Call Center Agent, Shan Cruz Rivera.

Watch the videos as he makes fun of his foreign customer callers.

Here is another one.

What do you think of his actions?

Update: The guy has already deleted his FB account.

Miss Earth USA

Read what she posted:
“I hardly made it to manila and we already attended a ridiculous tv show. So annoying!!! These people want to touch you and be with you all the time!! I can’t understand a word they say. I can’t wait to go back home. This country is so dirty and noisy. I’m scared to eat!!! What a mess. On a lighter note I don’t see any real competition. Will keep you updated my loves”

Do you think it was intentional? After the Filipinos turned to Twitter to bash Kelley, she immediately released a video denying the posting and saying her account was hacked! Hacked? Complete bull$hit.

Video:

Thinking of home.

I have been in and out of the Philippines many times. Most of those times, the travels were short — like those few days in China and a week in Singapore. My more than two years of residency in the Netherlands had brought good memories worthy of treasuring, and a whole lot of curious town folks who could not help praising how my look had changed while abroad. Although there was nothing that I changed in myself, except for cutting my hair short, I was told by many that my living abroad made me looked “fairer” (whatever that means…).

But nothing compares to the perceptions I noticed from the common Pinoy after I moved to the United States and then went back to the Philippines for a short visit. You may disagree with my ideas, but it seems to me being in the U.S. is the be-all-and-end-all of all foreign travels. The moment you set foot on U.S. soil, most Filipinos back home think “you’ve finally got your American dream!” It won’t matter anymore if you have traveled somewhere else. The fact that you are in America, you have already scored a goal most Filipinos are still struggling to find their ways through. Being with Uncle Sam is akin to finding a treasure at the end of the rainbow for most of us. I have a strong feeling that this is the reason why common Kababayans look at Balikbayans from the U.S. with awe and high regard, like they just landed from a successful space mission.

I listed few things of how Balikbayans are viewed by common Filipinos. Read and tick all the right boxes. Note that there are times the connecting sentences may feel like sweeping generalizations. But keep in mind that I wrote this piece thinking of the numerous exemptions!

1. Richie Rich. They think I am rich since I live in the U.S. I have written a long story about this in another article. Let me put it in few lines. A dollar is worth 40 times more than a peso. A Balikbayan from the U.S. should be wealthy enough to even come home. I want to reiterate what I mentioned previously, we are NOT financially rich! What we earn in America may be more than the salary a Filipino gets back home, but when comparing, you have to think in terms of the standard of living. Pips, living in the U.S. is not all bed of roses.

2. Don’t rub me a whitening cream. They think my complexion becomes fairer. Geeezzz. We need to drop this craziness on having lighter skin tones. Why, for God’s sake, would my skin turn light just because I am surrounded by white Americans? I do not use skin whitening nor want to change my color. The way my skin color looked the moment I left the Philippines, will be the same look the moment I come back. Here is a quick explanation why nothing have changed or will ever change: The sun that shines the Philippines is the same sun that shines the U.S. The amount of light rays that hit my skin, then and now, is the same. In fact, I probably am getting much sun exposure here, because I never use an umbrella on summer days (no one does, at least in this county where I reside). So to say that my complexion becomes lighter is only an illusion, a mental product caused by the surprise of not seeing me for years. Wait for few days after my arrival and you’d say that I am all the same.

3. Ano sabi mo? They think I have become so fluent in the English language that I have forgotten how to speak my own native tongue. Frankly, this one knocked me down with a feather! This is the most ridiculous observation ever. No, I am not fluent of the English language. No, I have not forgotten my native tongue. I love the Filipino language that I will never replace it with any other. Also, I grew up in the Philippines and spent most of my years in Cebu, thus if ever there is an influence of the American twang in the way I speak, it is not something to worry about.

If you have lived your first 20 years in the Philippines, there is no way you will forget the language, isn’t there? That’s why it makes me wonder how other Filipino immigrants were able to drop the Filipino language from their vocabulary. Maybe because they seldom, or worse, don’t, use it anymore, especially with their American partners. Or maybe because they rarely talk with other Filipinos in the community.

Again, I say, I love the Filipino language. As a matter of fact, I always make certain to talk in Filipino when I am with Filipino friends. I don’t grasp the need to converse in English when you are in a group of Pinoys. So I made a pact with myself to communicate with Filipinos only in Filipino!

4. I’m cool, look at the brand of my underwear. Talk about being overly inflicted with colonial mentality, some think that all the things I wear are imported branded merchandise. It has always been my principle that I wear anything that fits me, without any regard of the brand or the country where it is produced from. If you see me wearing orig Levi’s jeans or Nike shoes, it is because the items suit me. But that does not mean I don’t patronize local brands. I even wear clothes from Tabo Sa Banay, Happy Mart and items from stores lining the Carbon Market in Cebu City. Last year, my mother tagged me along and we shopped for clothes along Manalili St. I admit, most items may not be as long-lasting as those expensive ones from the malls, but if you search enough, you’d find good deals way better than those in fancy boutiques.

When it comes to wristwatches and perfumes, however, I always go for original brands. These are two of the few products that I always make certain I am getting the “real ones”. Two reasons: Pseudo perfumes smell like shit, you can smell them two blocks away! And, counterfeit wristwatches die in a matter of days! Ergo, spending a $100 for a bottle of perfume and $200 for a watch, will save you some embarrassment.

5. Where’s my Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Some think I own a Mercedes-Benz or any other luxurious cars, like it’s a status symbol in the Philippines. The fact is, I own a fairly decent (I think that’s the other word for crappy) Pontiac. So far my car isn’t giving me major (major!) issues, and it still gets me from A to B. Unless I become a famous person, which of course is close to impossibility, I will never own a classy vehicle. Even if this Pontiac will consummate its last squeal and give up on me, buying a luxury car is still not in my plan.

A day in the life of a traveller.

Did I mention that I once had the same perceptions?

Abby Duling on The Volante

Whatever that begins as a friendly competition must end as it is. Human as we are, we are all competitive in nature. However, we should not allow this human nature to fuel hate in us. Abby Duling, a columnist of The Volante, the student publication of The University of South Dakota, may not know what friendly competition is all about. In her column “Home of the Coyotes, not the bunnies“, she encouraged violence against specific innocent parties, in this case the students of USD who wear SDSU gears. The “incitement to violence” is clearly described by Ms. Duling’s statement, “All of the people walking around campus with SDSU gear need to be kidnapped, smuggled into the dome and then hurled onto the floor at halftime. Then all of their SDSU backpacks, binders, pencils and SDSU lanyards need to be thrown in after them.”

My feeling is, Abby Duling is an angry person and her anger-filled column shows how hateful she is. If the article does not incite violence, then what? Does it inspire USD students to be more productive in school activities or does it tell the students to “hunt the jackrabbits and kill them”? My gully, she writes a “LIFE Column” yet she promotes “death”!

Can you call this freedom of speech when the article clearly permits incitement to violence? She can write an article that may cause students to be hurt emotionally. But she cannot write something that may risk students of serious physical harm or even death. What she wrote was encouraging the spread and incitement of violence by “asking” her co-students to commit a crime — “we will hunt them down, we will capture them, we will hold them hostage”. It is no different from what former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin said, “WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be hunted down in the way armed forces are targeting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.”

I personally believe that incitement of violence, be it oral or written, can make bloodshed more likely to happen. That what we oftentimes call as “free speech” can be one of the agents of brutal acts. Abby Duling, being a columnist of a student paper, should have been careful of the kind of tone and words she used in her article. She should know where to draw the line between doing harm to others and avoiding hate and violence. Most especially, she should know how to write responsibl­y and drop the personal attacks on students wearing SDSU gears!

Is the USD school spirit about kidnapping, smuggling and then hurling SDSU students onto the floor: because of students’ apparel that Abby Duling thinks is offensive? Maybe it is. As she said “It’s tradition. And tradition never stops.”

A friendly competition should benefit both schools and whatever differences there are, no school should incite their students against the other. Students should avoid this culture of violent rhetoric. I believe Ms. Duling still has to learn this.

Now this is her at 6 years old, singing Celine Dion’s “To Love You More.”

Confirming that she could really sing, my “Idol” brother thought of putting in some movements. He calls it animation. At first, Zee was a bit shy to move her hands. But after a little convincing and inputs, she pulled out quite an impressive amateur show, on top of a makeshift platform.

Not bad at all.

Bonus videos: My little brother singing “This is the Moment”.

Star in a Million: