Dennis Rodman Reuniting With His Father In Mall of Asia Speaks To Pinoy Family Values

Some mention has been made by the fact Dennis Rodman reunited with his father after the game that was played in the Mall of Asia Arena. There has been no physical meeting since 1969.  So everybody seems to be basking in the afterglow of a feel good moment. Count on me to look for the dark lining in the white cloud.

Philander Rodman Jr is 71 year old Vietnam War veteran who operates a burger joint  in Angeles City. Dennis Rodman might be the most famous NBA player with the lowest points per game average. The senior Rodman though does not seem to have any deficiencies in the scoring department. The account I read gives his career siring totals at 29 children from four women. I bet most pinoys won’t see the irony that this “productive” man’s real first name is Philander.

 

I am highlighting this because of all the Pinoys  that are so balat-sibuyas here and around the world .The ones who react so vocally over a perceived slight externally yet for some reason are so blind to the reality within our shores .

Filipinos are such a peculiar bunch because they take the words of a sitcom character and process it in their brains as something worth protesting. Take the Desperate Housewives incident.  Some joke was uttered there about Filipino med schools.  #1 it’s a sitcom about women who are not exactly known for manners and virtue. #2 sitcom is short for situation comedy. A throwaway line in a comedy is supposed to pack enough weight to get the pinoys up in arms? Don’t you have lives that something like that is worth your time? You do know that more you give it attention, the more people will think it’s true?

 

A year later the protesting pinoys shifted their attention to a different comedy in a different country. Pinoys described the BBC show Harry and Paul, starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse, as “disgraceful”, “distasteful” and “tantamount to racism”
In that skit   a pinay maid was trying to seduce a “white guy” . This is worthy of protest??? A pinay in my vast all-encompassing knowledge has never tried to arouse a white guy. How dare this show imply such a thing! To quote Tony Bruno   “it’s an outrage!!!” Just in case any of you take me literally please refer to the classic words of Charlie Brown.

 

Don’t you know sarcasm (audio)

 

For those of you whose hearts are only luke warmed by the Rodman reunion well your instincts served you well. Dennis is very dysfunctional. I should know, I read two of his books. As for his father well read the Slate article, he does not exactly come across as Robert Young. Read his life of hedonism and keep in mind where he is doing this. He has been doing this in our country. He is by no means a lone case. May I remind you the nationalities of the women who bore 95% of his children? Oh yeah, they were all pinay. Read the foreign author’s description of the cultural environment in the  Balibago district of Angeles city .  Yet we are worried about some made up sitcom? The Rodmans it seems do not have a monopoly on dysfunction.

 

Let’s bring it even closer to home. Our culture treasures Erap , Ramon Revilla   and Dolphy. Between the three of them they produced enough kids to fill Marikina. I won’t argue that Dolphy was a funny, generous man. He still fails in the role model department. Loyalty means something to me. Nice to know loyalty means something to an online friend of mine. Full disclosure my parents separated when I was thirty and it’s tough to deal with. Let’s put it this way. You can’t be well adjusted if thinking of your family life makes you think of this movie.

I am so sick of people who make things out to be what they are not. Like the Philippines is this sanctuary of virtue. The pinay abroad is pure and chaste. Our nationality has the same flaws and redeeming qualities every other nation has. Just because we have an abundances of churches , does  not in any way reduce the number of establishments that offer the pinay as a commodity.

 

 

 

Not just in this matter but in anything else where we hope to teach to others to live out the ideals that we have to be consistent in our communication of that ideal vision that we have. As a nationality we fail in that miserably when we criticize another nation’s fiction when we ourselves fall short in our local reality. The late Dr. Stephen R. Covey explains the shortfall this way.

 

Mistake #3: Assume that good example and relationship are
sufficient. We assume that a good example and a good relationship
are sufficient, that we don’t need to teach people explicitly. Just as
vision without love contains no motivation, so also love without
vision contains no goals, no guidelines, no standards, no lifting
power. Cure: Teach and talk about vision, mission, roles, goals,
guidelines, and standards.
In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently
and persuasively than what we say or even what we do.

 

I don’t care what others say but for me the Bible will always contain truth from 2000 years ago, truth today and truth 2000 years from now. As a spiritual mentor of mine Fr. Gerson  said to us the night I met him ” The Bible is not naive”. I am sure you heard this quote:

 

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Bo Didley once sang ” Before You Accuse Me (Take A Look At Yourself)  . I am not so sure that the pinoy will ever take heed of that. There is a weird convergence to this post. Steven Covey and Dolphy dying about a week apart with the Reunion of the Rodmans sandwiched in between.  No family is perfect. I am not sure why pinoys try so hard to protect their name abroad when there seems to be a lot to clean up in their own house.