Though the issue on the Desperate Housewives’ slur about medical schools in the Philippines is now a week old, let me share some of my thoughts.
What could have “inspired” the writers of the show to use the Philippines as a point of reference with regard to inferior medical schools?
I don’t believe the DH writers just picked at random - among the more than a hundred nations all over the globe - the Philippines to represent such mediocrity in the medical field. There must be some reasons that could have influenced their judgment of this country as “boasting” of poor educational standards in medicine.
- Perhaps the diploma mills that abound in Recto Avenue - sardonically called Recto University - is one reason.
- Or it could be the leakage scandal in the 2006 Nursing board exams.
- Or the fact that a doctor who graduated from the Philippines, before gaining real recognition in his field of specialization, has to go abroad first, to the United States in particular, to seek further studies. Why can’t he attain such prestige in his profession from his own country? And if I may digress a little - note also the truth that many of us have the habit of scrutinizing diplomas hung in a doctor’s clinic while waiting for our turn to be called inside the examination/consultation room. Is it not that we get impressed and feel assured when we see diplomas and fellowship certificates which bear names of US or European hospitals and schools of medicine - as if our precious lives depended on them? Alas, this only affirms our own lack of faith on our locally produced medical practitioners.
Those are only three of the possible reasons. There could be more and you may want to share them here.
Before we indignantly jumped from our seats over this DH matter, it could have been more sensible if we paused for a while and pondered a bit. For all we know, we can use some lesson or insight from such deriding remark that can steer us to make rooms for the improvement of our medical school systems.
As is the usual case, reality bites. We are sensitive where it hurts most. We are sensitive where we are weak. We are sensitive of criticism when we know there is some truth to it.
But of course, despite my take on this bloated subject, I do respect the hurt reaction of the community of Filipino doctors here and abroad. And that of the Filipino race.
Oct
09
Filed under: Education
Previously, I had a thought that doctors coming from the Philippines are well-regarded in other countries, especially in the States. But all this had changed. Maybe the fact that many nurses in America today are in fact educated as doctors first. This perhaps gives the idea why the medical education here is not that good. There was even that incident in Texas were two Filipino nurses acted as doctors in one case in a hospital just because they were really doctors first, and nurses second, and they were caught doing what nurses should have been doing.
Maybe, our government should look into this and not just protest without reason.
You’re right, Major Tom - looking into the matter first before protesting is more sound and reasonable.
The problem with us sometimes is that we over act and over react. Paranoid? Onion skinned? We should learn to look at ourselves in the mirror first before saying a word, for we might not know it - there may be some truth to what is said about us.
I really do not care about the issue. I know how good the filipino doctors are andyway.
PS you are back.
Hi, Richmond. Of course, for sure - having been with doctors for some years now, you know fairly well how our doctors really fare.
Ay, yes, I’m back - ready to spread my virus again! hehehe.
this is probably the most intelligent post i’ve read about this issue.
i share the same sentiment about the probable reasons. but singling out the Philippines caused the reaction, and the over reaction as well. i doubt if it is only in the Philippines where irregularities happen. and being a country where there are intelligent and noted people in the field, the mention was hurting, or should i say unnecessary.
Let the Flips make noise as much as they want on this issue that touched their egos. It does come to a surprise why they can’t take a joke when Flips have the propensity to make jokes on just about anything, anyone at the wrong time and place. They make a hell a lot of jokes on their convicted former president. However, they can’t take it if they’re at the receiving end of jokes.
Comedy abound in the Philippines. The Phil. Congress and Senate are sitcoms. They elect ignorant actors and teen-agers to become congressmen and senators. A former president who was convicted of corruption and plunder makes a big deal of his being a dropout when he was in power - giving a rise in the number of dropouts in Phil. universities and actors vying for political offices.
There are so many aspects quite amazing about Flips. Their brouhaha on DH is just one.
Hi, Liz. Thanks. Just voicing out my thoughts.
Bingskee, the Philippines was singled out maybe because of our prominence in the US - with quite a number of Filipino medical practitioners - doctors and nurses living and working there.
I agree, it’s hurting. But then we must also look into the reason, not just our emotion.
You said it, Genghis2510, and points well taken.
But I hope you don’t mind if I request that you spell out Flips into Filipinos. It doesn’t read good.
Ah, not being onion skinned though. It just doesn’t look good on the eyes. Thanks!
I am suspecting that one of the DH scriptwriters ex gf was pinay,lol
Anyways, I don’t really think that toopid line of Susan Myers will negatively affect to our medical Professionals.It’s only a tv show for bored housewives.
Cheh, yes, it’s indeed a ‘toopid’ line attempting to be comic, but you’ll be surprised at how angry even our government officials here are - that someone even suggested demanding the TV network to give scholarship funds to Filipino medical studes to mend the damage daw.
Truth is, the blame should go to the government for failing to stamp out those diploma mills along Recto Ave. Where in the world can you find counterfeiters openly displaying their samples for everyone to see? Just try walking along that stretch of Recto and you’ll be approached by sleazy-looking individuals offering their counterfeiting services. Would you believe they can even fake a Harvard diploma? And it’s not just diplomas btw, they even fake driver’s licenses and social security cards. That’s one reason why banks these days are wary of these two cards being presented as identification…
And the government had the gall to write a protest…
I’ve been following all the posts and threads on this topic for the last 2 weeks and I have refused to make any comments. Most of them were written out of emotion and hurt feelings. Although some were made with honest and studied thoughts, the commenters were sometimes bordering on the nutty and were sighting racial indignation and some other nonsense. Nakakapikon na rin yung iba.
I think your post really hit the nail squarely on the head. I agree with you that it’s about time that the higher ups, whoever they are, look into the reasons behind this. Not on a “racial” point of view.
Know what, Sngl - when my son graduated from UP in 2004, I was wondering why it was taking the school forever to finish their diplomas.
Yun pala, according to my son - kaya natatagalan, kasi the diplomas daw are printed at Bangko Sentral - to make sure they can not be counterfeited, or if ever - the original can be detected from the counterfeit ones because the paper used is the same paper used in printing bills.
I remember when some members of the Fil-Am community lambasted Howard Stern for telling the whole world that Filipinos eat dogs. I believe that they even went to the extent of filing a defamation suit against that shock jock.
Anyway, I admire Marc Cherry, writer and creator of DH, for having developed a twisted take on life in an American suburbia, but that was all DH is about — a funny twisted sitcom.
Medical schools abound in Central America and the Caribbean in which many American students go to when rejected by the medical schools in the States. And the Filipino community is justified for crying foul. Nonetheless, I doubt it very much if the writing team meant it as a malicious racial slur when they wrote that line (for that particular character to utter) about the medical school in the Philippines.
However, what I am most concerned about are the Filipino surgeons and anesthesiologists I’ve met in the States who are addicted to mahjong and would play hours on end without any sleep and then perform major operations the following morning.
Also, the Filipinos in the States ought to “unite” more and form a formidable political power base so as to advance the general interests of the Filipinos as a whole in the more appropriate arena — Washington.
I am not a fan of Desperate Housewives but I heard about this issue; actually, they should not have assumed that all doctors and nurses educated in the Philippines are bad or the medical schools are not up to par with theirs. Every country has a different system when educating their students. Maybe I’m not making sense out of this but perhaps people are looking at Asians in a very derogatory perspective?!
Like you, I never made any comments on any of the threads discussing this DH issue, Kongkong. But I felt I just need to say my own piece, hence, this entry.
Kasi when we get offended, we immediately want to ambush the attacker, di ba? But shouldn’t we think first - why we are being attacked?
Besides, DH is just a show, for God’s sake.
Hi, Eric!
What is that oral defamation suit for? Don’t the members of the Fil-Am community know that Filipinos really eat dog meat?
Kaya nga, e - DH is just a show! But if that racial slur was done, say - in US Congress, ah, that’s another story. I will be the first one to cry foul!
Gosh, that’s scary - Filipino surgeons and anesthesiologists playing mahjong overnight and performing major surgeries the next morning!
True, Kyels. Each country has its a different system of education that is why we have these international licensure examinations for professionals to make sure they come up to the standards of the country where they intend to work.
“but perhaps people are looking at Asians in a very derogatory perspective?!”
I believe each race is guilty of having derogatory perspective of other races. Whites call those not of their kind as “colored”. Colored people call the whites ‘yankees’ in offensive contexts. The Spaniards used to refer to Filipinos as lazy, Filipinos called the Japanese ’sakang’ or bow legged… and so on.
And no matter how much the global community strive to be one and united, I think it’s not easy to truly get rid of racism.
Hi Rhodora, same sentiments here. As I’ve shared in other blogs, am not affected though am DH regular viewer. We have the same reasons, the Recto diploma mills, the nursing board exam’s scandal, etc…Even my hubby’s siblings in the States who are in the same profession are just laughing it off. No big deal really…
Hi, Rowena! Kaya nga - no big deal talaga. I just wonder why people are making a big fuss out of it, even those in Congress. Hay naku.
Guilty! Of scrutinizing diplomas hanging on medical clinic walls. Guilty of saying: ‘wow, up grad pala si doc.’
(Sometimes) guilty too of discriminating against races. of stereotyping. of pigeonholing people.
Guilty as charged.
So how do i indict others?
Ay, Anna, don’t worry - I also tend to be that way sometimes. Di maiwasan minsan di ba? I think it’s a natural tendency to stereotype.