This is about BBC's Harry & Paul Episode 4 Part 1.

I read this morning from Philippine Daily Inquirer that Akbayan partylist Representative Risa Hontiveros is asking our DFA in Manila to file a complaint against BBC for a skit shown on 'Harry and Paul' Sept 26 show featuring a gyrating Filipina maid. Hontiveros called it a 'sickening joke', 'revolting...disgusting...insensitive and racist attempt to satirize a scene of exploitation'.

Curious, I clicked YouTube for the link, and boy oh boy, were there a lot of reactions coming from Filipinos.

And boy oh boy, the actress really looked like a Filipina. And she is indeed gyrating.

And the emotions of the nationalist Filipinos are strummed once again.

British's brand of comedy

The British have a very different type of comedy. I remember watching (and secretly enjoying) Little Britain. And there was one episode where they spoofed a Thai mail-order bride (or was the character Chinese?). It was played by David Walliams that made it the more funnier (more? funnier?). The show also received flaks from sensitive audiences for mocking the disabled, poor, elderly, gay or fat.

Satirical. I think that's how you call British's brand of comedy. And irreverent, highly irreverent.

Filipino's comedy

We laugh at everything. Even when the prices are soaring high and jobs are scarce, Filipinos still love to laugh. At 12 noon every weekdays, we would either be glued over Kapuso's Eat Bulaga or Kapamilya's Wowowee. In Wowowee, we laugh not at the joke of Willy Revillame but at the various characters who join their games: balut vendors, firemen, OFW, gays, etc. If I remember it right, I think that only issue raised on Wowowee's program is the mendicancy issue. No one has raised an alarm on how they poke fun at gay and old people (and sometimes even children).

Our own brand of comedy shows utmost reverence. Although we spoof popular Filipinos (past and present, dead or alive), the way it is presented is somewhat sanitized. We are inherently sensitive (pikon) and when angered, we are known to do terrible things: send someone to jail, hospital or to the grave. Careful and afraid, that’s what we are.

My opinion: We are a people of contradictions

We have millions of OFWs around the world and the rest of the Philippines wanted to leave the country. Why? Because our politicians are busy bickering, politicking and stealing our hard-earned monies.

We elect a president who we never support. We are so self-righteous that one negative write-up in the newspaper will send us to the streets demanding a snap election.

We send out maids abroad unprotected (and we'd even issue them tampered passports just so they would meet the age limit) and then we cry foul if something happens to them.

We react to the maltreatment of OFW’s but we are indifferent to our poor kababayans in the Philippines. (When was the last time we gave donations to any charitable institution in the Philippines?).

Bottomline

So do I think that Hontiveros’ claim is valid? Rightful, yes. Someone has to say ‘foul’ over Harry and Paul’s episode (although I don’t think BBC will apologize for that) just so to show that we are sensitive to issues that involve our fellow Filipinos.

And then what? Nothing. No matter how popular the furor is, just like the other stories that came before this, we will all soon forget that it ever existed.

In the meantime, I hope that our politicians would (for the nth time) look at the plight of OFW’s abroad especially the Filipino housemaids in the Middle East. I say: if we can have schools for UK caregivers and Japan entertainers, why can’t we have a decent school for Mideast help?. Imagine this: who will mistreat someone who speaks, writes and reads Arabic and knows the laws and her rights as a maid? Nobody!

I believe we should educate our OFW maids to protect them from maltreatment. When I say education, I mean comprehensive study of the Arabic language (reading and writing), Arabic laws, culture, etc. That would be the best protection we can offer our fellow Filipinos.