Don't Judge a Book by its Cover: June 16

Through the Eyes of a Foreigner

A column by Andrew Engel

Don’t judge a book by its cover

I often wonder if foreigners living in or visiting Davao get it?

Perhaps my friends think that of me.

It is with trepiation that I write this first column for the Times, because if I can be critical of some things I hear from foreigners, whose to say I’m not as bad.

It is not false modesty on my part, I prefer to think of it as being realistic about subjective opinions. So it’s best I tread carefully as I share some of my experiences as a foreigner living in Davao.

Before we go any further, you should know that my perspective is exactly that, of a foreigner. Not an expatriate, “a person who lives outside their native country.”  That word fails to catch sufficiently my meaning.  Rather I am an alien, an outsider.  I shall expand on that in what follows.

Secondly, as individuals we all tend to see things differenly, the whole ‘it’s in the eye of the beholder’ argument.  And there is genuine human value in this inate condition of the human species.  We are not programed to think exactly the same thoughts. It makes us special, unique  and it gives us variety, but it does not come without risks.

While it can enlighten, it can also devide.  At its worst it can lead to lethal confrontation.

I’ve discussed the concept of seeing Davao through the eyes of a foreigner with many of my Filipino family and friends.

The basic premise of these conversations has been that no matter how long I live in the Philippines and I first came to the Islands in 1973, I will never truely comprehend what it is to be a Filipino.

That means I struggle to understand fully the social, economic and political structures at work, but more particularly, the cultural imperatives that drive the processes involved.

On the flip side, I have argued that a Filipino will encounter similar difficulties in any foreign land.

How then does one assimilate, understand and answer the myriad of questions that the eyes and senses demand  as daily life unfolds for a foreigner in this land?

The answer is you don’t.

What’s more you never will unless you are an exceptional human!  It is true that you may have some insights and some things will make sense, but others will remain shrouded in a mist of uncertainty.  For a majority of the time you will be left with questions unanswered.

Counter-intuitively not knowing can be a significant advantage.  It opens the mind to others and their ideas, so I don’t intend to suggest it is totally negative situation.  Rather that there are limitations on ones ability to fully  “get it” and we should all be aware that there are boundries .

A healthy degree of self-doubt, coupled with a high degree of respect towards a culture that bears few earmarks of one’s own upbringing is as good a starting point as any.

I don’t believe that is always the case with foreigners.  While it may not be intentionally unkind, many foreigners are critical of much they see here in the Philippines after dispensing with a degree of basic politeness. It can be as a result of curiosity.  Caring can motivate a critical perspective.  It can also be rude, inconsiderate and ill-informed.

Proselytizing views and appearing to be ominficent on matters of worldly and social importance is an insidiuos trap into which a foreigner can fall.  That really doesn’t serve to prosecute any agenda other than one’s own ego.  It is both superficial and banal.

Of course, I would not want to generalise, its far from true of many good people who come here and love the city.

But, I must say that I rarely hear anything from foreigners that I haven’t heard from Filipinos, and the latter usually have a deeper and more complete grasp of the issue.  From the foreigner it is often, though not universally,  a case of stating “the bleeding obvious”, and then saying it again.

When a foreigner laments the behaviour of drivers on the road, does he or she say anything that Filipinos don’t know, or experience, or get exasperated by?  Does an explanation of how it works overseas add anything to the public policy debate underpinning road rules?  Do not the local officials and politicians struggle daily with the problems in search of solutions?

Unless you have experienced poverty here, you are in no position to really comprehend its deadly nature, or how to combat its insidious and pervasive influence. One can have empathy of course, but I have learned that poverty works in ways that I never thought possible. So, take a breath my foreign friends, step back, and relax a little. Don’t be too eager to jump in with both feet.

That is not to say a foreigner can’t or shouldn’t  be critical, or doesn’t have the right to express a view.  However, a foreigner should be circumspect and consider that others more intimately involved might  know better.

Foreigners here who want to have a voice heard need to be willing to look more than superficially and avoid any element of paternalism or worse comments that exude patronising undertones.

Critical commentary should generally be reserved for those who know best, Filipinos. For those who have the right to be critical. The country has had more than its fair share of imperialism

So my advice is, to those few foreign comrades who feel the need to demonstate their superior intelect about matters local when they lack sufficient knowledge: don’t! 

If I were to be blunt, perhaps discourteous, I would use the words of Dennis Miller the American satirist, when addressing the five term Republican Senator Jesse Helm’s constant rantings, “shut up and sit the....down!”