Carmen Mislang’s Tweet: Out of Tune

With the exception of some, Filipinos are known for their courtesy and hospitality to visitors and foreigners. However, that trademark is slowly carried away by strong current of egotism but hopefully, not into oblivion.

When visiting new places and meeting new friends, Filipinos are also known for their refined demeanor and tacit urge in learning new things that last for a lifetime.

Our Vietnamese friends familiar with these should have their jaws dropping when right in their city, a Philippine presidential speechwriter in the person of Carmen Mislang complained in her Tweeter about the sucking wine and the possible danger caused by their speeding vehicles in the streets of Hanoi.

For the open-minded, Mislang has all the right to express anything she wants in her Tweeter, Facebook,  My Space or  in any other social network site. She did not malign or defame anyone nor was her opinion libelous. She was just expressing what is in her mind, period. And that is not a crime. If the wine doesn’t taste good to her, who can help even if it is one of the finest from Sonoma Valley? She might prefer a "tapuy" instead. Same is true with her safety assessment on the traffic in busy Hanoi. Perhaps the plight of cars in EDSA or Quiapo is safer for her.

What is definitely wrong is her arrogance and un-Filipino character that as a visitor and a member of the presidential delegation, she should have shown a sense of diplomacy. Mislang, although not elected, is not an ordinary citizen the fact that she rubs elbows with the president occasionally in drafting speeches. If I were P-Noy, I let her go for giving me a red face in the midst of a diplomatic visit to a friendly country.

Her Tweet according to ABS-CBN radio anchors was immediately deleted by her but that makes no difference when in this time of technology, anything in the net can spread quickly.

We appreciate Mislang’s quick thinking but the damage has been done.

At the end of the day, we cannot blame the patriotic Vietnamese in bad-mouthing us back in a subtle way. While it is true that the Philippines helped Vietnam in their past conflicts; have accepted some of its citizens fleeing from an unwanted government, Vietnam today is poised to overtake our economy in the not too distant future. Right now, we might enjoy the best tasting wine from Italy or California or a better and safer flow of traffic than Vietnam but so long as we continue to be conceited and manifest our “Spanish blood”, somewhere along the mile, Vietnam will have its last laugh.

Let me repeat that the presidential speechwriter has all the right to say anything she wants  based from her perception but her position and the place where she Tweeted should have restrained her finger in pressing “enter”.

We are thankful, the Vietnamese are not haughty. -30-

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