In my college there was only one other Pinoy, who, despite his US citizenship, displayed undeniably Pinoy traits, which ranged from the irrelevant (like his prominent accent), to the irritating (inefficient). He attempted to latch on to me; he expected me, as a kabayan whose English was better than his, to write his papers for him. He did not expect me to charge him, but I did, and he paid. I did not, and would not, have done it out of altruism. Or out of some kind of twisted brotherhood.
Obviously this was all wrong in so many ways. It’s certainly illegal to plagiarize, maybe worse morally, maybe not, to make a business out of it. How his money covered up his academic inadequacy is a splendid display of corruption.
I figured, what the heck, both parties had something to gain from this corruption; this rich, useless dude ended up passing the course and he had had a reason to “socialize” with a kabayan who would have ignored his sorry existence were it not for the business advantage. I was a highly skilled, willing-to-work student with hardly any spending money in an expensive foreign country.
I think I worked out the most win-win situation despite the criminality of it all. The alternative would have been him failing the courses, having no one to talk to (no ethnic group would take him), and me penniless and painfully embarrassed about That Other Filipino (with a US passport).
I am proud not to have put a patriotic lacquer on the fiasco the way Pinoy politicos do. Besides, how could I? I was pumping out papers for any nationality that put francs in my pocket. Business is business.
Work dignifies us while laziness diminishes our pride, indeed.
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