Proud Pinoy, Finally

On a recent trip recently from Zurich, I happened to queue up with fellow country folks at the airport. It was no Singapore or Changi or some private airstrip where things go much faster.

They said, for a “1st world country”, whatever that really meant, it felt better passing through some “3rd world country” airport with dilapidated infrastructure than this.

I thought, “Uh oh, the same old story…”

They continued, that it was just a shame they couldn’t use the faster queues for those with better passports. The dream of a third world fool like me: citizenship from a “better” country for a “better” passport.

I could not help myself but face them and hold up my god#amn PILIPINAS PASAPORTE very high. I said, I had access to another passport but chose to queue up. They said I was a fool. Especially travelling with a little one.

I said no. I wanted my girl to know this feeling, of the world’s injustice or unfairness. And to face it with a smile. And to endure it if we cannot do anything about it. And to fix it if we can. But to always be quietly proud. It is better to be a good person than to have a passport that affords fake respect or access to countries one will never visit because they couldn’t afford it.

It is better to be little people with hard earned hundreds of millions in the bank or be little people who serve the world for good than to be born and to live with too much regard for privilege and entitlements.

I remember Lee Kuan Yew’s speech in Harvard explaining the first reason he became politicised. How I wish I met the man…

“Before the war broke out, our ##### rulers feared, that the Asians would panic if bombs and shells fell upon them. When the bombs and shells actually came, it was ##### bosses who … packed their families off. The ##### subjects stoically bore their sufferings. That aura of overwhelming superiority with which the ##### held us in thrall, was broken, never to be restored.”

But yes, they were right. I was a fool. I am still a fool.

#proud #pinoy #finally