Profile Number 1 — The Unionist
His day was ‘dry’ that was why he was looking for someone to talk to. That was what he told me when he sent me an IM on Skype. He is a Filipino working in Singapore. He is a Unionist. Admittedly, I was impressed by his good grammar. He spelled the words correctly. He did not use chat abbreviations or lingo, or whatever one wants to call it. Perhaps, this was what got me to reply to his messages.
As our conversation went deeper, I found out that he was an activist. He sent me a picture of him protesting against the Arroyo administration. He bombarded me with lectures on unfair labor practices. He asked me what pushed me to work in Malaysia. At the back of my mind, he was insinuating issues on Filipino diaspora. So I told him I was not idealistic. I told him I decided to work in Malaysia for the experience and for the little amount of money that I would get to save. Then this was what he had to say: “I am not idealistic. I deal with reality.”
We talked for about three hours, non-stop. We got to the topic on Filipinos always going for the gold. Then I told him that I was not one of them — I had some self-esteem issues. This was when he told me how activism helped him get out of his shell, how it got him to speak with passion and authority with his feet still planted on the ground.
It was getting late. It was around 10 o’clock in the evening. He was still in his office, and I had to go to work the next day. We agreed to call it a night. But before we said our good-byes, I asked him what his real name was; I was quite sure that his Skype ID was not his real name because it resembled the name of one of the characters from a popular Filipino telenovela (although they call it teleserye these days).
He told me he was going to tell me the next day why he was using an alias, and that he was going to explain everything to me.
