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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
This other commuter tale was told to a group of us by a Filipino-American Indian who went for a brief visit to Manila last week. Let's call him B. B, being of American-Indian and Filipino descent, is not Caucasian but he does not look very Filipino either. He is handsome, much more than Daniel Day Lewis, is tall and solidly built. He has very long hair and inevitably speaks with an American twang. I mean, if you didn't know he is a foreigner just by looking at him, you'd get it once you hear him speak. So. B rides a jeepney to go somewhere. He gives nine pesos to the driver, telling him where he is going. The woman conductor beside the driver tells him that he is short 25 pesos. Now B has family here in Manila. Like any traveler worth his salt, he has asked around how much it would cost him to get to where he is going. He knows he is not short 25 pesos. He knows he has paid the exact amount (though technically, the driver still owes him 50 centavos.) He knows the woman is trying to weasel money out of a "supposedly clueless foreigner." So he says no and does not give in. That's tragedy number one. Many Filipinos see foreigners as an opportunity to earn easy money. That's not good in itself. And that is also not doing the country's tourism industry any good. Foreigners are already wary about the Philippines' peace situation and whatnot so it doesn't help when they get to experience attempts to scam them or get more money from them. Tragedy number two was pointed out by B himself. He wondered why not even one passenger spoke up to him or against the driver. Don't they care that someone is being scammed right under their noses? If something like that is happening in front of you, wouldn't you try to intervene and help? Is that not the right thing to do? Or are those passengers afraid to speak up to B because they don't want to speak English? (I've noticed this reluctance by a lot of people to speak in English. We, a country that prides itself in our mastery of the English language and have a nation full of call center agents.Baffling.) Is it as simple and stupid as that? Have I just been living in the barrio for too long that I have forgotten how impersonal everything and everyone is in the city? That caring for perfect strangers is not the "in" thing to do here? I mean, it's weird because it is only here in Metro Manila that you feel so alone. I was in Bacolod once, for a brief visit. It is a well-populated city and I was at the mall, waiting in line to use the bathroom. The lady in front of me had apparently been waiting a long time so she did a little dance, you know, the dance you do when you're trying to hold it in? She did that, and she smiled at herself and her silliness. And she smiled at me because I saw her. Imagine that! A perfect stranger smiling at another perfect stranger in a bustling city. That would never have happened in Metro Manila. People here don't look at each other. They hardly ever say thank you or please or excuse me or sorry. They're way too busy, wrapped up in their own lives, in their own troubles they do not even bother acknowledging that there's another human being sitting or standing next to them. para silang langgam nag-uunahan nagsisiksikan magkakatabi magkakadikit hindi nagpapansinan kanya-kanyang laban malaking maliit ang mundo para sa mga taong langgam sa kapwa wala silang alam, wala silang pakialam Labels: urban living |
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