A Take on the "Filipino people"

I have just started my new job in a new organization, and on my first day (yesterday), I was suddenly and unexpectedly invited for a welcome interview with the head of my division, a Japanese national.


I have good memories of working (even for just a few days) with Japanese people in another division, and I was interested in hearing what this gentleman had to say to me. He was, I hazard a guess, a few years beyond middle age, but was very clean in dress that his white shirt positively glowed in the afternoon sun. With not a strand of grey-black hair out of place, he looked the part of a high-ranking executive.


It turns out that he simply wanted to welcome me to his division, and told me that he had not really "had a chance to read" my file so he was curious about my background. What was my name, he asked.


I said "[my name]".


"What a unique name," he said. "Is that ... ?" he trailed off.


I said, "Oh, it was just something my parents picked up in the newspaper."


"But both your parents are Filipino?"


"Yes," I said.


"Ah," or something to that effect, he replied.


And then, as I mentioned above, he was curious about my personal background.


So I told him I was born and raised and studied in the Philippines, worked for 7 years in the Bank of the Philippine Islands and then was for more than a year a temporary "consultant" in some projects in this very same organization (in other divisions and departments).


Then he congratulated me on my new job, and said I would be able to find a lot of opportunities to advance in this organization to which his division belonged. There were opportunities for promotion, but he really emphasized the seminars and training that I will be able to take part in.


Then he said, "[This organization] is a really generous employer [he laughed]. I worked for a few years in other places, but it's not the same. I think it is really generous, especially for the Filipino people." He smiled kindly.


I was struck by that comment, but I overcame it for a moment to say that the opportunities were in fact a big reason why I pursued a job in this organization.


He thanked me and I thanked him for his time and then we parted.


This post really is about the way he chose his words: "the Filipino people". I don't begrudge him the impression he holds of the nation. It is still a struggling, immature polity and a struggling, poor society, which could use a lot of help offered by the civilized and advanced Japanese. 


But like the wife who is told by a loving husband that she is "fat", or the husband called "loser" by his wife, it is jolting to hear it said out loud. We need to face our problems, but our problems seem to hold more urgency if they were hurled at us by those who have long assured us of their affection.