NEWS

Filipinos criticize Theodorakis over ‘Filipina’ comment

Filipinos living in Greece have complained about composer Mikis Theodorakis claiming in a public address that the troika (EU, ECB and IMF) is expecting the country to behave like a ?Filipina?.

Theodorakis was reported to have made the comment during a speech in Naoussa on June 27 as part of his campaigning for his political movement, Spitha (Spark).

Filipina-Greek Margie Doyle Papadopoulou said in an open letter that has been circulated on social media that she finds Theodorakis? statement ?thoughtless, hurtful and racist.”

Papadopoulou, who said Theodorakis was a ?good man?, was reinforcing racial stereotypes by making the comment.

?Why should a floundering nation of Greeks be compared to Filipinas? How can you callously categorize Philippine women in a way that ignores their individuality, their intelligence, their strengths and their charms?

?How can you use hard-working and courageous people as a symbol of everything that you find humiliating, a symbol of servitude?”

Last month, the Filipino group Kasapi Hellas also criticized Theodorakis? statement.

?You use the term ?Filipina? as a synonym for submissiveness and servitude, as someone low and insignificant: a non-person, so helpless in the presence of employers that she only has to obey blindly.”

?While you wish, thus, to portray an image of blind obedience of the Greek people to the demands of the Troika, at the same time you are demeaning the Filipino people.”

?We are outraged at your making this analogy between Filipinas and the situation Greece finds itself in.”

Jeremaiah Opiniano of the OFW Journalism Consortium reported that the Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimates there were more than 45,000 Filipinos in Greece who sent more than $222 million back to the Philippines.

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