Housewives Pounding on Philippine Med Schools

Makers of the hit US television series "Desperate Housewives" have apologised for a slur against Filipino medical workers that caused an uproar in the Southeast Asian country. The apology was sent to Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN's bureau in the United States and aired in the Philippines on Thursday following protests by the Manila government.

Point of fact: It was a slur on Philippine medical education professionals, not medical workers. It implies medical workers, but does not specifically target them.

"The producers of 'Desperate Housewives' and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere," cable news channnel ANC quoted the statement as saying.

Ah, there it is. The perfect hollow blanket apology. But it's not an apology, not at all. This is more of an insult than an apology, and both the ones making it and the ones receiving it ought to know as much. This is not an apology for writing the term, approving the term, speaking the term in counteless rehearsals and then for keeps on film, and then actually airing the term, but an apology for offense that may have been caused. This is ABC saying, "I'm sorry that for whatever reasons that might be deeply personal and meaningful to you--but not necessarily having anything to do with us and our show and the way we work and think and write and make money--that YOU didn't like this part of our show." Read that and understand it: no one has said they were sorry for writing it, uttering it or airing it; they are apologizing to YOU for the way YOU might feel. This is like someone who will tell you, "Oh, I'm so sorry," when you tell them you have a tummy ache. At best it's commiserating. At worst, it's snide and condescending, and I have to come down on the side of snide where it comes to US Television and how they view anything that intereferes with their pursuit of money and money and then some more money.

"There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines," it said.

Now this is a lie. It was written and performed, and is nothing but a direct and ugly slight upon the reputation of medical education in the Philippines, plain and simple.

I'm surprised the folks who wrote this and produced it let this slip by. No one ever said, "Hey, we'll probably get some blowback on this wisecrack about Philippine med schools," not ever? I'm smart enough to recognize the negative possibilities here, and I'm not even a television programming professional, just a humble watcher (although not of wretched, unimaginative, formulaic glop like this particular program). You'd think that if they were that good, they'd notice. But, wait . . . maybe . . . just maybe, they noted it and chose to leave it in. I can see the boardroom disucssion now:

Writer-Hack: The script is ready, JB, but some of the writing team have expressed concerns over what could be considered as a slight upon the Philippines and its medical eduction system when Teri says--
Studio Exec: Yeah, I've seen it. It stays in.
W-H: But, JB --
SE: It stays in, you dummy. When the Philippine government and its embassies around the world get a hold of this, we'll have weeks of more publicity, all for free. Don't you get it--they speak English, and they're foreign at the same time! It's perfect. The public will eat it up, and we'll get more viewers. Then more ad revenue. More sports cars for me and you can make your rent on time this month.
W-H: But what about the insult?
SE: Who gives a shit, son? After a day, we'll release the standard, no-fault, meaningless apology. We save face, they save face, and both of us get the mileage out of the situation that we want. It's win-win.
W-H: But, JB, what about the moral implicatons of . . .
SE: Jeezus, flunky, am I paying you for moral implicatoins? Now get out and write me something nasty about Burkina Faso for next week!

The episode showed actress Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer, asking during a medical consultation to check "those diplomas because I want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines."

Actually, that's pretty funny, and totally in keeping with her (predictable) character.

I'm surprised they didn't go after an easier and even funnier target, like Cambodia, Latvia (it just sounds funny!) or Kyrgystan.

The apology was made a day after chief aide to Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said the line of dialogue appeared to be a "racial slur."

No, Gloria's Chief Aide, that's not a racial slur. Nothing was said about any ethnic group whatsoever. No disparaging remarks were made about a specific person or group of persons; the insult was to an institution. Philippine citizens are not a unique racial grouping by themselves; there is no Philipppine race. Just ask your ethnic Chinese about that assertion, or your Moros, the Maguindanaoans, the folks from northern Luzon, the seriously ethnically diverse indigenous peoples of interior Mindanao. No, the Philippines forms a distinct national identity, at least that's what the country has been trying to do for a number of decades now, with highly debatable success. But this particular insult is not racial, not at all. You saying that it's racial is sure to grab headlines, make your boss and you look tough and concerned, and communicate to the little people that you're their tireless champion--hey, that's politics. But it's not racial.

Philippine Senators said the apology was not enough, and urged their Foreign Affairs Department to lodge a formal protest with the US government. "I am mortally offended by the statement because it betrayed the racial prejudice and denigrates the excellent performance of world-class Filipino doctors in the US," said Senator Miriam Santiago, whose sister is a doctor working in Los Angeles.

Yeah, go ahead, send a demarche to the US State Deparment. Their response: "Uh, we've got this thing called the First Amendment here, and unless it's less than two seconds of an exposed yet partially covered African American nipple or a couple having sex in a confessional, then we're really not inclined to intervene."

Same thing, Senator, not racist. Prejudice, yeah, you've probably got a point there, as in prejudice against the nature of medical eduction in the Philippines, but it's not racist. And actually, this insult has nothing to do with the 'performance of world-class Filipino doctors,' in the US or anywhere else. This statement was about a Philippine med school, which is an indictment of the medical education system in your Republic, not of the performance of its graduates, in the US, Philippines or anywhere else.