Gwen and Patricia Evangelista

Dear Gwen,

Your visit to my site is highly appreciated. I saw in your profile that you are barely out of your late teen phase. I admire people in their teens who can stand up and make their opinions known,like the student of titorolly named Samantha.

When I was your age, I had the same outlook, priorities, goals and values of a person in that phase. Yes, it is a phase in life. As you grow older, these values changed as you widen your horizon, expand your world, learn the bitter truths and swallow the bitter pills. If you find my opinion different from yours, this is because of this so-called life phases.

The behavior and the life’s directions of an individual are not permanent and carved in stones. They change as life goes on.

The speech may have been delivered by Patricia but the speech itself shows a transition between two phases; that of an idealistic youth who views the world either with rose colored glasses or with black Calvin Klein shades to a practical adult who sees the world clearer with the prescription glasses.

From her statements:

There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to-

we can clearly see the change of the outlook from one idealist to one who can understand what really life is.

From this statement:

To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice. Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore.

I was made to think how she can write this without having experienced to leave the country for good. As an overseas Filipino, this is exactly what I feel.

You wrote:

It is because their families are starving to death due to the incompetencies of those educated leaders who are supposedly giving back what this country had given them.

I agree with your view about our leaders but the word starving is too strong a word to use for the people who search for opportunities outside the country.

Can we just say,to have a better life.

The people who are starving are not even leaving the country. They are waiting for the dole outs of the government, bear more children and heap the blame of their sufferings to the rich and mighty.

The people who are going to starve are those whose idea of a citizen of a country is one with rights but no responsibilites; with privileges but no duties and everything that went wrong to their lives is the fault of the government.

Like you I despise the inefficiencies and insensitiveness of our leaders but I also hate the callousness and the mendicant mentality of our people.

Patricia said:

Especially now, when we have thousands of eager young minds who graduate from college every year. They have skills. They need jobs. We cannot absorb them all.

These statements reflect the mind of an adult who has to be realistic in order to survive.

These likewise reflect my mind, trained in business that whenever there is a demand, seize the opportunity to supply.

We are not what the old writers portrayed us to be, Juan Tamad.

We are the new breed who will work in order to live. We are going to struggle to have a better life.

When she wrote :

We are your software engineers in Ireland, your construction workers in the Middle East, your doctors and caregivers in North America, and, your musical artists in London's West End.

I see this as pride, recognition of dignity of labor and recognition of Filipinos’ contributions to a better world.

I feel proud too because I am one of them. I tell you, I feel happy when I go to a hospital and see Filipino faces. I feel proud when their efforts of caring are appreciated. I feel proud when their expertise are recognized. You will have the same feeling too when you are in a foreign country and you will hear a familiar language spoken amidst the foreign accents.

And this is what I like best in the speech.

Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is.

And many of us are coming back.

Do not think that brain and brawn drains happened only during our decades. It started after World War 2. Many thought that with the migration of our good writers, NVMGonzales and others, the Phils would have a dearth of literary giants but no. For every good Filipino who goes away, there is one born to replace him and you are one of them.

The Ca t