Our culture on trial: Filipino table etiquette
I’ve been following this news for weeks now. More than once I tried to start a blog of it here but hesitated. Maybe because I don’t like confrontations, and would rather wait until I get more information before I say my two-cents.
But before I keep blabbing and you’re left scratching your head – here’s what this is about.
It seems the way we eat has been causing quite a stir. The Montreal Chronicle ran an April 19 piece on a seven-year old Filipino Canadian student whose been punished by his lunch monitor for eating in way that’s very un-Canadian. That is, he eats with two utensils – the spoon and the fork – and uses them by pushing his food toward the spoon with a fork. The paper reports that the boy was moved to a table by himself because apparently his eating habits are “disgusting”. When the mom complained about this to the Principal, she was allegedly told that her son has to eat the way Canadians do, and not like a “pig” as she was quoted the principal telling her over the phone. However, when the Chronicle interviewed the principal, he reasoned that the student was disciplined because he was disruptive and turbulent to other students. Further, according to him, he only wants students to eat “correctly with respect for others who are eating with them.”
As expected, Filipinos in Canada and elsewhere became outraged over this incident since the news broke out, citing racial discrimination and demanding compensation. The Canadian Embassador to the Philippines counters this in the InQ7.net by saying that this in an isolated incident; Canada is a multi-cultural country who welcomes immigrants.
Eating with both utensils is the traditional way that Filipinos eat formally. And I emphasize this word because there is a much less formal, still very traditional, and more comfortable way that we eat – with our bare hands.
But seriously, we’ll have to see how this plays out. I am giving the benefit of the doubt that there was a misunderstanding, and that somehow the media played up (as usual) and focused on the controversial part of it to gain coverage. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be vigilant against discrimination of us (or other races) especially when it’s warranted. Cooler heads always prevail, for as a proverb says “For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife.”
1 Comment
What can we expect tha Canadian Ambassador to say ? That Canada is full of bigots disguise as school officials and lunch monitors ?
This incident did not happen in Vancouver or Toronto but in the Canadian province of Quebec where non-francophones are strongly discriminated against.
Quebec would like to establish itself as a separate country from Canada thus it is trying to establish its own “culture”.
This could be some kind of political ‘ethnic cleansing’ and absolutely not an isolated case. Just ask the Filipino domestic helpers and factory workers in Quebec who could not speak french and you’ll know the picture.