hello! my teacher in sociology gave us an assignment where you ask someone to read an article and have them right a reaction/reflection paper. So i thought that i could do it here. If any of you have free time to spare or thoughts about the following article please write them. Anything will be most appreciated. [Note] - 1. Please write your name and/or country of origin for reference purposes. 2. I'm not making an excuses of letting people do my work. this homework was really asked to be done this way. thanks to anyone that believes me. Blonde and Blue Eyes By Patricia Evangelista (Following is the extemporaneous speech of Patricia Evangelista, a 19-year-old, Speech Communications sophomore of University of the Philippines in Diliman, QC, in the 2004 International Public Speaking competition conducted by the English Speaking Union (ESU) in London on May 14. Patricia bested 58 other student contestants from 37 English-speaking countries, including the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. The board of judges' decision was unanimous, according to contest chairman Brian Hanharan of the British Broadcasting Corporation.) When I was little, I wanted what many Filipino children all over the country wanted. I wanted to be blond, blue-eyed, and white. I thought if I just wished hard enough and was good enough, I'd wake up on Christmas morning with snow outside my window and freckles across my nose! More than four centuries under western domination does that to you. I have sixteen cousins. In a couple of years, there will just be five of us left in the Philippines, the rest will have gone abroad in search of "greener pastures." It's not just an anomaly; it's a trend; the Filipino diaspora. Today, about eight million Filipinos are scattered around the world. There are those who disapprove of Filipinos who choose to leave. I used to. Maybe this is a natural reaction of someone who was left behind, smiling for family pictures that get emptier with each succeeding year. Desertion, I called it. My country is a land that has perpetually fought for the freedom to be itself. Our heroes offered their lives in the struggle against the Spanish, the Japanese, the Americans. To pack up and deny that identity is tantamount to spitting on that sacrifice. Or is it? I don't think so, not anymore. True, there is no denying this phenomenon, aided by the fact that what was once the other side of the world is now a twelve-hour plane ride away. But this is a borderless world where no individual can claim to be purely from where he is now. My mother is of Chinese descent, my father is a quarter Spanish, and I call myself a pure Filipino -- a hybrid of sorts resulting from a combination of cultures. Each square mile anywhere in the world is made up of people of different ethnicities, with national identities and individual personalities. Because of this, each square mile is already a microcosm of the world. In as much as this blessed spot that is England is the world, so is my neighborhood back home. Seen this way, the Filipino diaspora, or any sort of dispersal of populations, is not as ominous as so many claim. It must be understood. I come from a Third World country, one that is still trying mightily to get back on its feet after many years of dictatorship. But we shall make it, given more time. 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. A borderless world presents a bigger opportunity, yet one that is not so much abandonment but an extension of identity. Even as we take, we give back. We are the 40,000 skilled nurses who support the UK's National Health Service. We are the quarter-of-a-million seafarers manning most of the world's commercial ships. 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. Nationalism isn't bound by time or place. People from other nations migrate to create new nations, yet still remain essentially who they are. British society is itself an example of a multi-cultural nation, a melting pot of races, religions, arts and cultures. We are, indeed, in a borderless world! Leaving sometimes isn't a matter of choice. It's coming back that is. The Hobbits of the shire traveled all over Middle-Earth, but they chose to come home, richer in every sense of the word. We call people like these balikbayans or the 'returnees' -- those who followed their dream, yet choose to return and share their mature talents and good fortune. In a few years, I may take advantage of whatever opportunities come my way. But I will come home. A borderless world doesn't preclude the idea of a home. I'm a Filipino, and I'll always be one. It isn't about just geography; it isn't about boundaries. It's about giving back to the country that shaped me. And that's going to be more important to me than seeing snow outside my windows on a bright Christmas morning. thank you for the people who read it. and please write you reaction.
I'm from the Philippines, originally from California, I'd have to say, I'm iimpressed, that's exactly how I imagined the speech to go, it's so calm and serene, and it flows out so naturally. From a poet, this speech is anything but creative... IT'S FREAKING GENIUS! The idea on how they put across the topic, the resilience of thoughts included in this speech is like none I've heard before. Books cannot match up to this astounding piece of work, I can only dream to make something of equal importance as this. Expression is only words in a certain order, change them around, and you'll get potential
You can call me Josh James. It is usually my alias for when I go to Gibraltar, which is a flea market that sells pretty much all stolen stuff. (at least we infer that) The fact that more and more people leave every year is a vicious circle. Production lowers for every citizen that leaves, making the situation worse for those who stay. Next year, now that the situation is even worse than the year before, causes more people to leave. The only way for things to get better is by making people stay and endure the worst of times. Western culture usually assimilates to places that have western influences. People lose their own unique culture and in turn, they join the consumerism that western culture has created. War heroes didn't fight for nothing. They defended their homeland. People's reasons to leave are usually economic situations. Just remember the war between Bolivia and Paraguay over El Chaco. Paraguay won a barren piece of land, but lost over 50% of its population due to the casualties. That, is fighting for nothing. A borderless world is forming, whether some radical extremists disagree or not. The global economy is becoming more important everyday. The idea of specialization and exchange is being magnified by countries, not just individual regions within a country. Instead of one country trying to produce everything themselves, they can specialize and trade for the necessities they lack. The Hobbits did return, but in reality, not everyone chooses to return to their homeland. Some can't afford to go back to the Phillipines, others don't want to. Some people may feel that if they leave their situation now, they will lose everything that they worked hard for.
