Yes, our bananas are going places

It is true, indeed – when one door closes – another opens. Our country was worried when, suddenly one of our biggest markets for bananas, China, stopped accepting the shipments sent by our farmers, on claims that the fruits were infested by some bugs. Of course it would be malicious to impute political meanings to that, even if that was also the time we started wrangling over the Scarborough Shoal.

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Anyway, we had good business news recently, in that the United States has finally cleared our bananas and will now accept our products for its markets. And they will not be sorry, because, I may be biased, but none of the bananas I have tasted in all those countries I have gone to, in Asia, as well as Europe, taste as good as ours. And we have probably the most varieties, too. I once read a novel about a plane wreck where the survivors got stranded in a tropical island, the description of which sounded very much like the Philippines. When rescued, they said that they were saved from starvation because they saw a banana tree with tiny green fruits.

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Because they were very hungry, they felled the tree and ate the fruits and surprise! The tiny bananas, although still green, tasted very sweet, and very edible! My guess is that they had chanced upon the variety some call “señorita”, but which my grandparents, who grew a few, called “Dulce Eterna (forever sweet)”, which it is. I wonder if they will ever include this variety in the stocks they send to the Americas. I’m sure they will fall in love with them. And if they still feel bad about our bananas, let the Chinese farmers grow their own.

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Sometimes it is embarrassing the way some of our countrymen leap at the chance to bask in the reflected glory of those who have already chosen to be citizens of other countries. A few weeks ago, we tried to appropriate singer Jessica Sanchez, whose mother is Filipino, but was quickly underscored by her fellow Americans as their very own, by making her sing their National Anthem and other patriotic songs praising America, during one of their most revered holidays. To further stress that, Jessica was also asked to be the one to sing the Star-Spangled Banner when American Timothy Bradley fought against true-blue Filipino Manny Pacquiao.

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And now that the Miami Heat has clinched the National Basketball Association championship with a coach who happens to have Filipino blood from his mother’s side, some politicians are rushing to get some glow unto themselves by announcing all kinds of honors for Erik Spoelstra. Of course we admire Spoelstra for his feat, but it does seem shameful to try to get noticed by seeking for him honors that are needed more by the sponsor, than by the champions’ coach. In the study of propaganda, that device is called “transfer”, which means people who do that want to transfer some of the glory to themselves.

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When I was working in Manila I stayed for some time with relatives in San Juan and the day we dreaded most was the Feast of San Juan, when residents feel that they have license to douse anybody passing by with sometimes unclean water. I used to drive a Volkswagen Beetle then (this was more than 25 years ago) and always got very tense while passing the streets, even if I kept my windows shut. Not too many people had air-conditioning then, and it was a very uncomfortable drive, especially when you pass people quarreling after getting soaked.

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It seems it is still as bad as ever there. Yesterday’s news carried a report of a man who got shot by a visiting seaman who was not in the mood to get involved in the celebration. Despite the fact that he warned the water carriers that he would not tolerate it, one had the nerve to still do his thing and got shot. He didn’t die, but of course a greater mess has come out of the manner the victim wanted to celebrate. The San Juan Police should find a way to avoid similar incidents, perhaps by limiting the streets where the water-throwers can do their thing.

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The President has signed into law a bill creating the city of Ilagan in Isabela Province. A plebiscite still has to take place before the cityhood is confirmed, and let us hope that this one has complied with all the legal requirements for cityhood, and not add to what some people call the bastard ones who earned theirs, courtesy of the flip-flopping Supreme Court that we used to have.*

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