Response By Marlu Fernandez
Understandably, The Manila Standard Today, received a few emails of complaint, so Malu Fernandez decided to respond.
As I type this, I’d like you to know that it’s not about whining, complaining and bitching but just stating the facts. Just recently, I wrote a funny article in my magazine column and my friends thought it was hilarious. It was humorous and quite tongue-in-cheek, or at least I thought so, until the magazine got a few e-mails from people who didn’t get the meaning of my acerbic wit. The bottom line was just that I had offended the reader’s socioeconomic background. If any of these people actually read anything thicker then a magazine they would find it very funny. Most people don’t get the fact that they need bitches like me to shake up their world, otherwise their lives would be boring and mediocre. I obviously write for the a certain target audience and if what I write offends you, just stop reading.
Although it may sound elitist to you the fact is this country is built on the foundation of haves, have-nots and wannabes. One group will never get the culture of the other. Although I could mention that it is easier to understand someone who has a lower socioeconomic background that would entail a whole other page and frankly I don’t want to be someone to bridge the gap between socioeconomic classes. I leave that to the politicians in my family who believe they can actually help. Now I seriously ask you, am I being a diva or are people around me just lacking in common sense? Perhaps it’s a little of both!- - -
best reactions from multiply.com
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just want to share this blogpost by Jorge Cosgayon
in his blogsite.
To read the whole thing visit site's link,
http://farfromneutral.com/exodus/issues/we.../#comment-11998Miss Fernandez,
There is a line between being hilariously offensive, and being just offensive, and it’s not a thin one. We know it for what it is, and we know it’s best to keep such thoughts to ourselves or shared only with others of similar disposition. It’s called tact. Other terms, like “good judgment”, “sensitivity”, or “not-having-shit-for-brains” may also be used. It’s a fairly common practice to people not named “DOJ Secretary Raul Gonzales”.
Well, you crossed that line. And judging from your initial article as well as your “apology”, you are aware of that fact. You knew it when you were writing your article, and you definitely know it now. Because some things are better left unsaid. Think it all you like. Snicker about the other 95% amongst your friends all you want. We care even less about what you do than you think. But you shouldn’t have gone and said it.
Because that’s just plain offensive.
Excuse us for not being born with a silver spoon. Excuse us for not being able to afford your “culture”. You see, we actually need to work for a living. What luxuries we have, blood, sweat and tears were spent to acquire. Ours is a culture that was forged in our reality, our situation. We do not aspire to live the lives that are beyond our means, nor wallow in cultures not our own. We like what we like, and we are what we are.
But do not presume for even a second that you are better than us. Do not think for a moment that you know us. And don’t you dare put on airs.
You wear your social status, deserved or otherwise, like a crown, thinking it makes you better, smarter, more entitled. It does not. You confuse — proudly — socioeconomic brackets with intellectual capacity, and many have disabused you of that notion. Here’s some more.
Our lives are also rich and colorful, and we experience the same breadth of emotions as you. Those of us that have the time or the inclination read books heavier than your boobs and thicker than your skin. We enjoy the sublime flavors of isaw, goto and the squid kebabs in Quiapo as much as you would your caviar, saffron-laced paella or whatever it is people like you eat. We appreciate not having to wait too long in line for the MRT with as much enthusiasm as you appreciate not waiting too long for your baggage to be checked in on one of your jet-setting flights. We greet friends and relatives just as warmly as you greet the elites you suck up to.
Just because you are higher than us your the social ladder doesn’t mean you’re better. It means you’re lucky. We do not deserve to be dismissed, least of all publicly. We are proud, and rightfully so. We do not deserve to be humiliated unjustly simply because of what we are. We are thinking breathing creatures not unlike you. We must be respected, and protected, never rejected, as all must be. We are somebody
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replyjoselion wrote on Aug 27, edited on Aug 27
To: MALU Fernandez.
I am a proud son of an OFW who at one time worked as a nanny here in Canada,she worked her ass off and sacrifice a lot to support us and sponsor us out of the Philippines,she went back to school,finished her studies at the UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO as a chemest,and she is the other chemest responsible to make the "Axe " perfume that you've downgraded. Moneywise my mother makes a lot more dollars than you are making and you will be making in pesos,and yet she never and I never heard her maligning her fellow OFW instead she help them and give them funds to go back to school in hopes that they will follow her footsteps,my mother is one of the elite chemest in the pharmaceutical Industries,and yes she still likes to travel in economy class and mingle with the poor stinky AND CHEAP OFW that you just maligned,because she is not a pretentious woman,and she still calls herself a poor OFW,Take note Malu Fernandez my mom drives a ferrari and owns a million dollar mansion,she picks up and drive around her fellow OFW to some Places,and some of her fellow OFWs lives in her million dollar mansion,my question to you is how much money and how smart do you think you are to classify yourself above those cheap and stinky OFWs?.and other than maligning those heroes of the philippine economy,what positive things that you did to help your countrymen and women other than loathing at them for there misfortunes?,and dont forget,keep yourself in shape you look like a pig,yes you are a diva to some oinky swines you probably smell like them too.bye oinky diva
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replyjericktaguilar wrote on Sep 1
“Responses to an OFW-Basher”
By Jerick T Aguilar
After shamelessly writing about her summer trip to Boracay and Greece in the June 2007 issue of People Asia magazine, this columnist was found guilty of character assassination of our overseas Filipino domestic helpers regardless of the fact that they have never wronged her, except – in her opinion – for being on the same economy flight that everyone is entitled to. As a writer and traveler myself, please find below my notes on some of the things she wrote. I may also be guilty of character assassination but at least mine is not baseless and I think of this more as defending our fellow “kababayans” working abroad.
“But I was too ashamed to ditch my friends and forego the huge amount I already paid for my share of the villa.” – Outright pretentious! People rent and share villas in Boracay to save on expensive hotel charges per night so writing that she paid a “huge amount” is plainly preposterous!
“Meanwhile, when all of this was going on, I was on the cell phone …” – Proper English writing uses the conjunction “while” when it is followed by the progressive (this case in the past) and interrupted by the simple tense – so “while all of this was going on, I was …” – I thought a columnist for a magazine (and newspaper) would have a knowledge of English much better than a domestic helper’s!
“Ron is my travel buddy … so between his schedule and mine, the logistics are a nightmare.” – “Logistics” is a non-countable noun and, hence, is always followed by a singular verb – so “… logistics is a nightmare.” Ditto!
“Emirates had won best economy class and some award.” – “Award”, on the other hand, is a countable noun (i.e. it has singular and plural forms) and the modifier “some” means more than one – so “… some awards.” – My, oh my! Our housemaid even knows better English than her!
“I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there.” – Duh?!? Majority of OFWs are in Saudi Arabia, unless she doesn’t know what the word “majority” means. And another duh! To be “stationed” means to stay in one place – it’s obvious that our OFWs don’t just stay there, she was with them while traveling back to the Philippines.
“Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them.” – Okay, a plane is a form of public transportation so the preposition “on” instead of “in” is used (e.g. on a bus, on a train, etc.) so “… trapped on a plane …” Yeah, she should’ve slashed her wrist in order to prevent writing more grammatical mistakes! (I hope her readers do not know that she is Filipino! Nakakahiya kung ganoon! – Sorry but the English translation does not suffice!)
“… I would never risk losing if my luggage ended up in the middle of the Sahara desert.” – Her plane took off from Dubai then landed in Athens where the flight plan is northeast of the Sahara desert, unless there was a stopover in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Now is she really a traveler or was it just her first time to travel?…
“… the seats were so small I had bruises …” – Okay, didn’t she mention that Emirates had won best economy class? So I wonder if the seats were so small or she was simply so big?
“Domestic helper ka rin ba?” – She wrote this question as if she overheard it while dozing off. I bet she was actually asked this question. I mean, I would whether or not I were a domestic helper given her fashion sense in the pictures (not at all to demean the clothing style of our domestic helpers but one cannot really differentiate hers from theirs).
“… the weather report on CNN … was wrong because it was still winter.” – Hold on, summer in the Philippines from April to June is already spring in Europe. And even if the European winter in March extended till April, Greece is in the Mediterranean so it would’ve already been warm by then. So was it really a cold winter while she was there or she just wanted to impress her readers by mentioning the word “throw” as a noun and not as the usual verb (and by wearing it to look less fat in the picture)?
“I adamantly wanted to go to Santorini … but due to time constraints, we were unable to go.” – Talk about being pretentious again! She intentionally forgot to mention “money” as another constraint! Didn’t she just write that she had to fly economy?
“I guess God was watching out for us.” – And now she thinks God was after writing that God had sent her to her own private hell being on a plane with “those domestics”. One of the rules of journalism is to be consistent (aside from having perfect English, of course!) so I guess she is the exception.
“This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can …” – Another cardinal rule of journalism is to avoid redundancy so a “fish” in a sardine can sounds much better. I don’t think she’s a traveler, I don’t think she’s a journalist either… What is she then? An abomination?
“… with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.” – Interesting how she made reference to Jo Malone in which a perfume wardrobe costs more than $1,000 yet she had to take the economy flight to Athens and back…
“But for a couple of weeks, I had the great escape …” – What was that again? A “couple of weeks” when she wrote beforehand of her “time constraints”? Greece is not China so a visit to Santorini from Athens can be squeezed even within a week of staying there. And before that, she wrote “Pick a country!” as if she can go anywhere she wants to. But she ended up saving on her plane ticket only to be “trapped” with OFWs and “smelling like air freshener”. She is the height of pretension indeed!
Three things to my “supposed” fellow writer and traveler – first off, if you have to write something in English, do not forget the simple rules of grammar so you do not cause intellectual harm to the people reading your article. Secondly, if you do not have money to pay for a business class fare, then don’t complain if you are surrounded by OFWs who can only afford an economy flight. As a final note, I suggest you thank these OFWs instead of demeaning them! If it weren’t for the billions of foreign currency remittances that our country regularly receives from them, the instability and depreciation of the peso-dollar exchange rate would’ve prohibited you from traveling to Greece in the first place (and buying that Jo Malone, assuming you already did)!
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she needs a therapist.
malu fernandez controversy, how to be unpatriotically filipino
