The sincerest form of flattery
FILIPINOS, it is said, are the greatest copycats. In doing so, we may be setting our sights low. Like when we create a “Parejo” or “Minsan Patrol” to mimic namesakes.
But in the art of the possible, maybe the child is the father of the man.
President Manuel L. Quezon’s hush-hushed peccadilloes are said to make Bill Clinton seem a choir boy in comparison.
And if he didn’t give way to Ferdinand Marcos, matinee idol Rogelio dela Rosa would have been the first celluloid President… way ahead of Grade B Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan making it to the White House.
The Women of Malolos, 20 women from prominent Chinese-Filipino families, demanded from GovernorGeneral Valeriano Weyler on December 12, 1888, the right to open a night school where they could be taught Spanish. They defied the authority of the town’s Augustinian friar curate, and were lauded by reformists such as Jose Rizal,Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Marcelo H. del Pilar.
Although American women finally won their right of suffrage in 1920 ahead of the Filipinas’ right to vote in 1938, there would be no peace in the home unless womeno both sides of the Pacific Ocean always had the last word at home.
Deep Throat B. T. who signs off “Dominus Nobiscum” (“God be with us” or otherwise “God help us!”) revealed how, under our nose, current contemporary events show the US imitating us.
Cory Aquino was our first woman president, one among the earliest woman heads of government since Golda Meir took over the reins of Israel. And to prove it was no fluke, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo repeated this by not only completing the remainder of the term of impeached Erap, but being re-elected president.
Now Hillary Clinton aspires to be the first woman president of the United States of America. She’s not saying it, but she is giving the sincerest form of compliment to Cory and Gloria.
Her image makers hype her campaign in the primaries and in the coming election: “May the best woman win.” (Sounds familiar?)
BTW, recall that despite the shenanigans of Hillary’s spouse, she stood by her man and matrimony. (A trait famous in suffering Filipina mothers, the bedrock of the family, who put up with their philandering husbands.)
(My source B.T. adds a few colorful comments on the travails of the US presidential matrimony to mimic ours, which unfortunately may not pasts the parental guidance code of my editors.)
But imitations are not always exact copies. The copy can get better, or worse.
Better, like Jollibee bettering the instruction and topping MacDonalds here in every sphere.
Or worse, like if, come November, US voters trump the obvious choice and, instead of making the Best Woman Win, they vote for a Donald who is a poor imitation of our original PDu30.