Gossips are everywhere

(Part 12 of the “In Defense of the Filipino” series)

THERE was a local entertainer who said on television that she and her family would already immigrate to the United States—after making much money in the Philippines.

Why did she choose the U.S. as her place of retirement? She claimed that the U.S. had no gossips and that it was far from Filipinos, who she claimed were unmatched in the world as gossip makers. She was unbearable. After accumulating money (Filipino money) here, she was already spitting on her native land and her fellow Filipinos.

Gossips are everywhere. They work in humans very naturally because humans have eyes and ears. What is seen or heard travels into the mind. The mind accommodates it. The hoarded thought is brought down the tongue. The tongue will get itchy if what the mind has deposited is not spewed out of the mouth. When the mouth does, everything spreads. Human nature causes it all.

Gossips may be true or false. If true, then “if there’s a smoke, there must be a fire.” If false, it is saddening because the character of the involved person or persons is assassinated.

Tabloids make up most of Britain’s newspapers. Their favorite topic is the royal family, for the British love to know things about their monarchs.

United Kingdom Queen Elizabeth II described 1992 as an annus horribilis (horrible year) for her country because the British press feasted on the royal marriages’ embarrassing secrets.

Paparazzi (social photographers) secretly took pictures of the wife of Prince Andrew (the queen’s second son) while relaxing topless in a beach with her two young daughters and with her new lover. The photos got headlined in many parts of the world. The media also dug up the marriage of the heir to the throne, Prince Charles, and his wife Princess Diana. Their exposed extra-marital affairs led to eventual divorces of these marriages.

Anti-Filipinos argue that while there are gossips in other countries, such are always accompanied by photographs to authenticate them, unlike here where gossips are just gossips.

In 1996, Princess Diana got negative publicity again when she was caught in a video having an illicit affair with another man in an apartment. They were seen through a transparent glass window. She was embarrassed once more, and so were her sons and family. But months later, it was found out that the woman in the videotape was a fake Diana, just a look-alike hired with that man by paparazzi eyeing for big money (by selling the tape to the tabloids).

Because of the cravings for royal gossips, the tabloids and paparazzi always follow almost every move of the royal people. When in need of privacy, the royals sometimes flee from them.

Other articles by Jon E. Royeca

• Why Is the Philippines A Poor Country? - January 19, 2010
• Defend the Filipino - January 19, 2010
• Wrong Perceptions of Americans - January 19, 2010
• Copycats? - January 19, 2010
• Colonial Mentality - January 19, 2010
• The Real ‘Filipino Time’ - January 19, 2010
• On Our Sense of History - January 19, 2010
• Crab Mentality Is Universal - January 19, 2010
• It’s Not Lack of Discipline - January 19, 2010
• All Nations Have Graft and Corruption - January 19, 2010

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