Why Filipinos Want to Take Over the Blogosphere
People are asking Abe Olandres why the Filipino takeover of the blogosphere is such a big frickin’ deal here in the Philippines.
I explained that our generation (i.e. Filipinos) have become known around the globe as any of of these types of people — domestic helper, nurses, sea men, care-giver, or call center agents. In short, we’re looked down by most as cheap 3rd-world laborers. I have aunts that are working as nurses in the US for decades, uncles & cousins on a cargo ship at sea, relatives who are domestic helpers (OFW is the proper term) in Singapore & HK, older cousins who graduated as nurses but ended up as care-givers in UK and even more younger cousins who are now waiting for their Nursing Boars exam results. So, a fellow Filipino taking over a top position in a pre-dominantly western niche is real news.
Having worked with the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Council during the Estrada administration, I can see where Abe’s coming from here. Too much of the IT trade promotion work done at the dawn of the 21st century focused on turning Filipinos into anonymous low-level BPO drones powered by Starbucks and shallowness. The big hoopla over Filipinos’ success in the blogosphere is fueled in part by our own rebellion against that Faustian bargain.
