THANKS to all for your comments — keep them coming!
And while we are on this “Desperate Housewives” topic (read the latest development on the story by clicking here), and as we feel energized by this lively discussion, let me bring up a related matter.
Most Filipinos know that in many US hospitals, you can’t turn a corner without bumping into a Filipino health care professional — doctor, nurse, therapist, nurse aide and so on. So have you, like me, wondered why there are no Filipino characters in the main cast of these hospital drama shows? And to think there are dozens of these shows on American television.
October 5th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Just like we have 3G cell networks and its a future thing for the US.
October 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
[...] The Nepales Report : Why are there no Filipino characters in hospital shows? [...]
October 5th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
This is not true. I have seen some Asian/Filipino-looking characters on these hospital shows albeit mostly nurses. Change comes about slowly. Why do we expect more Asians on TV/ movies when very few blacks get to be on these shows and they have been around a lot longer than us. Just give it time.
October 5th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Probably for the same reason that very few people of color were ever seen on “Friends,” despite its New York City setting. Or, for that matter, most other TV shows set in major metropolitan cities that, in reality, have a significant non-white population. It’s just the nature of the American entertainment system, where the vast majority of decisionmakers are white and think everyone else in America must be as well (or want to be one).
Having said that, I do think that it helps our cause not one bit by engaging in equally racist and offensive remarks about American medical doctors being less “efficient” or capable than Filipino doctors. Filipino doctors are well-trained in TB and dengue fever cases because we see plenty of those cases back home. American doctors, on the other hand, have world-class expertise on cancer research and treatment that on the whole is unmatched by any other medical system in Asia, much less the Philippines. Ditto for cardiovascular, pulmonary, and a host of other medical conditions.
It’s great that Filipino doctors can perform superhuman medical feats in the face of such overwhelming scarcity, but the flip side of this is that there are fewer and fewer of them, as most Philippine medical school graduates (themselves a dying breed) are leaving the country in droves for greener pastures elsewhere. Bitching about fictional characters in an overhyped TV show 10,000 miles away does nothing but distract everyone from the really difficult problems that must be confronted in order to shore up a rapidly deteriorating healthcare system.
October 5th, 2007 at 11:26 am
mga chaka silang lahat