Reinventing the Filipino Psyche (Part One) |
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Columns - Reinventing the Philippines | |||
Monday, 14 May 2007 06:52 | |||
When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made a stopover in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 21, 2001, she did not rate even a single column-inch coverage in the Los Angeles Times. It has the second-biggest circulation in the United States. The L.A. Times’ failure to cover President Arroyo's visit was not the first time that a Filipino President was snubbed by the mainstream press.
Then President Fidel V. Ramos also visited Los Angeles. He spent nearly a whole day meeting with the Filipino-American media and the community at the L.A. Sports Arena on Nov. 21, 1993. Yet, President Ramos' visit did not land also even a single column inch of coverage in the L.A. Times. (Editor's Notes: The L.A. Times did cover in its Metro Section President Ramos' trip to the Los Angeles City Hall on May 7, 1997, when he visited with Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council. But many doubted if the mainstream press would have covered the Ramos' second visit to Los Angeles if he did not go to the City Hall to address the City Council.) Former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada did not also merit any coverage by the L.A. Times during his two visits to Southern California. First, he said that the Philippines does not have even a modest public-relations budget. All the Filipino government officials in Los Angeles do was to cater to the Filipino-American press and worse, only to the Filipino-American writers who write favorable stories for the Philippine vested interests. The second factor was that the Filipino-American community did not advertise in mainstream newspapers unlike the other Asian-American communities that count on their ethnic mid-size corporations to giant (home country-based) conglomerates producing or selling automobiles, electronic products, computer components, etc., in the United States. Third, Filipino businesses did not usually buy many American products. An example is the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The Philippine Airlines (PAL) operates only four 747s while Korean Airlines for instance flies nearly 20 of them. The second airline in Korea, Asiana, operates nearly a 747 fleet two or three times bigger than that being flown by the PAL. Many Asian airlines for instance operate 747 jet freighters while the PAL does not have a wide-body (or even a narrow-body) all-cargo jet. The point according to this PR practitioner was that "American businesses reciprocate matters with buyers of American big-ticket products." The Fortune 500 companies’ PR departments exert efforts to have the heads of state of their biggest nation-buyers get favorable media attention when they do visit the United States. Superb PR work generates more foreign linkages that result into more exports of American products and technology. Such is the reality of life, more so in America where the bottom line is, well, the bottom-line. Economic power translates to political clout. And as the adage says, mendicants cannot be choosy. This is the reality that sadly very few Filipino national leaders and many Filipino-American community associations cannot understand, or refuse to understand. # # # Restoring the Dignity of the Filipino (Part Two)
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