Home is where the hurt is

Filipino-Japanese Yuka Saso is switching allegiance to Japan. Its nationality law requires the 20-year old US Open champion to pick which country to represent before she turns 22. She has to make a choice. I can’t blame her for picking the land of the rising sun over the pearl of the orient. Even if only she knows exactly why.

But certainly, the current world no. 6 will be nationalized in a country with the most disciplined people on earth, as opposed to half her lineage who evade and bend even the simplest rules, from traffic to waste, to manners and good taste. The Japanese are industrious too, but Filipinos are busier, on social media.

It is not about being poor, discipline can co-exist with poverty, and should even be one requisite to alleviate misery. Some rich people are even worse. And the poorest of the poor can teach them a lesson or two not only in discipline, but also in good manners and fairness.

Being good has nothing to do with status in life, but being bad has many things to do with fame and fortune. No one became wealthy without exploiting any. Not even by inheritance, it merely continues monopoly. Winning lottery, maybe. Not even, when it breeds the greedy.

The double gold medalist in the last Asiad is about to leave a country where people never learn from history, the learned included. A country where people believe and peddle fake news, the lettered included. Education is not only found in the classroom. It is acquired in the university of life where even the most brilliant fail the bar of human relations. It is not evidenced by any diploma, but by diplomacy in the face of adversity. Diploma is a mere piece of paper, diplomacy is a peace maker.

The youngest winner of the US Open is about to leave a country where some people refuse to believe in science, including those who studied it, purblind to evidence and instead conspire with superstitious theories. A country that crowns clowns to public office, where integrity is a liability, humility a weakness, rudeness in style and decency is tacky. While plunder is condoned, even rewarded. And arrogance is strength.

The golf prodigy who cloned the swing of Rory McIlroy to perfection is about to leave a country where hospitality means ceding a part of its territory, where people who ask for truth are threatened by those who fear its consequence. A religious country where lying, stealing, cheating and killing are tolerated, and whistleblowers are blown to pieces. A country where a few are above the law, while many are downed, not by law but by those who enforce it double, wrong and twisted. Worse, the country she is about to leave is peopled with thieves, not only of public purse. Robbers, not only of national wealth. Evaders, not only from taxes. And violators, not only of human rights.

We ran out of reasons good enough to stay in a country in gloom. Except that it is our home.