|
King
Juan Carlos I toasted Gloria Arroyo for being “at the
forefront of liberties and the defense of human rights
with the abolition of the death penalty. . . .” The
Universidad Alcala de Henares awarded her a medallion de
oro.
I
expected human-rights groups to roast the Spanish king.
Instead they excused him with a torpeza best exemplified
by a line from an editorial by the Philippine Daily
Inquirer, “Unfortunately, the king was misinformed.”
How
sweetly idiotic; racist, even. Would they have assumed
as much if the human-rights award came from an African
despot?
Why they
believe the Spanish king is different, why they assumed
he would not have given Mrs. Arroyo an award had he been
aware of the real human-rights situation in the
Philippines,
is beyond me.
Does he
not owe his crown to
Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator who goose-stepped
with Hitler and Mussolini?
Didn’t
the conquista and 300 years of oppression tell anyone
anything about who was giving a human-rights award to
whom?
Spain
did not give Arroyo a gold medal for human rights
because it was ignorant. It gave it in exchange for a
promise to bring Spanish back as a school subject, a
quid pro quo which, if you think about it, is not all
that bad for us.
At the
very least, a new generation of graduates will have the
opportunity to earn more money working here at home. . .
in Spanish-language call centers.
At best,
Filipino students will be able to read the Noli and Fili
in the original, and they will learn how silly it is to
expect a reigning hereditary monarch to know human
rights when he sees it.
There
are, however, some drawbacks to making Spanish
universally available to Filipinos:
First,
it will anger our little brown Americans who, if they
had their way, would change our country’s name to
McKinleypines or Deweypines;
Second,
maids will find out what the señora and her amigas are
gossiping about;
Third, a
loquacious senator renowned for her Midwestern American
Ilongglish and the Palace in-house counsel whose
Ilongglish is pure but just as painful to the ear might
impose their Spalonggo on us. Dios nos ayuda when that
happens.
It’s too
bad not many of us saw the best thing to come out of
that junket to Spain, the portrait of Mrs. Arroyo’s lap
dummy, Toting Bunye, dressed to the nines, in white tie
and tails, complete with sash and medal of La Gran Cruz
De la Orden Isabella la Catolica.
Queen
Isabella was a devout Catholic who believed in religious
freedom
. . . for Catholics. But, in fairness to her, she did
give her subjects a choice.
Jews and
Muslims were given the freedom to choose between
conversion, death or expulsion from
Spain.
Catholics were allowed to become as Catholic as they
pleased, unmolested by heretics. Thanks to the
Inquisition.
Upon her
death, Isabella’s titles passed on to her daughter
Juana, also known as Juana La Loca. She was the
grandmother of Felipe II, the Spanish king for whom the
Spanish explorer Ruy Lopez de Villalobos named the
Philippines.
The
Grand Order of Isabel, or La Real y Americana Orden de
Isabel la Catolica, was founded by Ferdinand VII in 1815
as “a reward for loyalty either in the kingdom or in the
American colonies of Spain.” (Wikipedia)
It was,
as they say in Spain, “[M] ovido por el aprecio que
sentía el monarca por los valientes que defendían sus
derechos frente a los insurrectos en América, y con el
deseo de recompensar la acrisolada lealtad, el zelo y
patriotismo, desprendimiento, valor y otras virtudes,
que tanto los individuos de la milicia como los de todas
las clases y gerarquías del Estado han mostrado y
mostraren en adelante, en favor de la defensa y
conservación de aquellos remotos países,” (Extracted
from Las reales de ordenes y condecoraciones civiles del
reino de España.)
The
order’s raison changed when Spain lost aquellos remotos
paises.
These
days, an Isabella knighthood is conferred in recognition
of “meritorious contributions by designated laureates in
promoting an understanding and appreciation of all
facets of Hispanicity in the world.” (Wikipedia)
So, one
easy but meritorious way to earn a knighthood is to
promote Hispanicity by playing a part in the tribal
cavalcade of a visiting indigena married to a mestizo
descended from a Spanish saint from Avila.
Spain
could have avoided controversy had it created an order
especially for Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage.
La Real
y Filipina Orden de Juana la Loca would have been apt
for the power-mad indigena and the tag-along senator
who, had she been born into Spanish royalty centuries
earlier, would have bonded very well with Juana la Loca.
Buenos
dias.
Buencamino writes political commentary for Action for
Economic Reforms (www.aer.ph). |
