Filipina Non Grata

We Filipinos have an old saying that goes, "Ang taong hindi marunong lumingon sa pinangalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan." A video that my friend shared in her facebook page made me write this post. It was about a certain woman who went to the bank's ATM to withdraw money. For whatever reason, she was not able to get cash so she called the bank's customer service. You would not believe what she said and how rude she was and how she bad mouthed the bank's employee who tried to explain and listened to her and her dirty mouth. It was so uncomfortable listening to her yelling at the top of her voice, coursing and swearing even after the manager talked to her and tried to help her. Her mouth is like a machine gun spitting bad words like f--k you and p-----g mo for about 9 minutes more or less...She implied that she is based abroad and she's in the Philippines for a vacation. 

It really aggravates me whenever I hear kababayan who becomes so arrogant, prejudiced, and ill mannered just because they've achieved something in life or they've been to other countries making them feel like they have the right to look down on others back home. I always believe that these people have such a low self esteem that looking down on others will make them feel good. They need the feeling of being superior to others to boost their self esteem. I feel sorry for them. Isn't it that having a good life, an education and having travelled to other countries suppose to make us even more refined, tempered and well mannered?  To experience and live a different way of life and interact with different cultures expand our perspective, thus making us more broad minded and more flexible. Good Manners and Right Conduct is one of the subjects taught in our schools as early as grade school. The values of respect for elders and being polite to all we come across regardless of their status in life are important Filipino values that our parents taught us in our growing up years. Lessons we learned while growing up stays with us, become part of who we are, no matter where we are in this world.  Obviously in this case, all the mediums that helped/formed us to become a good person didn't work in this woman. I am working in the customer service, and I feel for that bank staff. I admired him for not losing his poise and continued to be polite in spite of the uncivilized attitude of that woman. If he was one of my staffs, I would give him thumbs up, a pat on his shoulder and tell him to go take his break and get some fresh air after being suffocated by that nasty situation...But I will bet my last penny that she would not have done that here in the US. With the rants, discriminating and prejudiced words she said, she would be slapped with lawsuit left and right.

I just hope that there are not many of them in this world. They are not only a bad example to our young generation, but they are also making the life of other people even more challenging than what it already is ...

As a conclusion, I thought of another Filipino expression, something like a case of a fly who landed on the back of the carabao thinking that she is now bigger than the carabao... Hay Naku!