Comments on: Staring contest with jeepney driver

By: jediknight

jediknight — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:28:16 +0000

The driver just bought a limousine. He was thinking, “My limo’s much cooler than these a**holes’ limo. Look at the f***ing color, black like a hearse. Mine’s brown, like the limos of the old rich.”

By: agimat

agimat — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:57:57 +0000

Jeg: exactly! We all have this thing about mirrors/glass partitions or just about anything we can see our reflections into - we always check ourselves out.

By: roreru24

roreru24 — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:49:30 +0000

More than anything else, it’s the limousine that brought this Pinoy to stare at the Bumbay. Think Edsa at 2pm. And you happen to be beside this grand car. This car must have cool aircon inside, with a filthy rich guy watching DVD, oblivious to the unbearable hardship and poverty that the people experienced. And as #9 comment would say, the situation was made worse by the driver’s refrection he saw at the limo’s window. “What have I done to deserve this kind of life,” he asked himself.

By: jeg

jeg — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:42:54 +0000

The jeepney driver wasnt staring at him. The limousine’s window, like all limousines’ windows, was tinted. The driver was checking himself out in the window and didnt even see the darn, self-absorbed guy.

By: spidamang

spidamang — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:41:17 +0000

could it be that the narrator just has a really big mole between his eyebrows? :)

The problem with regards to how most pinoys deal with foreigners is that they always associate them with what they see on tv, movies and print. So they think that all Joe Gringos (or anybody blonde and blue eyed) is Mr. I Can Take On Anything You Throw At Me And Still Do It Looking Good. Plus we really STARE LIKE LITTLE KIDS at anything strange and unusual.

By: Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 10:30:25 +0000

And oh, as for the drayber’s glare, I think the narrator (perhaps Hamid) is not aware of the fact that most Pinoys just going by appearance would not automatically identify non-Caucasians, especially Middle Eastern/Indian-looking people, as being “Amerikano”. Aside from what most of the commenters have already pointed out, Pinoys do have a generally condescending view of the latter to be particularly “mabaho”; at least not as strongly as white people’s reputation as non-frequent bathers themselves but their fairer skin and aquiline noses do much to avert that relatively little obstacle from the Pinoy’s prevailing sense of their being superior.

By: Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:10:08 +0000

Sorry, I don’t know where else to put this but it’s kinda related. Denis Johnson’s “Tree of Smoke”, the recipient of the 2007 National Book Award for fiction apparently has many references to the Philippines as well. Johnson was supposed to have been raised partly in Manila. However, B.R. Myers of the The Atlantic, as expected, doesn’t share Michiko Kakutani and the rest of the literary snobland’s enthusiasm for the novel in this recent review: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/vietnam.

Jessica, I wonder if you share Myers’ opinion “on the growing pretentiousness of American literary prose”. [For those not familiar w/ him, here’s his infamous “A Reader’s Manifesto”: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200107/myers It’s pretty bold of him to take on such widely regarded literaty giants as Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx, etc. but I think he’s mostly spot on. Whether or not you agree w/ him , I’m eager to read your opinion (hopefully a lengthy and detailed analysis) on the great divide between supposed “genre” and “literary” fiction.

By: jessicazafra

jessicazafra — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:12:09 +0000

According to a friend, the real irony here is that the Pinoy jeepney driver would always identify more with the blue-eyed American rather than with the “Bumbay”.

By: anon

anon — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:55:45 +0000

Filipinos openly stare at anyone the least bit unusual. Nothing personal or judgemental. Foreigners complain about this all the time.

By: Rye

Rye — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:27:57 +0000

In the gay community, we stare when we cruise, and most of the time it might seem hostile, but it’s only because we wait for the other to smile first. I think the jeepney driver wanted to have sex with the narrator.

By: oneminutebeforenine

oneminutebeforenine — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:09:07 +0000

Well, i guess staring in a more not-so-poker-face look is just normal. We can’t just stare on a straight face, can we? (well, you’re stoned or something)…so a little angst in a look is just okay, unless, you want to go overboard and smile, and we don’t give smiles to strangers. I guess, it’s even more weird to get a smile. On most cases, we’d be more puzzled with that. A smile from a stranger? Some would find that rather odd, or to the most, insulting…(I mean, why is she effing smiling? Do i know him/her? Something wrong? Dirt on my face?)

Or to end the paranoia, “sunlight” usually crumples the face. Don’t think that driver, or that cigarette vendor on the street has something against you for having that face…c’mon, it’s usually hot!

By: MNR

MNR — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 15:35:02 +0000

In the Phillipines you can get killed for a “masamang tingin” so one must be sensitve enough “na makuha sa isang tingin.” A glance is either an invitation or a challenge. We’re obsessed with “tingin” as in “may pagtingin, may pagtitinginan.” I can only guess what’s going through the driver’s mind “Anong tinitingin tingin mo dyan, bumbay?” The driver was daring the narrator to turn that glance into a measure, a judgement. At leche, malayo pa siya sa boundary.