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We.

The poor.

The vermin.

The cockroaches from the slums.

The monkeys from the third world country.

However you may call us, that’s alright. That’s how you see us.

Waking up at 2 am in the morning and drafting this in my head, I asked myself. Are these thoughts worth thinking at this time when I should be snoring? Well I can’t complain. I didn’t force myself to wake up at this time nor did I shove these ideas into my brain cells.

But I really couldn’t sleep. So I kept thinking. I kept thinking even though I know that in the morning, half of what’s in my head will be gone with my dreams.

This issue was long gone, I know and there’s no point in reiterating it but I can’t stop. My mind can’t stop.

We, the vermin from the slums of the third world country, for all I know, never traveled in any part of the world to be great conquistadors. We come to your home lands to be your slaves. We offer ourselves to become your slaves. Haven’t you noticed that?

We, the cockroaches who can go back home and grow bananas, never claimed that we are part of your community. We don’t need to be in; we only come to your community to be your slaves. And slaves were never given rights to belong to the community, am I right? That’s why they are called slaves.

We don’t claim ourselves Singaporeans though I always wondered, Indians are called Indians because they are Indians so how can they be Singaporeans? Just like us, the freakin’ cockroaches, we are Filipinos therefore we are not Singaporeans.

Anyway this issue is over and my reaction is way too late. And hey, haven’t you noticed why the issue was closed at the soonest? Because we kept quiet. We are not born invaders. We are very friendly. And friendship means enduring the pain, sometimes.

We, the undesirable underlings are ingrates. As an underling, how can we be so abusive? Underlings are often abused by the superiors, right? So how can we be so abusive?

Ingrates? I guess we are in your country and the rest of the world to wipe your kid’s ass and so are your elderly’s. (As mentioned too by a blogger Kirsten Hans who as well provided these snapshots). Are we really ingrates? You can’t even take care of your elderly who took care of you till you can walk on your own feet and you call us ingrates?

Well enough of this. As I mentioned, the issue was long gone. I just wanted to write my stuff down before it explodes in my head.

We, the poor people. Vermin. Ingrates. Monkeys. Cockroaches.

We think we are better than Singaporeans and Americans as blogged and reblogged somewhere. And as someone commented:

We the poor have nothing. Sometimes all we have is pride. And pride, you cannot deprive from us.

Pride is what we have inside that keeps us sailing in life. Pride is what drives us to have a better life that’s why half of our nation offer ourselves to be slaves in all the other parts of the world.

Yes we may have been in the slum for quite some time now but we have been slowly rising up.

When did we say we are better than our mighty savior? Isn’t America our Knight in Shining Armour? We are like the fragile little princess up on the tower and America has always been our Prince, our Saviour. So how can we say we are better than them? America is in our face. They have always been.

When did we say we are better than Singaporeans? Whoever said that? Singapore is now the city with the highest cost of living. How can the slums be any better?

We the vermin, the cockroaches and monkeys from the third world country, have you had enough of this redundancy?

Well I am writing not to defend ourselves but to let you read what you wanted to. I wanted to drum this in your head because this is what you have been telling us for quite some time now and this is what we, the poor, have been reading about ourselves for a while now. This is what you have been writing, what you have been posting and what you have been telling behind our backs or maybe in front of us. Who knows?

We are monkeys. We are not architects, engineers, accountants, admins, managers, hoteliers, chefs, maids, nannies, caregivers, nurses, construction workers, no we are not. We can only grow bananas. We are just monkeys, as you said, from the third world country. Haven’t had enough yet?

Let me drum this into your head over and over again until it you don’t want to read these words anymore. Until you don’t want to hear or even mention it.

We, your modern day slaves, vermin, monkey, cockroaches; are also friends, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters to the people we left back home and most of all, we are also humans. You can call us your slaves, but not them. Because they, they are…our pride.

Vermin? It’s ok lah. Don’t worry yar.

No, you’re hurting my peelings (feelings). It’s ok to mispronounce f’s and p’s. It’s ok to have grammatical errors (like this post) and funny accent too. Tagalog is our first language anyway so it’s ok. The same way as all the other nationalities that do not use English as their first language, they do have their own accents right? Some do not speak English at all. They bring translators with them during international beauty pageants or they hire one when travelling. At least we don’t need one. You don’t need one too when you visit our country as long as you can speak English regardless of how the language is pronounced.

We. The poor people from the slums of Manila.

Well, we did not have a choice as to where we are to be born, did we? We did not choose to be born poor or to be born in a third world country with a corrupt government. Well hey, corrupt government is not new and it’s not only in the Philippines. And with all these odds, do we still have our so called pride? Of course we do. We did have the choice. Whether to be in the slums all our lives or break free from the bondage of poverty and glorify that so called pride. And so here we are.

So, we.The poor. The vermin. The cockroaches from the slums. The monkeys from the third world country.

Haven’t had enough yet?

How does it sound? You’re happy to say these words right? It’s your pleasure to post in on your blog, status, twitter, and get millions of views and likes and hatreds and get the attention of the whole wide world. To create a little havoc , sit back and drink an iced cold beer while reading the comments of the pro’s and anti’s of your post. But how does it feel when you read it? How does it feel when it doesn’t come from you? How does it feel when you’re the one who’s taking it in? How does it feel to read something that you yourself would have loved to write but is written by someone whom you’re addressing it to? Do you feel any good? Does it make you better? Does it make us any less? Does it make you a higher human being than us? We. The poor. The vermin. The cockroach and the monkey. Your words doesn’t make us any less.

Well I didn’t write this to seek revenge or get sympathy or attention. I’m writing what I know and what I feel. And what’s the sense of writing all of these? Is this to defend my nation? My pinoy pride? Why should I? You can call me a vermin for all you want, it doesn’t really matter. Call me slave, doesn’t matter. Call me a monkey from a third world corrupt country, doesn’t even matter to me, really. You can call me all you want, how you want, it won’t matter. You know why? I was not born to please you. I was not born to listen to what and how you want to call me. I was not born to care if you’re looking down at me or if you’re laughing at my funny accent. I was born a Filipino and I don’t necessarily need to belong to your community because I have one. I was born to be what I am and part of what I am is to be called a Filipino. And that is my pride.

To the person who blogged “Filipinos Think They are Better than Singaporeans and Americans,” to the lady who said she’d “rather go hungry than eat Filipino Food,” to those who are bullying us in Singapore just because we want to celebrate our Independence Day, and to those who are bullying us from all over the world.

Thank you for the inspiration.