Last Saturday Aug 14 was a significant event for the Filipino community in Vancouver as the first ever Filipino Cultural Street parade was launched. The most obvious purpose of this event, of course, is to reaffirm our pres­ence as a united culture here in Vancouver, not that Canadians are not aware of this but perhaps to make them aware that we as a community can also make noise, louder, if not the same cacopho­nous noise as a Chinese Lion dance parade. But really, I thought this was more of a chance for the hundred or so local Filipino asso­ciations to do something worth-wile departing from the usual and already boring fund-raising dinner and dance, beauty pageants and singing idol wannabee competi­tions.

Notice I just used the word Canadians to distinguish the culture. Of course, when we embraced this country as a home and became citizens, we have become Canadians ourselves. Now that is where the danger lies about such events - we simply invite racial sterotyping ourselves. In the so­cial, business and political realms it’s taboo to make a racial distinc­tion. A lot of people do not have a clear understanding of cultural heritage versus race or national­ity.

If there’s an obvious purpose, then there has to be a less obvi­ous one. First, this event was the result of hard work of our own pi­noys - or those with some pinoy heritage - who are now in posi­tions that have political connec­tions. As observed by one news­paper columnist, judging from the presence of a number of politicos who joined the parade waving and even wearing our barong, the event was something that, from a politician’s stance, just cannot be ignored. Imagine the thousands of potential votes marching out there that can make or break a political career or ambition.

Again, that’s understandable - politicians are politicians. A few weeks ago Vancouver Mayor Rob­ertson graced the first Filipino Maharlika awards. I’m not sure if I’m the only cynical one but I’m sure he unconsiously bared his heart’s real intention when in his speech he mentioned that he only has a few months in office before running for re-election. Exactly - a politician at heart.

It seems that our community fi­nally has learned how to tickle the attention of Canadian politicians, but to what extent? We know that as a community we need repre­sentation in the Canadian politi­cal seats of influence and power. As that newspaper columnist observed, with the number of Filipino voters out there, expect more politicians to jump into the bandwagon in next year’s parade, though that will not worry me. I’m more worried about the political wannabees from our pinoy com­munity who are now trying to rub shoulders with politicians. The Filipino style of politics is some­thing I’m nervous to see here in Canada.
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I’m not one who’s really keen in watching beauty pageants but when my wife tuned into Mon­day’s Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas and just when our own Miss Philippines made the top fif­teen I sensed in myself a sudden urge of patriotism, so I stayed to watch. In fact, when we made it into the five finalists I can hear my pulse through my ears. Then what I was so afraid of will happen happened. She spoke. Her com­mand of english was superb, but her answer to the final question was perhaps the dumbest I’ve ever heard. If you missed seeing it, the question if I remembered it right was about the greatest mistake she’s ever made in her life and how she handled it. The dumb answer: I never made any major major mistake in my life...

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