I previously posted on the Yan ang Pinay movement now propagating in cyberspace (now with button links in my left sidebar), where people are basically encouraged to write about Filipinas and even Filipinos in general.  This is in the aim of improving the status of the Filipina online, paticularly in search engines.

I just did a Google search a while ago on “Filipina,” and I’m quite pleased that first on the results list is BagongPinay, along with several other relevant links in the first page such as ffwn.org and Clair Ching’s blog post on the subject.

A Yahoo search renders Filipinalist.org

as number one, with the above-mentioned sites also in the first

page.  On a negative note, the search result also suggests keywords 

“filipina bar girls,” and “filipina heart,” which link to

results for porn and mail-order brides.

It’s still a sad reality that much of our Pinay brethren resort to

participating in these online activities for money, perhaps due to the

lack of other (more dignified) ways to earn.  It’s one of

the negative impacts of globalization.  Technology has managed to

bring citizens of different nations closer amid geographic borders, and

we can now even

export jobs (take the business process outsourcing boom, for

instance).  But the same also goes for the world’s oldest profession.  Indeed, ‘net connectivity has spawned a new occupation.

I encountered a comment on Marisol Angala’s “I am a Filipina Teacher” blog article

where the poster considers the move as picking on “… our underclass

Filipina sisters who are just trying to put food in their table, [by]

any means necessary.”  I would contend that we’re not exactly

picking on our less fortunate sisters who, unfortunately, have to sell

themselves (figuratively and sometimes also literally) online to eke out a

living.  We are, in fact, helping them out, since we intend to

improve how the world views Filipinas, and they are part of that group,

aren’t they?

The solution is not short-term, and hence we will not see change

overnight.  Sites for porn and mail-order brides will still appear

in the top search results precisely because these are what the audience

seeks out.  Economic-speak: there is demand, and hence there is sense to provide the supply.  But what if we can crowd out that demand with one for a more relevant content pertinent to the Filipina? 

The Filipina as an artist?  The Filipina as a mother?  The

Filipina as a political figure?  The Filipina as a nation-builder?

Perhaps the demand for Filipina mail-order brides and porn will also

decline.  And with this, the idea of Filipinas as only referring to such will also,

hopefully, diminish.

I am being optimistic, but I am proposing that better opportunities

will be there for the picking for Filipinas (and all Filipinos alike)

if the international community has a higher regard for our being.

In the long-term, if we do take the collective effort needed to change

people’s mindsets–which we are doing now–future Filipinas would not

longer have to resort to selling themselves to earn.  Or if they

would be marketing themselves at all, it would be as respected

professionals and skilled workers ready to take on the challenges of a

knowledge-based global economy.

I want to make the world better for three Filipinas who are very, very close to my heart: my wife Caren and my daughters Sofia and Clarisse.

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