Are Filipinos becoming the newest heartthrobs in the US of A?

Dear Filipino,

Big MuQ, TF's sidekick.

Did you see that HuffPo piece about Asians, including many Filipinos who were specifically named in the article, turning into America's newest heartthrobs? 

Sigh. I wonder when it's going to be my turn...

Wishing,
MuQ


Dear MuQ,

Keep dreaming, brother!  Keep dreaming -- nothing wrong with that at all!

Yes, I read it several days ago and I found it really fascinating.  I actually wanted to write about it but you weren't around to ask the planted question as my sidekick! Where were you anyway? (Okay, okay -- in fairness, I'm just making you my scapecarabao; I've been really too busy lately to do much writing.)

As I said, it was a fascinating article and I don't really know what to make of it.  I'm sure social scientists, and moreso the casual observers, would have tons to say about the article, or even just this paragraph alone:

Just when we start to feel envious about the Whiz Kids' superior academic and virtuosic abilities, we quickly console ourselves that the price they pay is social awkwardness and having no fun. Asian Whiz Kids and their Tiger Moms surely abound. But frankly, this model is rather old. The newer, more interesting strand of Asian American is... the Heartthrob Asian.

"We"?  Who's "we" in the article -- the white dudes?  And then, the article continues:

You may have seen cool Asians on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew and Fox's So You Think You Can Dance in dance crews such as JabbaWockeeZ, Kaba Modern, and SoReal Cru. Justin Bieber's backup band is the Filipino American R & B group Legaci. Sam Tsui, a Chinese American singer/pianist/songwriter and student at Yale who's amassed over 85 million views on YouTube, appeared on Oprah and ABC World News. 21-year-old Filipino American singer/guitarist Joseph Vincent Encarmacion appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Iyaz gave a shoutout on a Youtube video to 21-year-old Filipino American AJ Rafael and friends for covering his Billboard hit "Replay." And of course, there's Bruno Mars who's half Filipino. Harry Shum Jr. of League of Extraordinary Dancers is on Glee. In January, Billboard created a new chart for emerging artists in social media, which was topped by Traphik, a Thai American rapper, and was peppered with Asian Americans.

21-year-old Filipino American guitarist/pianist/singer and YouTube sensation AJ Rafael from Moreno Valley, Calif. received over 50 million views on YouTube; had become 29th most subscribed musician of all time; has over 11 million plays on MySpace; and when he came out with his EP on iTunes album charts, he debuted at 115. (This was on his own, without labels and millions to back him.) His iTunes sales pays his bills.

Talented and charismatic, Rafael performs regularly to packed concerts of screaming teens who know him from YouTube. Last summer, he toured Hawaii, Sydney, Melbourne, and Toronto.

The article's quite long and Filipino names are sprinkled all over it -- and they're new names too and not the more known ones like Arnel Pineda and the like. The article even opened with the story of 10-year old Filipino-Canadian Maria Aragon who just sang a duet with Lady Gaga in her Toronto concert.

The cool dudes of the Far East Movement.

And the other groups mentioned in the article, aside from Legaci, also have Filipino members -- including the most successful Asian American group, Far East Movement (also known as FM), which managed to break into the mainstream pop scene with the single, "Like a G6," which reached #1 in iTunes and Billboard Hot 100 charts. FM's DJ Virman is the only Filipino American but the rest of the group are "adopted Filipinos," at least food-wise.

Pretty amazing, no?  Considering a Jewish blogger, Ilana Angel, had also earlier gushed over Manny Pacquiao, her new "celebrity crush" (her words, not mine), maybe there really is a trend here. 

So who knows?  Maybe soon, you, MuQ, are going to be the next celebrity and buffalos from the American plains will soon be rampaging to get close to you!

MuQ:  Cool! Can't wait! But what took Americans so long to recognize our -- ahem! -- coolness and good looks?

"I love dogs too!  Wanna exchange recipes?"

I know -- makes you wonder, right?

But if you have forgotten your history, allow me to remind you.

After the Americans colonized the Philippines a little over a century ago, they had to showcase their newest subjects in a grand manner.  And what better way than to do so at the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis, Missouri?

According to Virgilio R. Pilapil of the Filipino American National Historical Society, "[t]he St. Louis World's Fair was the grandest of all Fairs and the Philippine Exhibit took the honor of being the largest and most popular one at this Fair."

And guess why? Because we were all supposedly head-hunting savages! And we ate dogs -- yum yum!

(Hmmm...I wonder what The Filipina is preparing for dinner tonight -- Adobong Bulldog, Great Dane stuffed with Kangkong, or the usual Chihuahua Curry?)

Oh, sorry, I was daydreaming about food again. Where was I? Yes, the history behind our coolness, of course!

Going back to the St. Louis Fair, the Igorot Village, in particular, was a huge hit because the Igorot appetite for dogs was supposedly insatiable, this despite the fact that Igorots ate dogs only occasionally and for ceremonial purposes. But there was no shock value there, so they were asked to butcher dogs and eat them daily.  And Pilapil adds:

The city of St. Louis provided them a supply of dogs at the agreed amount of 20 dogs a week, but this did not appear to be sufficient, as they had also encouraged local people to bring them dogs which they bought to supplement their daily needs.

So, as you can see, Filipinos used to be just "objects of curiosity" in 1904, to put it mildly, to be fed with dogs.  But fast forward to today, and if you believe HuffPo's article, hey, guess what?  We've now become "objects of desire" -- or at least, our Filipino music stars are.

Justice Tani, The Filipino's
newest celebrity crush.

Personally, I'm not going to be complaining, brother.  And neither should you.

But if you ask me, my newest "celebrity crush," to borrow Ilana's term, is the country's first Filipino chief of a State Supreme Court, Madame Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye of the California Supreme Court. 

Believe me, bro: She's pretty and she's smart! (I don't want to be accused of objectifying women, but I read a lot of comments on articles when news of her nomination broke last year and I happen to agree with many commenters: She's hot!)

But while her success story is truly inspiring, her parents' story is even moreso, for they were the ones who toiled the sugar cane and pineapple farms of Hawaii as well as the fields of California's Central Valley so she could get her education.

So here, I'll join you in dreaming: I hope that someday I'll find myself fortunate enough to be arguing a case in the august chamber of the Court with Chief Justice Tani presiding.  I'm sure my knees will be quivering, especially if she flashes me her signature smile.  And I know I better be prepared because I sure won't like her smile turning into something scary. Ay yay yay!

And MuQ, I expect you to be there to give me moral support -- okay? -- even if you, my fictive water buffalo, are already being revered as The Buffalo Gigolo.

Got a question for The Filipino?  Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.

What are the keys to success in life?

Dear Filipino,
 

(Source: The Diplomatic Wife Blog.)

O Master, let me talk with thee, and pray tell, what are the keys to success really?

Thy humble servant,
MuQ (Made-up Questioner)

Dear MuQ,

Ah, your timing is impeccable, my friend!  I was just meaning to write about success because three "Filipinos" who exemplify the keys to success I wanted to talk about have been in the news lately.  So, without further ado, here's...

The first key: Genes. 

My dear MuQ, I know it's painful to hear for some, but there's just no getting around to it.  I mean, it's either you're beautiful or you're not; you're tall or you're not; you're model material or you're not.  And if you're beautiful, you're tall and you're model material, why, you can be the world's supermodel, of course!

And that's just what happened to our 5'9"" beauty, Danica Flores Magpantay, 17, who was recently declared winner of the 2011 Ford Supermodel of the World competition held in New York last Saturday, January 22.  Established by Eileen Ford in 1980, the Ford Supermodel of the World is reputed to be the largest and most prestigious international modeling competition in the world.

Besting more than 70 contestants from all over the world, the Fine Arts student from the University of the Philippines has the perfect genes because she is the daughter of Milagros “Lala” Flores, herself the winner of the Supermodel of the World Philippines in 1990.

But I'm sure you want to ask: "What do you do if, let's say, you want to beat the very best in something but you don't really have the perfect genes for it?  Do you just give up?"

No, of course not, dear student.  In fact, that question leads me to...

The second key:  Hard work.

By hard work, I mean, of course, you need to do what you need to do to be good at what you do.  That means practice, practice, practice.  Because if you practice hard enough, if you put in the work, nothing will faze you.  You'll be confident, you won't second-guess yourself, and you won't get rattled by anything and anyone when the moment of truth comes -- even if you're just, well, a "nobody" and you're going against the very best in a contest in which your opponents are the biggest celebrities and are being paid millions to be good at it: e.g., shoot balls.

This is exactly what Ricardo Reyes figured out early on.  Ricardo is only a busboy at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood but after practicing during every break he got over the past 10 years, he humbled the biggest basketball professionals in Jimmy Kimmel Live!'s "Pop-a-Shot Challenge."

Lebron James came first, and Ricardo, wearing his trademark apron and unruffled demeanor, simply annihilated the self-proclaimed King, 72-42:



Another basketball royalty, Sir Charles Barkley, was next, and the result was the same -- a royal kicking in the fanny -- this time at 85-51:



Next up was Kobe Bryant, the reigning Finals MVP, who impressively put up a challenge but was still clearly overmatched, with the score settling at 82-58:



Now, one would think that other NBA professionals would have learned their lesson by this time, but Lamar Odom wanted to impress his Kardashious wife so badly that he almost lost her to The Man, 84-35:



Finally, the last challenger put up by Jimmy Kimmel was Carmelo Anthony.  The result was predictable, with Ricardo winning the match 72-38.  The comedian, bless his heart, had something up his sleeve though, and rewarded the unsuspecting Ricardo a beautiful red Ford Mustang.  Watch:



But MuQ, I hope you noticed that I placed the word Filipinos found in my very first paragraph in quotation marks.  What was my reason for that?

Well, very simple really: Despite Philippine Star's heart-warming news article dated January 19, 2011, and entitled "Fil-Am busboy outshoots Kobe," and many other Filipino articles and blogs similarly claiming the kababayan connection with him, the truth is, Ricardo is actually not Filipino. 

You heard it right here, MuQ: Ricardo is named like an ordinary Filipino and he looks like an ordinary Filipino, so many Filipinos assumed he's Filipino.  Can't blame them because the story is just such a feel-good, made-for-TV story.  But the guy is actually Mexican! 

Yes, according to Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated, Ricardo left Mexico City and migrated to the US about 20 years ago.

But just to make sure, I contacted Ricardo's manager, AJ Sacher, to confirm.  AJ's response?  "He's whatever you want him to be. :0"

Given AJ's response and since I'm The Filipino, I officially declare Ricardo "Honorary Filipino" on this blog.  And if anybody's got a problem with that, they know how to reach me.

Now, where are we?  Oh, right, the keys to success. 

MuQ, even if you have the genes, even if you put in all the hard work, you still need...

The third key: Luck.

Yes, MuQ: Luck is key.  Because to succeed, you need the stars to align for you; you need the gods to smile at you; you need divine intervention.

Most especially if you're going against priests!

That's what happened to Dr. A. Gabriel Esteban, who was appointed last January 11 as President of Seton Hall University, the oldest diocesan university in the United States.

Dr. Esteban has the genes: You see, both his parents were educators.  And before you get me wrong, let me tell you without equivocation that gleaning from Dr. Esteban's impressive credentials, I know he has also put in a lot of hard work.  After all, he had served a number of institutions prior to Seton Hall with distinction; he had provided exemplary leadership as university provost; and he had attended Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education as well as completed the Japan Management Program at the Japan-America Institute for Management Science.  He also holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Management at the UC Irvine, an M.S. in Japanese Business Studies from Chaminade University in Honolulu, and an M.B.A. and B.S. in Mathematics from the University of the Philippines.

Where's the divine intervention?

According to the New York Times, last spring, the university was looking for a new president and it had named two finalists for the job, both of whom were Catholic priests in keeping with the university's bylaws.  But for some unexplained and miraculous reason, both priests withdrew from consideration, forcing the search to start over.

Now what? 

Well, at the time, Dr. Esteban was the interim president and he impressed officials of the university so much that the university's Board of Regents unanimously voted to appoint him President following a resolution passed by the university's Board of Trustees creating an exception in his favor.

(Source: NY Times.)

Didn't I say gods have to smile at you?

And if you're a skeptic, let me assure you, Dr. Esteban's accomplishment is nothing to sneeze at.  According to Wikipedia:

Seton Hall is made up of nine different schools and colleges with an undergraduate enrollment of about 5,200 students and a graduate enrollment of about 4,500. Its School of Law, which is ranked by US News & World Report as one of the top 100 law schools in the nation, has an enrollment of about 1,200 students. For 2009, BusinessWeek's "Colleges with the Biggest Returns" ranked Seton Hall among the top 50 universities in the nation that open doors to the highest salaries. Seton Hall's Stillman School of Business is ranked 56 out of the top 100 undergraduate business schools and #1 in the state of New Jersey according to BusinessWeek.

Since its founding in 1856, the university has produced numerous heads of major businesses and institutions, professional athletes, members of the US Congress, and countless other well-known personalities and politicians, including the current New Jersey governor, Gov. Chris Christie, who is believed to be a possible candidate for the Republican presidential primary next year. 

So there you go, MuQ -- the keys to success: Genes, hard work and luck.  And since the second key is the only one you can really control of the three, you better work your fanny off to succeed in L-I-F-E!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to practice my shooting for Pop-a-Shot.

Got a question for The Filipino?  Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.

To chew or not to Chua? To know or not to Nora?

Dear Filipino,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on various subjects and issues you discuss courageously in your blog.  I have shared your posts with some of my friends.  Those who have seen them have been impressed, and your readership I’m pretty sure has increased.  (You may want to start soliciting for advertisers – you deserve some income from this.) 

Anyway, I want to share my thoughts with you on some subjects you broached in your blog, and towards the end, ask you another "profound and complicated question."

Reading and chewing on your articles on Amy Chua have caused me mixed emotions and feelings – disgust and hatred, bordering on admiration and awe.  I have never heard of her previously, but Wikipedia has provided me enough general background about her, and it's quite impressive.  She graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, worked as a corporate law associate, taught at Duke Law School, and currently is a distinguished professor of law at Yale Law School – all these perhaps a product of her own intellect and extreme conditioning from her Chinese Filipino parents.

Since she takes her maiden name, not unlike many Western professional women, and since she seems to be into parenting and perhaps not into women’s liberation, I am not sure I know how to address her properly.  Should it be "Miss Chua" -- but she’s not single?  Or "Mrs. Chua" -- but she is not her mother?  Or "Ms. Chua" -- but she may resent that?  Therefore, I have decided to just address her as Chua.  Tells you what I know about proper etiquette in addressing women; with men, it's simpler -- just call them "Mister."

On the Vengeful Majority

As much as I like to read, mostly mysteries, spy stories, lawyer stories, some classics and literature, some autobiographies, some histories, I have never read any of Chua’s books.  And she had written 3 books:  the first book is World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability; the second book is Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Fall; and finally Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, which is currently causing a lot of controversies due to its extreme parenting method, its comparison to Western and other parenting methods, and Chua’s claim that Chinese parenting method is superior to others.  Guess these books did not belong to my list of desired topics and stories, fiction or otherwise.

Through your blog, I was able to read her essay on “Vengeful Majorities,” apparently with excerpts from her World on Fire book.  Some say this essay has been sensationalized to gain readership for her book and therefore increase its profitability – just like any other effort or action by any company or corporation with the bottom line being dollars and cents.  My money will probably not be used to buy her books, though I heard most parts of the books were intellectually written and show her knowledge of globalization and the law.

As I read that essay, I was totally shocked when she wrote very early in the essay in regards to her aunt’s murder: “For the Chinese, luck is a moral attribute, and a lucky person would never be murdered.  Like having a birth defect, or marrying a Filipino, being murdered is shameful.”  I was appalled and totally surprised by this statement and was hoping she was only being satirical and that she would recant it later.  But no such ‘luck,’ and as a matter of fact, Chua seemed to have justified the killing by saying: “But poverty by itself does not make people kill.  To poverty must be added indignity, hopelessness and grievance.”  Nothing can justify a killing, neither can one justify rudeness.

She repeated many times how her family, which belonged to the market-dominant minority in the Philippines, lived in a very exclusive, all-Chinese, luxurious, gated and guarded enclave, walled off from the Filipino masses.  And how they have bank accounts in various places in the US and had safety deposit boxes full of gold bars.  (I hope they reported their income, both foreign and local, to the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue.)  But then she related about her aunt stuffing her Gucci purse with free packets of ketchup when they ate at McDonald’s – sounds like petty thievery to me at a place I would never guess they dined.
 
Also, I don’t understand why her family’s splendid hacienda-style house in Manila in this exclusive Chinese enclave has servants' quarters where the poor, ignorant, ethnic Filipino servants sleep on a dirt floor.  When I was growing up in the Philippines, we were not rich, not even remotely close to the Chua’s wealth, but we also had some helpers and they were provided with decent accommodations and, God forbid, they never slept on the dirt floor, not that we had any.  But I digress, and rightfully so, since I seem to have noticed too many inconsistencies on her story.  Considering how intelligent Chua is, I don’t understand the inconsistencies.  Maybe I misunderstood, or perhaps I’m just getting petty. 

But can one blame my pettiness if somebody compares being married to your compatriot similar to having a birth defect?  Which reminds me how beautiful Filipinos are, of course for both sexes.  Look at how many Filipinas have been Miss Universe -- two in the last count, and an additional five Miss Philippines have been semifinalists.  How many of Chua’s Chinese were Miss Universe?  None that I know of, not even as semifinalists -- but that’s of course a cruel thing to say since I know a lot of pretty Chinese women and good-hearted Chinese Filipinos.

On The Tiger Mother

And then finally, here is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, purporting how Chua’s Chinese method of parenting is superior to the Western method and, of course, to all other Asian countries.  Chua may be too smart to know that she may not be right the way she’s raising her children.  Reminds me of a Machiavellian pragmatism -- "the end justifies the means" -- though I don’t think I agree with it.  I cringed when her dad told her "to not ever disgrace him ever again" after she got only second prize in a national history competition, but she seemed to have justified that too.  She said she knew her father loved her and that he just wanted her to try her very best since he knew she was the best.  Imagine being the best among 6.8 billion people in the world: That’s such a prestigious honor, but really scary and so stressful – almost like Manny Pacquiao (yes, Chua, can you believe Pacquiao is an ethnic Filipino boxer?) being the greatest fighter ever in this world.

How does one maintain to be the best the world?  I’m realistic and I know I will never know.  I just want to be the best I can be.  But Chua certainly has a different outlook in life than most of us mortals.  That’s her family’s life philosophy and she certainly has the inalienable right to defend it – but then again it is her family and I’m glad not mine.  Life is too short to try to achieve perfection all the time – we need to aim for it but we should enjoy the trip.

On Our Filipino Way of Parenting

Briefly, allow me to tell you my own experience in raising two children here in America.  Like a lot of young engineers in the late 1960s, I immigrated to the US, met my future wife, got married, finished an advanced degree, and worked for a major US corporation.  We were blessed with a girl and a boy, and since we did not have extended family and since my new job moved us to a location where there was only one other Filipino family in town, we were left on our own to find the right methodology in parenting. 

Of course, we were neither experts nor very educated in parenting, but we used some of the lessons we learned from our own parents, picked up the good, and downplayed the ones we were not enthusiastic about.  Raising kids in America was more of a challenge relative to raising children in the old country.  This was a different culture and we did not have the presence of lots of relatives to provide some guidance and help.  What we tried to instill to our children was to do the best they could without threat of punishment.  We were not into extremism.  I was more like a "be happy and enjoy" guy and still am, although my wife was a little stricter but reasonable.  The way we raised our kids was to let them get into activities they liked, and we found out they excelled on things they wanted to do. Luckily, they were good kids and conscientious students too.  They also made mistakes along the way, but that was part of growing up and quite natural – and we were there to support them when they did, providing them with unconditional love, and just hoping that they would learn from their mistakes.

The girl excelled in dancing, gymnastics and piano, with no coercion from us but lots of support.  She was also an "A" student from the early stages of learning, garnered a BS in Sociology, then an MS in Medical Sciences, an MD degree, a residency, and finally a fellowship on her specialization – all at prestigious universities and institutions.  She is now a specialist surgeon in her field of expertise. 

The boy was a bit of a late bloomer, but also became an "A" student in high school through hard work.  He studied piano and saxophone but drifted to sports as he grew up.  He finished a BSME and an MBA degree also at prestigious universities, and now has a responsible job in a private corporation.  He married his college sweetheart who is also a lawyer and works for the federal government.  They have two little boys, our only two grandchildren – our pride and joy.

Our goals in raising our children were similar to those of Chua’s Chinese parents, but our approach was quite different.  Of course, we tried to instill in the kids when they were growing up to work to the best of their abilities.  Most of all, we thought we have to show that we love and will always support them and that was the most important thing in our lives and none of this ‘Chua’s Chinese disgrace’ nonsense.  In addition, since our ancestry came from a different culture and country, I urged them to be better than their American friends so they can feel equal with them (this was my own hang-up – I always knew I was just as good if not better than anybody else).  I’m not sure they understood that, but I know they are now doing well in their chosen professions and lives.

On The Philippine Economy

One has to remember that the United States really helped rebuild Japan after defeating it in World War II, while the Philippines which was an ally was not given the same treatment.  Despite this, the Philippines had the highest literacy rate in Southeast Asia during the mid-to-late 20th century.  It had an economy second only to Japan, ahead of Singapore and much better than South Korea and other neighboring countries.   It had prestigious universities where foreigners attended, taking advantage of their programs which could compete with the best of the best.  (Chua's essay reminded me of some Chinese classmates at the University of the Philippines; they did not speak Tagalog and they probably lived in the same enclave where the Chuas lived.  And though they were good students, they were not in the high percentile of our class.  I do digress again, but I’m just trying to show those critical intellectual ingrates that Filipinos can compete with anyone given the opportunity.)

In any case, as cronyism and corruption became rampant in the Philippines, perhaps fueled by briberies from the market-dominant minority to which Chua's Chinese family belong, the Philippine economy was fleeced bone-dry and the country fell to the bottom of the economic ladder in the region.  (By the way, another important point about the poor ethnic Filipinos that Chua always and relentlessly alluded to in her writings: Don't these impoverished people provide the clientele for the Chua companies to keep them reaping all those profits which make them market dominant or shamelessly rich?)

While things are beginning to change again with Pres. Aquino, all we can really do is just try to help in any way we can, pray, and hope fervently that the country will indeed recover and be what it once was -- and perhaps even better.  And I hope the market-dominant Chinese Filipinos will also do their part.

Finally: My Profound and Complicated Question

You know, I also just want to ask: Do you personally know, and are you really friends with, Nora Aunor?  :-)

Best regards to The Filipina and your family,

Pinoy na Inhenyerong Suya Sa Tsinitang Off-putting (aka "PISST OFF")

Dear PISST OFF,

(Source: Video48)

Thank you for your support for this blog and your comments.  Wow -- Chua must have rankled you real bad to write the above. ;-)

But to answer your question, of course, I know who Nora Aunor is!  I mean, who doesn't, right?  A true morena and Bicolana, she is an uragon actress who bested dragon ladies by topping the Ten Best Asian Actresses of the Decade poll for the 2010 Green Planet Movie Awards which was held in Los Angeles, California.  The other 9 Asian actresses who also made it to the elite list include Zhang Ziyi (China), Gong Li (China), Maggie Cheung (China), Nae Yuki (Japan), Angelica Lee (China), Hye-Soo Kim (Korea), Yaqing Jin (China), Yoon-jin Kim (Korea), and Rinko Kikuchi (Japan).

And you know what too?  Because she has made my mother and aunts very happy as her fans with her remarkable decades-long acting (and singing) career, I consider her a friend.  And until she unfriends me on Facebook, I'll proudly trumpet to the world that I'm her friend, too -- regardless if that profile of hers on FB is the real Nora or not. ;-)

Got a question for The Filipino?  Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.

Is Gretchen Barretto really The Filipino's friend?

Dear Filipino,

I just want to say that I am really enjoying reading some of your posts and most of the time I am laughing my ass off.  But are you really friends with Gretchen Barreto?  Dannnnggg!

Keep up your good work, my friend!

Ray G.

Dear Ray,

Thanks for the luv, kaibigan!  Thanks for the luv!

Now, the topic of your question -- i.e., my friendship with famous Philippine actress Gretchen Barretto -- is a profound and complicated one.  So in order to answer it, I first broke it down into its logical components: whether we can be friends, whether she's qualified to be my friend, whether we chose to be friends, and whether we can remain friends. 

Then, I sought the wise counsel of the learned from across the globe and throughout human history.  I looked at the "rules" they have laid down on the issue and I "applied" it to myself vis-a-vis my friendship with Gretchen -- the friendship which you now question.

So let's look at these rules one by one.

First Rule: The wise and great Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 BC) advised us:

"Have no friends not equal to yourself."

Application of the Rule:  According to my mother, I'm really, really good-looking.  People, of course, say Gretchen is very, very beautiful.  In my book, my mother's opinion on this issue carries the same weight as all others.'  So I guess, it's fair to say that Gretchen is my equal, right?  In other words, she can be my friend.

Second Rule: For his part, the American poet, essayist and leading figure of the Transcendentalist movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), opined:

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."

Application of the Rule: With Gretchen, I reckon we can take the Emersonian advice literally, don't you think?  I mean, hey, she's Nature's beautiful creation, right?  If so, then she  qualifies to be my friend.

Third Rule: Then, the French poet extraordinaire, Jacques Delille (1738-1813), commanded us:

"Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends."

Application of the Rule: Now, I think this mandate is the hidden genius behind the idea of Facebook which the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is single and is only 26, has impressively figured out early on in his life.  I mean, it's really brilliant because what Delille is saying is this: I may have no say who gets to be my mother-in-law, but I get to choose who I want as my friends.  I chose Gretchen so I requested to be her friend on Facebook; irresistibly drawn to my online charm, she accepted.  Ergo: we're friends because we chose to be friends.

Fourth Rule: Here's the tough part: The British poet and leading figure in Romanticism, the great Lord Byron (1788-1824), required thusly:

"Friendship is love without his wings."

Application of the Rule:  Like Aristotle before him, Lord Byron was really comparing friendship with romantic love when he said that.  And what he really meant is this: That while friendship is usually between people of the same sex, a friendly relationship between a man and a woman is also fine. However, if one party has unrequited sexual feelings towards the other, it can cause the withdrawal of the desired party from the relationship, and friendship will therefore disintegrate because of that.

What this means is that as long as Gretchen does not fall in love or exhibit any sort of carnal desire towards yours truly, we can remain friends; if she does, I'm out.  In other words, the burden really is on her.

Now, admittedly, it's going to be a heavy burden for her to bear, but I'd like to think it's doable.

Got a question for The Filipino?  Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.

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Who's hotter: Shalani Soledad or Liz Uy?

Dear Filipino,

I know P-Noy has moved on, but who would have made a better Philippine First Lady: Shalani Soledad or Liz Uy?  Heck, let's be blunt about it: who is hotter? ;-)

Mr. GreenGH

Dear Mr. GreenGH,

You're a vile one, Mr. GreenGH -- you have termites in your smile!  :-)

But in order to answer your question, I turned to experts.

According to Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist from London School of Economics, the aphorism that "beauty [or hotness to use your term] is in the eye of the beholder" has already been scientifically proven wrong.  Kanazawa points out that there are in fact three main features that characterize beautiful faces:

(1) the geometric feature of bilateral symmetry -- i.e., the more symmetrical faces are more attractive;

(2) the mathematical feature of averageness -- i.e., faces with features closer to the population average are more attractive than those with extreme ones; 

(3) and the biological concept of secondary sexual characteristics -- which, unlike the first two, differ for the sexes.  In the case of women, features considered to be attractive are indicators of high levels of estrogen (e.g., large eyes, fuller lips, larger foreheads, and smaller chins).

Kanazawa further contends that beauty is in fact like height or weight: It is quantifiable and objective, and therefore culturally universal and innate -- i.e., "we are born with it" -- as shown by studies in the mid-1980s involving babies, and its recent version involving newborns less than one week old who've shown significantly greater preference for faces that adults judge to be attractive (see also Rubenstein et al.'s 1999 APA study, "Infant Preferences for Attractive Faces: A Cognitive Explanation).

Having access to three small children, The Filipino decided to conduct his own small homespun experiment. 

The Experiment

The subjects are H, C and J.  H is 3, C is 5 and J is 7 years old.  H and J are males; C is female.  They are of Filipino descent and close relatives.

To control for peer pressure, the subjects, over three rounds of voting, were individually and successively (from youngest to oldest) shown three sets of pictures of Shalani and Liz, as follows:


Figure 1



Figure 2



Figure 3

To control for the impact of smiles, for the first round of voting, the pictures shown on Figure 1 were chosen because the two ladies are both seen smiling. 

To control for the impact of the color yellow dominant in Shalani's picture in the first round, the pictures in Figure 2 were then chosen for the second round because this time, it's Liz who's wearing yellow.  For this round, the presentation of the ladies' pictures were also reversed to control for "order of presentation" bias.  While, admittedly, there are some differences in focus and background which can affect choice, the pictures were deemed comparable enough because the two ladies this time are seen not smiling.

Note that the two sets of pictures seen on Figures 1 and 2 were placed side by side after the fact; the subjects were not shown the pictures this way but one at a time.  However, for the last round of voting, The Filipino lucked out and found online what's shown on Figure 3, in which both ladies' pictures have been previously placed side by side by someone else.  Figure 3 is also interesting because the ladies are both shown glamorously, fully made up, almost flawless, and to The Filipino at least, look totally different (as they have been Photoshopped to the max -- to everyone's detriment, one might add).

It is worth mentioning also that last night was the very first time the subjects were seeing the two ex-potential First Ladies because the subjects' parents do not subscribe to any Filipino TV cable channels or watch Filipino news on TV with them.  This means that the subjects have no information or prior interaction or experience relating to the ladies' "personality", talent, work, voice or other appealing characteristic outside the pictures shown them, any single one of which can influence their choice.

The Results

For the first round of voting, all three subjects unanimously voted for Liz.

For the second round of voting, again, all three subjects unanimously voted for Liz.

For the third round of voting, however, the female subject, C, went with Shalani, but the male subjects stuck with Liz.

Summarizing the results, 8 of 9 votes cast by the subjects were for Liz and only 1 of 9 was for Shalani.

But why Liz? 

The mother of one of the subjects posits a theory: The subjects chose Liz because their mothers bear a closer resemblance to her rounder face.

The Contradiction

In an online poll conducted by SinoMasMaganda.com, 70% of 1,642 votes were cast in favor of Shalani.  What does this mean? 

If Kanazawa is to be believed (his theories and studies are actually very controversial), the subjects' choice should have been more aligned with the online poll.  They are not.  Of course, one can argue, among others, that the experiment's subject pool is very limited while the online poll participants were influenced by other factors which have a bearing on one's definition of beauty or "hotness."  But still!

Who does The Filipino like better?

Cue the drum roll...

Okay, okay, before I reveal my choice, one caveat.

First, I must admit that while Kanazawa may be on to something with his theory, "beauty" is still a mental or intellectual thing for most, including me.  By mental, I mean that in cases where I have two almost comparably beautiful choices, I go for the smarter one or the one I think I can spend years and years talking to, even if this is strictly not about "hotness."  (That's why I would have loved to see Jill Biden as the US First Lady -- she is very beautiful and has a PhD to boot -- even though I did not really support Joe.)

In the Liz v. Shalani debate, both are beautiful but I don't know who is smarter or more "interesting" as a person.  If pure beauty is the test, maybe (just maybe) Shalani has the edge...

However...

I know I can't live with somebody like Shalani and I would have hated seeing her as Philippines' First Lady. 

Why? 

Because she actually agreed to be the TV co-host of a cockroach -- that's why! 

Got a question for The Filipino?  Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.

Pacquiao: Is he the best boxer of all time?

Dear Filipino,

Do you think Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer that ever lived?

Boxing Fan

Dear Boxing Fan,

I think he is, but admittedly, there are several issues with my answer.

One: I'm biased, and I'm not even a boxing historian.

Two: It's difficult to compare boxers (a) from different weight classes, (b) from different eras, and (c) who faced different opponents.

Three: The standards are fuzzy. What should we look at? Stats? Ability to knock out opponents? Speed? Power? Flair inside the ring? Fighting style? Ability to generate excitement? Ability to handle high pressure? Length of reign at the top? Conduct outside the ring? (What about mercifulness and compassion, as Pacquiao has shown when he pulled his punches in the last rounds against a totally beaten Margarito?)

There are two clips which can help me make my case for Pacquiao. Watch them and decide for yourself.

First: Here, again, is the CBS 60 Minutes feature on Pacquiao. But note that this was shown about a week before his latest fight for which he won his 8th title in 8 weight divisions (against Margarito who had a 4.5-inch height advantage and almost 17 pounds weight advantage).



Second: Here's a YouTube clip I found with some highlights of his past fights.



Got a question for The Filipino? Email him now at askthepinoy@gmail.com.