(Continued from yesterday)
Let me be clear that banning flights and ships, and foreigners (without specifying ethnicities and nationalities) coming from places with many actual and potential infections is not racist or discriminatory but is consistent with the precautionary approach.
Let me also be clear that it is the Duterte government’s actions—from surrendering the West Philippine Sea to allowing Chinese workers in online gambling which has displaced many Filipinos, and promoted sex trafficking and criminal activities and now in its original response to the Wuhan virus where the government seemed more afraid to displease the Chinese than ensuring public health—that has led to this state of widespread racism and discrimination, even by people who should know better.
Many Filipinos feel compelled, to hit back against Chinese mainlanders and since we are not able to distinguish between mainlanders and Chinese Filipinos (and Koreans, Singaporeans, etc.), the discrimination has become universal. This is wrong in my view because racism under any circumstances is wrong and because it will come back to bite us given that to the outside world we are all Chinese-looking, i.e. orientals.
There is also that failed effort of pro-Duterte troll farms to elicit sympathy for the Chinese by flooding social media platforms with silly sob stories, which in turn elicited a massive response of even sillier and non sequitur stories. Some people, whom I would otherwise consider cosmopolitan, well-traveled and well-read, and definitely would not have imagined as racist, joined in that response, spontaneous for sure but led by a core group of influencers.
I unequivocally think that this was not the right response to the pro-Chinese troll. It devalues real suffering that is happening because of the Wuhan virus. The analogy is the boy who cried wolf. There is real suffering but it is disbelieved when the Duterte trolls use it for political purposes. And the response also disregarded the fact that the virus has in fact caused untold suffering to many Chinese persons and families and has the potential to do that to us as well.
People who suffer need kindness, not derision. While compassion is the language of God, as Pope Francis so often say, hatred is the weapon of the devil.
Let’s all step back, please, and be precautionary and compassionate.
Facebook: Dean Tony La Vina
Twitter: tonylavs