In a recent Manila Moods column in this newspaper, the columnist advised readers and fellow commentators on the Philippine (including the overseas Filipino) scene, to bear some realities in mind in commenting on OFWs and their political involvements. Three things he mentioned stuck in my mind, in particular. First, it’s premature to come to any conclusions about the numbers of overseas Filipinos who have voted to date: With a month to vote, many will end up voting near the deadline. Second, that Filipinos, whether at home or abroad, obviously have a lot in common, and when it comes to politics, that commonality is, “doubts and cynicism” about the process and whether it’s worth it to get involved. Third, it’s unfair to pin hopes for change on Filipinos overseas, particularly hopes that they will play a leading role in political change.

Soon after the column came out, a fascinating article was published in the New York Times Magazine. Written by Jason DeParle, the article’s titled “A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves,” and takes a look at the OFW phenomenon. The article presents the good and the bad, and because Philippine commentators tend to dwell on the bad, I must say the good aspects of the OFW phenomenon made for pleasant reading.

Among the benefits: Allowing people to escape the cycle of poverty; giving people a chance to shine when otherwise they might never enjoy any such opportunity; in many cases, happier, healthier, better-educated children; a bureaucracy that is, in terms of its focus and assistance to overseas workers, the envy of the world (I never thought I’d ever hear such a thing about our government workers); a growth in banking, finance, and other industries, and so forth.

The warning in Manila Moods column about pinning too many hopes on OFWs, is borne out by DeParle’s article. He pointed out the realities are far more complicated than most people assume: But that in the end, it all boils down to individual stories, multiplied millions of times; we can try to make some conclusions, based on the numbers, to be sure. However it’s all about individual lives, individual achievements and failures, dreams, loves, loving, and often, loss. It’s a difference boiled down in Stalin’s famous saying: The death of one person is a tragedy; the deaths of millions is a statistic.

To be able to make an educated conclusion, as to what OFWs really think, wait for the final results of the overseas voting. Those are the numbers that will matter, the only time an instructive comparison can be made between OFW attitudes as expressed in the 2004 elections, and the choices they will make this year. Fair enough.

My sense, though, is that even if Filipinos abroad are obviously — even stubbornly — like their counterparts at home, I do think they can change faster than those who never leave. Take the entry of actors and media personalities in politics: It was a fad like any other, but it was one that began to wane earliest of all, among Filipinos overseas. They were as susceptible to the fad as the electorate at home (and electorates in many other countries) but grew tired of it sooner. However, let’s set aside the political, for now, and look at the cultural.

Have you ever seen photos of Filipinos from a century ago? A foreign friend once remarked, “but they don’t look like Filipinos, they look like Indonesians!” To which a Filipino in the group replied, “What? But Filipinos look like Thais!” Which had me wondering, and looking: And it seems true enough. The Filipinos of yore seem to look different from the Filipinos of today, and it’s not just due to better nutrition and changing clothing fashions.

After the colonial period, takers of our national censuses stopped breaking down our population terms of their Spanish, Chinese, Malay, etc. proportions. The opening of the world to Filipinos, and of course the introduction of two colonizers — the Americans and Japanese — in quick succession, surely introduced changes into the racial composition of our population. Add to this, the increase in migration within the country itself, with people from the Visayas and Central Luzon, for example, setting up homesteads in Mindanao, and an impact had to have been made on how we look (I recall members of the prewar generation being able to point at people at random, and confidently, and accurately say, for example, there’s a Cebuano, that person’s Kapangpangan, here’s an Ilocano, etc.; today, they don’t seem as confident or accurate).

Something interesting is happening too, in terms of what we consider beautiful. There are, of course, cases where we take pride in beauty contestants in other countries who have a Filipino mother or father; but at home, too, I’ve noticed that the products of mixed marriages dominate the competitions. And not just those who have American or Italian, or French and German ancestry, but those who have Arab or Persian, Japanese or even African blood — the African element, though much rarer, is particularly surprising, because one of our unfortunate cultural inheritances from America was prejudice against blacks. Among teenagers, beauty is often measured, now, in terms of Japanese, Korean, or Chinese standards and no longer in terms of Caucasian whiteness (though whiteness remains highly prized).

If we look different — and the OFW phenomenon has introduced a greater acceptance of mixed marriages and a closer proximity to other cultures, for example of the Arab, Japanese, French, Italian and German cultures — we also eat differently: our fondness for Italian food, for example, used to be for the American version of that cuisine; there’s now a growing demand for authenticity. In recent years, Filipinos grew fond of Arab food, and now distinguish between the different varieties of such food.

And vice-versa: My favorite examples (anecdotal, of course) are stories told to me by Filipinos in France, who say chicken feet can’t be had for love or money because Filipinos cornered the market in that food item, and scandalized Italians who tell me their children raised by Filipinas like sweet spaghetti! And there’s music, too, from JPop to KPop, to the music of Bollywood and pop songs from the Middle East. All, to my mind, developments to be celebrated and not agonized over in a negative sense.