Malu Fernandez on Technorati WTF
While some people are willing to forgive and forget or even going to the extent of trying desperately to veer the attention to themselves others are not as forgiving. Rightly so, with the insults reaped on the 10% of the population contributing 15% to the nations GNP wandering the four corners of the world such bigotry and outright belittling of a sector that props up a sinking economy time and again is uncalled for and outright cruel.
Let’s examine closely what this apology is all about if it indeed came from the ingrate overfed plus size “fashionista”, to which I quote here as found on geocities:
Statement from Malu Fernandez on the OFW Controversy
I am humbled by the vehement and heated response provoked by my article entitled 'From Boracay to Greece!' which came out in the June 2007 issue of People Asia. To say that this article was not meant to malign, hurt or express prejudice against the OFWs now sounds hollow after reading through all the blogs from Filipinos all over the world. I am deeply apologetic for my insensitivity and the offensive manner in which this article was written, I hear you all and I am properly rebuked. It was truly not my intention to malign hurt or express prejudice against OFWs.
Really……… that’s a 360 degree turnaround from the previous response she had when there were just a few bloggers wanting to slaughter the pig errr giving her a dose of her own medicine.
As the recent recipient and target of death threats, hate blogs, and deeply personal insults, I now truly understand the insidiousness of discrimination and prejudice disguised as humor. Our society is bound together by human chains of kindness and decency. I have failed to observe this and I am now reaping the consequences of my actions. It is my fervent hope that the lessons that Ive learned are not lost on all those who through anonymous blogs, engaged in bigotry, discrimination, and hatred (against overweight individuals, for example)
I take full responsibility for my actions and my friends and family have nothing to do with this. To date I have submitted my resignation letters to both the Manila Standard and People Asia, on that note may this matter be laid to rest.
Death threat? Are you kidding me? Why would someone go to the extent of criminal behavior just to get back at the women with weight problem is beyond me. Well when it comes to hate I must admit that there were plenty out there but death threat is a stretch and she is once again imagining things like her “divalicious” description of herself tantamount to delusional bouts typical of one living in her own world concocted by a sick imaginative mind.
So now she is desperately turning the tables on the bloggers that she allege are engaged in the same bigotry, discrimination, and hatred (against overweight individuals, for example) and trying to appear as the “victim” is truly pathetic. Ayayayay, Ms. Malu Fernandez I don’t think people are showing bigotry and discrimination they are just (this Political Jaywalker included) pointing out the obvious………. a trying hard “fashionista” with weight problems.
Life is too short to waste our energy on anger and hating this cheap “diva”, I can forgive but never will I forget and instead of getting angry I have made it a point to get even. Do I hate or am I a bigoted prejudicial person? That is not for me to say....... all I can say is this woman has a weight problem and I don't think that qualifies as a bigoted or prejudicial statement, after all one must strive to be fit and watch one's weight to be healthy and for longetivity.
If the rumor errr reports are true that she owns a plus size "fashion" store for overweight people then that again is a disgusting cheap promotional effort disguised as an apology that really shows the kind of person she is.......... a cheap opportunist trying desperately to attract attention to herself......... and then there is this blog entry Short-lived Victory from Clear Blogs on Manila SubSATANdard with their Aug. 27th issue coming up with an ad on the return of the "Divalicious" truly adds insult to injury.
Update 8/29/07:
Ajay's of Writings on the wall..... has an entry titled: It's Official: The Divatrocious returns, had this to say regarding Malu Fernandez and the stand of Manila SubSATANdard:
An insider said: “while Malu Fernandez indeed has submitted her resignation, her resignation has not been accepted by higher management, hence we will continue publishing her column.”
There it is...... let us see if on Monday 3rd of Sept. they will really publish her witless insulting column......... I am eagerly waiting....... let them self destruct, it's a "free" country anyway and in the land of cheats anything and everything is possible.
Related article:
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Overseas Filipinos 
malu fernandez 
modern day heroes 
human trafficking
sexual slavery
Labels:
Filipino Blogs,
OFW,
Pinoy Personalities,
Social Issue
4 Speak Out:
confirmed na ba 'tong pagbabalik kuno? wala pang post na nagpapakita ng petsa ng balitang yan... we should be sure about this before tyo gumawa ng action.
I hope this report about Malu is not true. If it is, the calls for boycott are now justified.
Andrea/schumey, you guys can confirm this by simply buying a copy of the Manila SubSATANdard. It seems real unfortunately no one has yet came out with a scan that shows the publication date.
As far as I am concerned this overweight "diva" is just a manifestation of a bigger problem facing the nation. She happens to be a larder errr larger target but there is really a need for an organized approach especially among overseas Filipinos to assert their political and economic will for the good of the nation.
While bloggers like us have can play a major role the leadership will have to come from the ranks of the contract workers themselves and not some recycled politicians or wanna be personalities that has no clue what the ofws are going through.
“Responses to an OFW-Basher”
By Jerick T Aguilar
After shamelessly writing about her summer trip to Boracay and Greece in the June 2007 issue of People Asia magazine, this columnist was found guilty of character assassination of our overseas Filipino domestic helpers regardless of the fact that they have never wronged her, except – in her opinion – for being on the same economy flight that everyone is entitled to. As a writer and traveler myself, please find below my notes on some of the things she wrote. I may also be guilty of character assassination but at least mine is not baseless and I think of this more as defending our fellow “kababayans” working abroad.
“But I was too ashamed to ditch my friends and forego the huge amount I already paid for my share of the villa.” – Outright pretentious! People rent and share villas in Boracay to save on expensive hotel charges per night so writing that she paid a “huge amount” is plainly preposterous!
“Meanwhile, when all of this was going on, I was on the cell phone …” – Proper English writing uses the conjunction “while” when it is followed by the progressive (this case in the past) and interrupted by the simple tense – so “while all of this was going on, I was …” – I thought a columnist for a magazine (and newspaper) would have a knowledge of English much better than a domestic helper’s!
“Ron is my travel buddy … so between his schedule and mine, the logistics are a nightmare.” – “Logistics” is a non-countable noun and, hence, is always followed by a singular verb – so “… logistics is a nightmare.” Ditto!
“Emirates had won best economy class and some award.” – “Award”, on the other hand, is a countable noun (i.e. it has singular and plural forms) and the modifier “some” means more than one – so “… some awards.” – My, oh my! Our housemaid even knows better English than her!
“I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there.” – Duh?!? Majority of OFWs are in Saudi Arabia, unless she doesn’t know what the word “majority” means. And another duh! To be “stationed” means to stay in one place – it’s obvious that our OFWs don’t just stay there, she was with them while traveling back to the Philippines.
“Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them.” – Okay, a plane is a form of public transportation so the preposition “on” instead of “in” is used (e.g. on a bus, on a train, etc.) so “… trapped on a plane …” Yeah, she should’ve slashed her wrist in order to prevent writing more grammatical mistakes! (I hope her readers do not know that she is Filipino! Nakakahiya kung ganoon! – Sorry but the English translation does not suffice!)
“… I would never risk losing if my luggage ended up in the middle of the Sahara desert.” – Her plane took off from Dubai then landed in Athens where the flight plan is northeast of the Sahara desert, unless there was a stopover in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Now is she really a traveler or was it just her first time to travel?…
“… the seats were so small I had bruises …” – Okay, didn’t she mention that Emirates had won best economy class? So I wonder if the seats were so small or she was simply so big?
“Domestic helper ka rin ba?” – She wrote this question as if she overheard it while dozing off. I bet she was actually asked this question. I mean, I would whether or not I were a domestic helper given her fashion sense in the pictures (not at all to demean the clothing style of our domestic helpers but one cannot really differentiate hers from theirs).
“… the weather report on CNN … was wrong because it was still winter.” – Hold on, summer in the Philippines from April to June is already spring in Europe. And even if the European winter in March extended till April, Greece is in the Mediterranean so it would’ve already been warm by then. So was it really a cold winter while she was there or she just wanted to impress her readers by mentioning the word “throw” as a noun and not as the usual verb (and by wearing it to look less fat in the picture)?
“I adamantly wanted to go to Santorini … but due to time constraints, we were unable to go.” – Talk about being pretentious again! She intentionally forgot to mention “money” as another constraint! Didn’t she just write that she had to fly economy?
“I guess God was watching out for us.” – And now she thinks God was after writing that God had sent her to her own private hell being on a plane with “those domestics”. One of the rules of journalism is to be consistent (aside from having perfect English, of course!) so I guess she is the exception.
“This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can …” – Another cardinal rule of journalism is to avoid redundancy so a “fish” in a sardine can sounds much better. I don’t think she’s a traveler, I don’t think she’s a journalist either… What is she then? An abomination?
“… with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while my Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.” – Interesting how she made reference to Jo Malone in which a perfume wardrobe costs more than $1,000 yet she had to take the economy flight to Athens and back…
“But for a couple of weeks, I had the great escape …” – What was that again? A “couple of weeks” when she wrote beforehand of her “time constraints”? Greece is not China so a visit to Santorini from Athens can be squeezed even within a week of staying there. And before that, she wrote “Pick a country!” as if she can go anywhere she wants to. But she ended up saving on her plane ticket only to be “trapped” with OFWs and “smelling like air freshener”. She is the height of pretension indeed!
Three things to my “supposed” fellow writer and traveler – first off, if you have to write something in English, do not forget the simple rules of grammar so you do not cause intellectual harm to the people reading your article. Secondly, if you do not have money to pay for a business class fare, then don’t complain if you are surrounded by OFWs who can only afford an economy flight. As a final note, I suggest you thank these OFWs instead of demeaning them! If it weren’t for the billions of foreign currency remittances that our country regularly receives from them, the instability and depreciation of the peso-dollar exchange rate would’ve prohibited you from traveling to Greece in the first place (and buying that Jo Malone, assuming you already did)!
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