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By EU Ambassador to the Philippines Alistair MacDonald

Editors’s Note: “Address by the Honorary Patron of the
Manila St. Andrews Society, Ambassador Alistair MacDonald,
on the occasion of the annual St. Andrews Ball, Manila Polo Club, 21 November
2009″ is what the ambassador wanted for this blog’s title.

Our Chieftain asked me to say a few
words tonight, before we move on to more important things. I asked him if he
wanted a 20-minute speech, a 30-minute speech, or something more substantial. He
told me that about 2 minutes would be closer to the mark, because the haggis
would be getting cold. 

Nevertheless, within these
constraints, I would like to say a word about the links between the Philippines, our host country, and Scotland,
our native land. A couple of years back, Peter Beckingham* spoke at length (and
for rather longer than 2 minutes) about Scots in the Philippines. I’d like to look at
the other side of the coin–the growing number of Filipinos who have chosen to
study or work in Scotland. 

I did a quick Google on Scotland and the Philippines,
Scotland and Filipinos, Scotland
and Filipinas. And there were two main themes that I found there. 

One was about fishermen–I hadn’t
realised myself that there were perhaps 500 Filipinos working on Scottish
fishing vessels–enjoying the sun in Fraserburgh or Ullapool, and learning to
send text-messages like “Fit like, mun?” I thought at first that this was a
question of relative cost–and I was confirmed in that view by comments that the
Filipino fishermen were earning the glorious sums of between £250 and £600 a
month–not a lot, particularly if you think what the conditions are like on
fishing-boats, out in the North Sea or the Minch. But I also found an article
which suggested that salaries were a secondary consideration, and that the main
attraction of employing Filipino fishermen was that they are simply good guys–they
work hard, are easy to get on with, and as one skipper said, “They’re great
workers, but most of all ye can trust them. They dinna come home drunk or off
their faces on drugs.” Maybe this says more about Fraserburgh than it does
about OFWs, but it was clear that the Filipino fishermen were generally very
much welcomed by their hosts in the North-East.

The second main theme that I found
in Google was about the desire of the growing number of Filipinos in Scotland
to integrate with their host community. For example, I saw that the United
Filipino Communities of Scotland, in Pollokshaws, was carrying out a search for
Mrs. Philippines Scotland 2009. Perhaps more interestingly (particularly if one
imagines all those beauties bundled up in their anoraks, scarves, and hot-water
bottles), I also found an explanation for why the Filipinos prefer Scotland to England. 

This was also from the United
Filipino Communities of Scotland, where on their website I found a paper
explaining that the first members of the Filipino community in the UK arrived
in London in the late 1940′s and early 50′s and discovered the exotic pleasures
of a ride on a double-decker bus, or a night of Latin rhythms with Edmundo Ros.
But something was missing. And it wasn’t until they went on to visit Scotland that
they realised just what it was. London,
they said, was missing any signs of ethnicity or roots. And in Scotland,
we’ve got more ethnicity than you can shake a stick at.

There was even a suggestion that
Filipinos and Scots must in fact, centuries or millenia back, share a common
ancestry. The proof? Consider the strange similarity between Hoy, Ay Nako, and
Och Aye the Noo. Consider also our joint preference, and I quote, “for strange
songs and dances involving animal sounds and the possibility of severe personal
injury.” Not to mention our joint preference for truly appetising if unusual
foodstuffs–balut, or haggis. 

And with that mention of haggis
(and of course of balut, though I don’t think that this is on the menu
tonight), I will leave you with the thought that Filipinos truly appreciate
Scotland–just as Scots, and particularly those of us here tonight, very much
appreciate our cheerful and generous hosts.

* Former British Ambassador to the Philippines
Peter Beckingham.

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