MANILA, Philippines - Just recently, someone asked me if I ever think of going back to Manila or if I consider Singapore my home now. I thought the question was passé.
Filipinos, more than anyone, have become global citizens. In this day and age—especially for Filipinos who work overseas—there’s not just one home. We work abroad, we assimilate into the culture of our host country, but we retain our Filipino identity.
That Filipino diaspora and issue of self-identity is what we are tackling in an art exhibit on Aug. 17, “Siningapura,” which I helped organize in cooperation with the Philippine Embassy in Singapore. The show, to be held at Selegie Arts Centre, will start the countdown to the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and the Philippines in 2009.
The participants are 11 Filipino artists who live or work here. We have called our group “Siningapor,” which holds a double meaning. While the direct translation is “Singapore Art,” it also means being “Singaporeanized” or integrating into the local culture.
In the show, also titled “Siningapor,” we ask ourselves these questions: What is life like as an overseas professional worker? And what is it like to live in Singapore—what are the things that you choose to see as a tourist, and those that you are forced to deal with as a resident?
Back in 2001
When I first lived here in Singapore in 2001, I worked as one of eight foreign sub-editors in the country’s biggest publishing company. I learned how to produce at least three newspaper pages a day.
Sub-editing, a fairly unheard-of concept to Manila journalists, meant you copy-edited manuscripts, supplied headlines and captions, designed pages, laid them out, then sent them to the printers. All on your own. You were responsible for your own pages.
The daily grind was nerve-wracking, thanks to a boss who seemed to have been straight out of a a Gulag. But I learned discipline and attention to detail (public humiliation was the punishment for using “color” instead of the British spelling “colour”; for humor instead of “humour,” though that word is rarely used here, as I will learn later)—which became useful when I returned to Manila years later to reincarnate as a magazine editor.
I decided to work again in Singapore exactly a year ago. By then my masochistic side had resurfaced: I missed the daily grind of the newsroom.
Working in dotcom
But something had also changed. I wanted to bring editorship to the next level. I wanted to experience something more fast-paced than a newspaper, or even television news (which I did in the late ’90s), so I joined a dotcom company, where, until now, I still get amazed by technology that allows you to monitor a reader’s behavior.
Unlike in newspapers or magazines, with Internet publishing, not only can you get the number of people who read your article, you also find out how much time they spend reading it, and where they go afterward.
As an editor, this means having an automated check-and-balance system: Is your reading of the nation’s pulse as on-the-dot as you believed it was? For a marketeer, this means being able to predict a trend and present concrete figures to advertisers.
Part of extended family
Because of its size, I’m lucky that the company I joined this time is more manageable. It is a smaller company, and employees are treated like they were part of the managing director’s extended family. He always tells everyone how Filipinos are so creative, and how we all know how to sing and dance, among others. (He yet has to see me do either.)
There are four Filipinos under his employ, and he is always proud of that—he tells everyone that our company is multi-cultural (we have colleagues from India and Burma) and he always asks us when we would bring adobo, and what would be a good time to visit Manila. His dream is to bring the entire company to a summer vacation in the Philippines.
Brain drain
Another question I am asked often is if Singapore has changed since the last time I lived here. A lot, I say. It’s like an entire generation has grown up and taken over.
My colleagues, most in their early 20s, are more relaxed and open-minded than the generation before them. The bars are open until early morning, people are smiling, and you see more foreign faces on the streets.
Singapore has become a hub not just for the techies but also for the creatives. When I was here seven years ago, many of the Filipinos I knew were either working in the architectural/interior design industry or IT.
Nowadays, with the S-Pass visa for mid-level skilled workers, there are a lot of Pinoys working in the hospitality industry (and this number is expected to increase sharply when Singapore opens its first-ever casino and a Universal Studios on Sentosa Island in 2010). There are also several Pinoys holding influential positions in magazines.
The inevitable question, I guess, is, Why the brain drain? A well-known Tsinoy scholar, who was here a few weeks ago for an important academic convention on Overseas Chinese population, lamented how all the good editors had left the country.
She agreed the Philippines was becoming unconducive to work in, especially for writers because the industry didn’t pay well and had so little respect for the writer and the journalist. That’s just some of the reasons—albeit compelling ones.
Top liveable city
But it’s not just Filipinos going to Singapore for a better job. The 21st century is all about Asia and China. Even foreigners from First World countries are moving here to work and resettle their families in the region.
The influential Monocle magazine, for the second year running, has named Singapore as one of the world’s Top 25 Liveable Cities and praised it for having “leapfrogged to First World status in barely two generations.”
First-World pay
Other Asians who work here like the idea of getting first-world pay. According to the Ministry of Manpower, the average monthly wage for a proofreader alone is S$1,500 and S$8,500 for an advertising creative director.
Those who hold permanent resident status can send their children to a local school for as low as S$15 a year, and enjoy around 65-percent subsidy on health care. These are the benefits being given by a government that is sincere in wanting to take care of its nation’s population.
RP needs direction
Singapore is intent on becoming a major power, and it is doing something concrete to achieve that. Singapore has a master plan, and it is following it. That’s one thing we ourselves need to do as a nation and as a people: Acquire foresight and discipline. Filipinos already have the talent and skill, we just need a good leader to give us direction.
Editor’s note: The author, who contributes to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, used to be managing editor of Metro magazine. E-mail jamesperezong@yahoo.com.
Copyright 2009 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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