~ The fancy celebrations, the posh parties, the preposterous claims to fame – they all come together to lull Toronto’s Filipino community into a world of make-believe. One such event has winded up a bash with no president in attendance, and another is coming up with a promise to save millions worldwide. Toronto’s 200,000-strong community members must be swimming in money so that every year, it’s subjected to the usual fund-raising with song and dance numbers and beauty pageants. And once the hoopla is over, pictures of people holding on to cheques the size of streamers would dominate the pages of local newspapers. The cycle continues.
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Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer to be tricked. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli.
LONDON, England – Two hundred thousand, more or less, is the figure often used to describe the size of the Filipino community in Greater Toronto Area in Canada’s Ontario province.
From a business perspective, it’s a huge market with big spending power. Politically, it has the potential to make or unmake anyone wishing to run for public office. However, the influence – real or perceived – the community is supposed to possess is hardly exercised, if ever.
There’s a reservoir of goodwill tapped occasionally by politicians, career fundraisers and groups that may be classified as the crying and bleeding hearts organizations or CBHOs for short.
CBHOs have been institutionalized in Toronto; most surface in summer when their activities spike and slowly stay out of view as soon as family-oriented activities take precedence.
The people behind CBHOs are usually glib-tongued role-players. They sweet-talk people out of their money, and if the gimmick does not work, they render them speechless with crocodile tears. They tear at one’s heart.
If that still does not register, they tell sob stories of people with nothing to eat and no roofs over their heads; of children dying of disease; of breadwinners immobilized by recurring affliction; of families rendered helpless by lack of opportunities; of their attempts to rescue people in far-away lands from their sorry plight.
Their missions and objectives are laudable but upon closer scrutiny, they are almost impossible, or way too impractical, to achieve. One organization speaks of relieving poverty and providing necessities to disaster victims.
In reality, it would probably take more than one United Nations, the New York-based organization of 193 states, to accomplish those objectives. But wait, one Filipino CBHO in Toronto endeavours to do it!
Another CBHO has at least narrowed its outreach to two countries in helping children out of their miseries. That’s a tall order too but it gives a sense of proportion.
CBHOs employ different tactics to win support. They stage extravaganzas, throw parties, guest movie stars from Manila and even the president of the Philippines! (according to a liar, oops, I mean lawyer) while enjoying the fruits of other people’s money.
In the course of hitting pay dirt with their shows, they brazenly allocate to themselves the title of philanthropists as if the resources they donated to their choice charities come from their pockets. Their self-designations improve their community standing, beautify their resume, and make them noticeable in the false glory of being published in friendly publications.
Consequently, they are recognized and awarded by similarly-aimed CBHOs in glittering parties, praised for their kindness and paraded like exotic animals. Then they are written about and hailed in their own press releases published by an obliging and adoring press.
Every year without fail, the CBHOs and their officials sell the same ideas that exploit emotions, knowing that inherently-hospitable Filipinos are warmhearted when it involves charity.
Thus, they give without raising a fuzz even when it begins to show that they are being taken advantage of. One argument I hear from people is that losing a little money would not make CBHOs and their officials rich.
But that is not the point. A little here and a little there would soon form a bundle. And little bundles are what enable the CBHOs to perpetuate a cycle of mendicancy that they institutionalize.
The formula is simple: Make people believe that by patronizing shows by CBHOs they are helping other people, the less-fortunate and the downtrodden. Then, add some spices or ingredients as in cooking – like the song and dance shows by imports from Manila – that’ll guarantee lulling them into a state of euphoria.
In that blissful state, people would not even care if they lost in a daytime highway robbery, or that they’ve been stripped almost naked of their cash. Meantime, the CBHOs and their officials are just laughing it off in some corners of Manila or in some Philippine provinces after reaping the full benefits of their extravaganza.
To look good, they’d make it appear through pictures holding giant replicas of cheques that they’ve turned over monies to their charities. The wide smiles from ear to ear were not that they were happy; the smiles look mischievous enough to say we’re glad to pull another year of trickery. See you again next year!