in the midst of his five-day visit to Europe, mending fences with former allies that he himself personally wrecked with his and his government�s reckless and arrogant unilateralism in Iraq. On the occasion of this visit, the February 19-25 issue of The Economist carries an article on the phenomenon of anti-Americanism. Said The Economist: �Under George Bush, anti-Americanism is widely thought to have reached new heights � and, in the view of the Pew Research Centre, a Washington surveyor of world opinion, new depths. Its latest report says that �anti-Americanism is deeper and broader than at any time in modern history.��.� The magazine then went on to examine anti-Americanism in individual countries and regions: France, Iran, Indonesia, the Arab world, Spain, Greece, Congo, Cuba, Latin America, Japan, South Korea and, almost as an after-thought, the Philippines. Said The Economist about the Philippines: �Yet anti-Americanism in such places (as Congo) does not seem to run deep. This is not just a matter of distance. The Philippines is hardly adjacent, yet its experience as an American colony for half a century has left it with a persistent strain of anti-Americanism � as well as an infatuation, among the young at least, with basketball and country music�..� Country music? I have lived 63 of my 68 years in the Philippines and I do not recall a single instance in which American hillbilly music made it to the Top 100 or even 1000 of the hit parade here. The Economist reporter must have been writing about another country, and his editors in London got his reports mixed up with another�s. I will expand on this later in this article. Meanwhile, The Economist concluded its article with: �Last month�s BBC poll found that opposition to Mr. Bush was stronger than anti-Americanism in general, and that the particular had contributed to the general. Asked how Bush�s election had affected their views of the American people, 42% (of respondents in 21 countries) said it had made them feel worse towards Americans. �That is the, perhaps short-term, view of some non-Americans. It is accompanied by another view, increasingly common among pundits, which holds that America is losing its allure as a model society. Whereas much of the rest of the world once looked to the United States as a beacon, it is argued, non-Americans are now turning away�.�.. �One way or another, it is said, people are turning off America, not so much to hate it as to look for other examples to follow � even Europe�s. If true, that could be even more insulting to Americans than the rise in the familiar anti-Americanism of yesteryear.� But The Economist had it all wrong about anti-Americanism in the Philippines. It did not have a �persistent strain� here �from half a century of being an American colony.� On the contrary, the vast majority of Filipinos of the pre-war generations in the 30s and 40s had a genuine affection for America and the Americans. Proof of this emerged during the Pacific War when Filipino soldiers fought side by side with the Americans against the Japanese and, when formal resistance collapsed after the fall of Corregidor in May 1942, organized and joined guerilla units nationwide that harassed the Japanese all the way till the return of Gen. MacArthur in 1944-45. The hardly noticed anti-Americanism of the communist-led Hukbalahap guerillas in Central Luzon was the isolated exception rather than the rule. This was in sharp contrast to other colonies in South and Southeast Asia (French Indo-China, Dutch East Indies, British India) where the indigenous populations took heart from, and advantage of, the early Japanese victories to stage revolts against their European overlords. This led Winston Churchill to remark that American colonialism must be superior to that of the Europeans. Anti-Americanism in the Philippines is of recent vintage and its flowering can be credited to the efforts of Jose Ma. Sison and Renato Constantino Sr., both of whom were members in the 1950s of the politburo of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), founded by the Lava Brothers and others in the 1940s. In the early 60s, Sison broke away from the pro-Soviet PKP and organized the Kabataang Makabayan or KM (of which I was a charter member) and the Communist Party of the Philippines or CPP, (which I did not join), both of which were Maoist. This reflected the cleavage between the Soviet Union and the People�s Republic of China at that time, that had its roots in the personal animosity between Stalin and Mao Zedung in the early 50s. (A personal note. My entry into the communist movement was seamless even though I was the only KM member from the elitist Ateneo de Manila; everyone else was from UP or Lyceum. Two of my uncles, Hernando and Alberto, both UP graduates, were card-carrying members of the PKP and had been arrested and detained during the Magsaysay years. (But I did cause a minor stir when, at one of Hernando�s KM-sponsored anti-American lectures at the Philippine Normal College, I brought along, at his request, one of my sailing buddies at the oligarchic Manila Yacht Club, who was not only a white American but was also a political officer of the US Embassy. Oh, brother! If there had been a gulag here then, I would have been consigned to it.) Sison�s finely cultivated anti-Americanism blossomed in the so-called First Quarter Storm in the early 70s and in subsequent, increasingly shrill political activism that culminated in the agitation against the US military bases. The communists scored a resounding success when the Philippine Senate voted down any extension of the bases treaty in 1991, despite the last-minute efforts (and I emphasize �last-minute�) of President Aquino to rally public opinion for an extension. Sison was aided immensely in his anti-American crusade by Renato Constantino Sr. who wrote extensively and eloquently on the nationalist cause, which appealed to many in the non-ideological middle class, compared to the purple, turgid and sloganeering prose of Sison which made sense only to the ideologically converted. Constantino, (with whom I became a business partner for seven years in a publishing venture) was the personal secretary and ghost-writer of Senator Claro M. Recto and was able to cleverly hide his communist agenda beneath a respectable veneer of bourgeois nationalism, for which Senator Recto became the outstanding icon. But in the writings attributed to Recto, it is not possible to tell where Recto ended and where Constantino began. Sison and Constantino were, in turn, supported in their anti-Americanism, which by the 80s had attained the drawing power of a born-again religion, by the rabid, though often humorous, writings of Columnist Larry Henares in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Henares� column was called Make My Day, and he made it a point to ruin each day of US Embassy officials with his highly insulting and often personal attacks against them, especially the second-in-command, an unfortunate factotum named Kaplan, whose first name I cannot recall. Larry�s idol was, can you guess, Senator Recto, without knowing or understanding the role of Constantino behind the facade. And he naively idealized the communism of Joma and his Maoists by likening it to the communalism practiced by members of religious orders (the Jesuits, Dominicans, etc) in the Roman Catholic Church, which must have sent Joma and his atheist ideologues laughing all the way from Diliman to the US Embassy (there to stone it). No matter what species or planet you came from, as long as you were anti-American, you were Larry�s hero. (In his heyday, Larry called me �the most pro-American writer in Philippine media� and �the nemesis of the nationalist movement,� because I was never fooled by the communist wolf hiding under the nationalist sheep�s clothing, and because I argued for a seven-year extension for the US bases until 1998, the Centenary of Philippine Nationalism. The bull-headed and bull-necked American negotiator, Richard Armitage, stubbornly insisted on a ten-year extension. But animosities seem to have mellowed with time. Larry himself has told me a number of times that he often quotes this column in his current radio program.) The nature of his anti-Americanism surpasseth all understanding and overcometh all iniquities, real or imagined. Larry was no wild-eyed Marxist. He was born to a capitalist family and was educated in the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Why he became a raving anti-American has remained a mystery. One theory is that he did not make it with the girls in Cambridge. But he eventually lost his PDI column after his editors accused him of plagiarism, not once but twice. Perhaps the Americans had something to do with it, and perhaps Kaplan finally had his revenge and made Larry�s day�.in the PDI his last. ***** Reactions to [email protected] or fax 824-7642. Other articles in www.tapatt.org OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Anti-Americanism� Dear Mr. Abaya, At my age, if there is one startling discovery I learned and I learned it from your column is that 44 years ago JOMA was politburo member of Partidong Kumunista ng Pilipinas. If this in the 1950s, Jose Ma Sison could be be the youngest in the cadre! We were classmates under Professor Armando Malay's Journalism class at UP Diliman and graduated in 1959. Heherson Alvarez and Carolina (Bobby) Malay, Satur Ocampo's wife were also classmates. It was that period in college life where there were more student demonstrations in front of the US embassy than the strikes staged by labor unions in the country. JOMA used to drop by the Congress building to visit Reynato Puno who like Gimo Vega were Gerry Roxas' senate technical assistants. I am not fluent in Ilocano but Joe understood every word. Of all the Sisons I know he is the only one cannot speak "pangasinan". I still kept his Manila Times picture with President Cory Aquino just before he fled to the Netherlands. Even when he was a frequent visitor of Petronilo Daroy in our qounset hut cottage dormitory in Diliman, I did not have any clue of his PKP affiliation. He talked to me about his "national socialism" years before KM was born. I did not even bother joining the KM. But one thing I admire him, JOMA has not mellowed down despite his incareceration at Camp Crame and minor dificulties imposed on his lifestyle in Amsterdam because of the anti-terrorism policies affecting his relationship with communist fronts. JOMA is a hardcore communist and idealist to the end. Jose Sison Luzadas, [email protected] March 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony - I enjoyed your column but concerning Henares I can say that I always enjoyed his columns until the arrival in Manila of Ambassador Platt. Within a day of his arrival Henares referred to him as Platypus and described him as looking like an old-fashioned English butler. This really upset me because it was an attack ad hominem on someone we didn't know at all, including Henares. I immediately canceled my subscription to the Star (where he was writing at the time) and switched to the Inquirer. Ken Wright, [email protected] March 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I think the world needs a countervailing balance. We can not overlook the importance of America not only in the international economic landscape but also in the socio-political arena. For this to happen, we need a stronger Europe to achieve that balance. Likewise, America and the world at large, would be better-off when the democrats are in power, instead of the parochial and highly insular neocons who are only good in creating the "fiction of evil" in order for America to respond by declaring war against a country, and thereby act as the world's policeman. This has been very evident not only after 911 but also during the cold-war. For many people outside of America especially in Europe, I think the general sentiment is more of being anti-neocons rather than anti-America per se. America itself is a highly divided country in terms of its basic beliefs and social values. The "geography of the results" of last year's elections could very well attest of such social dichotomy. As to the Philippines, I think it is sad that many Filipinos still adore America. For the most part, many Filipinos view America as a destination to pursue the american dream which to my opinion no longer holds true for the the majority of Americans themselves. Filipinos in general are so enamored of the US mainly because of our history which to some extent is distorted, and also because of the mass appeal of pop culture as propagated by Hollywood and even McDonalds! If more and more Filipinos would just read like what Mr. Abaya reads which is the Economist (notwithstanding its mistakes as cited in the article), then more and more Filipinos would probably be more informed of what really is going on not only in our beloved Philippines but also in the whole wide world. Norman Tilos, [email protected] March 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Pinoy youth infatuated with red-neck music? You are right, The ECONOMIST reporter must be referring to another country. As far as I'm concerned, Country & Western, Zydeco ( music of New Orleans), Bluegrass, Gospel, and Blues ( Delta & Chicago), never made a dent here. I think it was more of poor records marketing distribution rather than anything else. But Jazz, Pop, Broadway, Rock n Roll, R&B, made it big here. As for Larry Henares, I remember in one of his columns in the PDI, he was rhapsodizing on the music of yesteryears, particularly on the music of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Ira & George Gerswhin , Hoagy Carmichael etc. I can't blame Larry, I also dig the music of those legendary songwriters. As for his political views, I didn't take him seriously. Is Larry still alive ? where does he write now? Auggie Surtida, [email protected] March 06, 2005 MY REPLY. Larry is still alive, but he does not write in any paper, as far as I know. He does have a radio program, where he often quotes my column, as he himself has told me. But don�t ask what station, time or days he is on, as I do not know. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Re your February 23rd article on Anti-Americanism (in the Philippines) You write: "Country music? I have lived 63 of my 68 years in the Philippines and I do not recall a single instance in which American hillbilly music made it to the Top 100 or even 1000 of the hit parade here. The Economist reporter must have been writing about another country, and his editors in London got his reports mixed up with another�s. I will expand on this later in this article." I am sorry to inform you that many many hit songs of American pop singers that were popular during your time (in the 50's) such as Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Willie Nelson, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Jimmie Rodgers, Peter, Paul and Mary, Kenny Rodgers, Patsy Cline, etc. fall under the genre "Country Music". Anyway, just to highlight what Country or Country & Wetsern Music is all about - I am sure you rememebr that immortal classic by Patsy Cline, 'Crazy'. I'm sure you were swooning over that song in the 1950's at the time when Claro Recto was lambasting Magsaysay as being too pro-American! I wonder if Patsy Cline was singing 'Crazy' to either Claro Recto or Ramon Magaysay or both perhaps! (Never heard of Patsy Cline. I knew The Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary as folk singers in the same league as Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and the other names in your list as pop singers, but country or hillbilly singers like Johnny Cash never made it big here, as far as I know. ACA) Anyway, my take on Anti-Americanism is a little jaundiced because I see the thousands and thousands of people who want to sneak into the U.S. either legally or illegally every single day so much so that the U.S. literally may need to build a wall to prevent people from entering its shores. You don't see people by the tens of thousands trying to sneak legally or illegally into the "Anti-American" countries such as France, Iraq or Cuba or North Korea. What does that say to you and to the BBC and The Economist? Yesterday, I was talking to a Russian who was an instructor at Pasadena City College, a public junior college in the L.A. area. I was referred to this instructor by a student who was applying as a transfer to an extremely competitive college where I was one of the local area interviewer; the instructor had earned two doctorates in mathematics and engineering in the Ukraine and his position as 'instructor' at a junior college was basically a step-down for him. However, when I asked the question: 'Are you happy in America?' Before I could finish the question, he exploded in laughter at the question, and responded in his thivk Russian accent: 'I do not have to answer that question. Of course! I am. I may not be a full professor here but at least I have the chance to enjoy life. Besides, one day I will become a professor at Caltech located half a mile from Pasadena City College. You watch me.' Manuel Tiangha, [email protected] California, March 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The American has different phases and interests. There is the government policy defined by the executive, funded by Congress and paid for by the taxes of its citizens. American foreign policy at this time has created a world at war with itself, higher oil prices, more rebels and terrorists being born to either rationalize their actions because of an unjustly structured world. No state nor the United Nations can temper Americas unilateral invasion of other states. The world should pressure the American government to rethink its policies. We should ask why Anti-American policy has developed. We should identify what practices have to be changed. America should start with signing the Kyoto protocol for a cleaner world. Adrian Sison, [email protected] March 07, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Interesting, specially your personal notes. The recent BBC poll cited by The Economist seems to validate the feeling of many including Americans that because the American electorate re-elected Mr. Bush, the American people endorse and share his arrogance and recklessness, his "It's my way or the highway" high-handedness in dealing with the problems of the world. The truth is the nation is deeply divided ("red states vs. blue states", .e.g). Tom De Guzman, [email protected] March 07, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Just a minor comment on country music. There may not be infatuation to country music, but there were probably a few favorites that made it to the Top 10 and perhaps #1 in the '70's. A couple of Kenny Rogers' hits "Coward of the County" and "The Gambler" and another song entitled "You Light Up My Life" Thanks. Rgds, Jerome Escobedo, [email protected] March 07, 2005 MY REPLY. If so, then I stand corrected. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, "Why he [Larry Henares] became a raving anti-American has remained a mystery," you wrote in your latest column. Did you know that Larry Henares was an Eisenhower Fellow, and one of the earliest? I remember that the first Fellow was Marcelino Calinawan. Larry was probably the second Eisenhower Fellow and was given the award in 1959 or 1960. The sponsors of the Eisenhower Fellowship rued the day he was granted the fellowship. This gave him the opportunity to spout his Anti-Americanisms especially when he was given access to Wall Street. Following Larry, a certain Diaz who once was with SGV was the grantee. They were delighted with him because Diaz was mellow-mannered and genteel. Then I became the 1962 Fellow. In the Seventies, a reunion of Eisenhower fellows was hosted by the Chinese Fellows in Taiwan. It was on this occasion that I asked Larry why with all the schooling he had in the United States he turned Anti-American. He replied that one day he went to the U.S. Embassy to obtain a visa. The process was delayed somewhat so he asked a Filipino clerk if he could use the phone so he can tell his wife that he would be late for lunch. Suddenly, an American official came out of his office and shouted at Larry: "Hey, Flip, you can't use that phone!" Larry, who was a well-known businessman at that time, threw the hand set at the guy and blared out, "You don't call us 'Flips' you sonavabitch!" and stomped out of the embassy a very furious man. Maybe, the American was Kaplan, who knows? I wonder what you would have done under the circumstances. Best, Ben Sanchez, [email protected] March 08, 2005 MY REPLY. Probably get mad at that American, but not at all Americans, dead or alive. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |
(Copy furnished) Ben, It couldn't have been Kaplan (who was not here until the mid-80s) but it sounds like the Kaplan we came to dislike. I recall a despidida I attended for Kaplan in 1987. Monching Mitra was the host and in one of the most ironic twists of Philippine humor I have experienced, Monching brought Larry Henares to the dinner and called on him to speak about Kaplan. Then Kaplan, a true diplomat, had to reply. No rancor was evident, although surely below the surface it was different. If Henares was mistreated, per your story, he should not have generalized his emotions against other Americans just because of one man's outrageous behavior. Best, John Forbes, [email protected] March 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |
| Dear John, I agree that Larry Henares should not have generalized. What I should have done is to go right to the U.S. Ambassador and protest the insult. However, you know as well as I do that the Visa Office of the local U.S. Embassy was manned by misfits that I thought it was the trash bin of the State Department's mediocrities. Oh some of them appeared well-educated but ill-mannered. A long time ago, when I returned from U.S. studies, an American consul attached to the visa office befriended me and my friends. At a cocktail party, a friend asked him about his work in the embassy. He said he was in charge of giving out visas. He went on to relate the story of how extensively he would verify the financial status of applicants for student visa. A young lady approached her requesting for a student visa. When asked whether his parents had money in the bank, she replied that the family kept their money at home in a safe. So, he said, he went over to the house, had the safe opened and counted all the money in it to verify whether her parents could really afford to send her to a university in the States. Now that story was not calculated to win Filipino friends. So, why did he relate it at all. A young lady in the group gave him his comeuppance. She just received her Masters from Smith College. She wagged a finger at this idiot and said, "You must think that your country is a land of milk and honey and any Filipino will take the opportunity to live there. Well, listen. I was born in Cambridge, Mass. and I did not take the option to take U.S. citizenship!" The embassy guy was aghast, "And why didn't you opt for American citizenship?' My friend replied: "Because it's no fun to grow old in your country." The two became good friends later, but not before he apologized profusely. Cheers! Ben Sanchez, [email protected] March 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Ben, That is quite a story. Of course there are foreigners quite happy to live in the Philippines (e.g. myself) and Filipinos quite happy to live in the US (e.g. our good friend Eddie). It's a matter of individual preference, although I am convinced the Philippine elite has allowed a situation to develop where far too many compatriots feel their economic survival depends on going abroad. Having known many of the visa interview officers, I can attest that they are highly competent dedicated professionals simply implementing the US immigration law. They work hard and try to be as fair as possible. Of course, mistakes do happen, and these become the basis of the stories about insensitive officers which, after frequent repetition and embellishment, become transformed into neandrathal creatures. Best, John Forbes, [email protected] March 09, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello Tony, Many thanks for the warm reception I got from Fil's friends and most of all for including me in your email list of your enlightening articles. I share with you aspirations for our country, which may not be fulfilled in my lifetime, but incurable optimists as we are my wife Nena and I plan to come home, regardless. I particularly love your latest opus on Anti Americanism as I've gone through this cycle myself, an MBA degree from a American university, a 10-yr budding career in Mobil Oil Philippines which I threw away for the sake of our Filipino managers who were discriminated upon. So I had a hand in establishing the very first managerial union circa 1965 in the Philippines. I mention this, not for self publicity, but my resolved was strengthened by a young union advocate Ignacio Lacsina, an ardent nationalist with an rabidly anti American attitude which I needed most when fighting our American management. Is he still around? He took up our cause, pro bono. Ernie Peralta, [email protected] Australia, March 10, 2005 MY REPLY. I know of Ignacio Lacsina, but I haven�t heard from or about him for a long time. He may have passed away, or he may have migrated�to the US or some other capitalist country. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, The so-called nationalists, oftentimes labeled communists, should not be censured for exhibiting anti-American sentiments. There is enough reason to harbor some hatred towards the Americans for what President McKinley did to the Filipino people during the subjugation, pacification and eventual colonization of the Philippine Islands. Until contemporary U.S. administrators admit the mistake and offer to help in righting the wrong, Filipinos have all the right to feel bad. What exactly did the Americans do to the Filipino people? In his book "The cornerstone of Philippine independence", Francis Burton Harrison, the last Governor General of the American colonial administration said: "The exhibition of the Filipino flag, under which they had fought their war against us, was made by statute a criminal offense. Patriotism was never encouraged in the schools, nor ideas which tended to arouse their own national consciousness. Everything which might help to make the pupils understand their own race or think about the future of the country was carefully censored and eliminated. Nevertheless, the good sound stock of American ideas which they received instructed them inevitably in our own democratic ideals, and in our pride in our own liberties." This policy was implemented through the adoption of American textbooks, assignment of the so-called "Thomasian" teachers, the U.S. based training of Filipino scholars and pensionados and the teaching of American history, culture, arts and literature in the public schools. What do we make out of this, is this not brainwashing on a massive scale? The label "Little Brown Americans" is not simply a description of the English-speaking Filipino's lack of height or darker color of the skin, but in reality a mark of successful conversion from one of patriotism to subservience. This policy cited by Harrison explains why Filipinos do not exhibited much love for their own country, and the propensity of the Filipino leadership to mouth American policy or sacrifice the country's interest in favor of the United States. The nationalists among our midst saw very clearly this abomination, but the more numerous "Little Brown Americans" who continued to hold public offices, probably because of lack of understanding, allowed the American-installed public school system to remain the cornerstone of the present educational system, thus subjecting succeeding generation of Filipinos to the same catastrophe. Of course, we know the result is disastrous and is reflected in our inability to define and concretize our aspirations as a people. It will perhaps take a generation, assuming our leaders become cognizant of this malady, to unlearn the colonial mind set and embrace the renewal of the spirit of the 1890's. I believe herein lies the salvation of the Filipino. Yours very truly, Virgilio Leynes, [email protected] March 11, 2005 MY REPLY. Communists, whether of the PKP or the CPP persuasion or anything else in between, are quite open that their ultimate goal is to set up a dictatorship of the proletariat, with monopoly of political power for the victorious wing of the communist movement. Do you really think this is a harmless goal? OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |