“Rock the Balut”

by Arnold De Villa
September 1, 2012
On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, a former Governor of Massachusetts and a hedge fund investor, Mitt Romney will officially challenge the former Senator from Illinois and incumbent President Barack Obama. There are approximately 69 days for other candidates from various electoral spheres to compete and campaign together within the brew of keeping our current American leader or choosing a new one. Millions of dollars will pour into media conglomerates to inundate a willing ear to persuade or dissuade the checking of a name when ballots are marked on that given day.
“Rock the Balut” is an AFIRE (Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment) initiative that originated from the Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ) group based in Oakland, California. Although Filipino Californians used the phrase to celebrate their civic engagement through an evening of political comedy, AFIRE will use it to launch a campaign for a proactive registration of new voters. In conjunction with other organizations, AFIRE will once more be a catalyst to harness grassroots voter empowerment. On August 31, 2012, a Friday, AFIRE is inviting anyone interested to be a part of this campaign. Please send an email to afire@afirechicago.org for further details and how to volunteer.
According to AFIRE’s Executive Director, Jerry Clarito, “Rock the Balut” is a double entendre word inference for “Rocking the Vote”. Balut is a fertilized duck egg, boiled and ingested from its shell. It sounds and rhymes like “Ballot”, the device used to cast votes in an election. When we rock the ballot, we rock the vote; we shake the voters towards the selection of a name after careful deliberation and prudent education.
Unfortunately, from the perspectives of our own Filipino culture, politics has always been associated with something dirty and corrupt. Although this could be true in other cultures as well, Filipino politics has often been linked to that which is ugly and undesirable, seemingly like the appearance of an aborted duck. With this perspective, it has always been a challenge to instill an objective Filipino attitude towards any kind of election. Most candidates are mistakenly viewed from the prism of suspicion, erroneously generalizing politics as a game for power and corruption. With this kind of attitude, the amount of education and preparation for a Filipino whose heart has not yet left Philippine shores to transition into the benefits of being an American Citizen is usually laden with intrinsic challenges embedded in biased and bigoted misinformation. The end result is an apathy and detachment towards the intricate complexities of democratic processes.
New Filipino Americans who recently converted into being citizens of this country need to realize that the election process is not a popularity contest. This is also true even from those who were born here or from those who originated from other lands. Politics may bear corruption. And so does the rest of human organizations. As mortal beings born with imperfection, corruptibility is an inevitable aspect of our human identity. For that reason, we need the filters of reason and the filters of moral righteousness to shape our disoriented urges and direct our misguided orientation. These filters come through the patriotic passions of souls with ideals that seek to promote the interest of specific groups of individuals or for the common good of the American people. Since America is a diverse cultural potpourri of divergence and immeasurable variances, it becomes even more important for its citizens to be proactive so as to establish certain benefits that could spill towards the majority of her people. Evidently, the common good is not always a universal good. As long as justice is factored in and human rights are not neglected, American democracy will prevail and dominate as the ideal paradigm for world governance. As such, America still attracts most of the world’s immigrants, despite its legal battles and cultural flaws.
The Filipino American, for having added the modifier American after his national description, will need to transform certain ethical values towards that which could help him fulfill his new responsibilities. We cannot afford any attitude of indifference to that which is political because indifference is a pit that pulls us towards ignorance. Although it may be possible that corruption is inherent within politics, it may not true that those who practice politics are all corrupt. As such, those who support the ones who practice politics cannot be condemned corrupt neither.
Those who are corruptible are those who have not yet decided on how to behave or what ideals to promote. Ignorance and indifference are the vices that will lead them to the final stage of true corruption.
To “rock the balut” is an attempt to stimulate the Filipino American and deliver him from the indifference typical of those who did not want to be involved with the corruptions of Filipino Politics. To rock the balut is like to shake the egg before being able to savor the delectable delights of an apparently ugly source of protein. In the same token, the screen of human imperfection has somewhat filtered out the intended nobility and ideals of good citizenship. The unintended insertion of malignant elements within a society evolving towards progress and common good has somewhat concealed the authentic efforts of those who seek to serve this nation. It is then the task of a responsible citizen to discern that which is undesirable and flush them out from that which is ideal and acceptable. This cannot be done without an active desire for an educated engagement within a complex democratic system that instills equal opportunity and fairness for everyone.
America is still a nation wherein equal opportunity is stronger than favored sectors. It is the rule of numbers, the power of wealth, the efficiency of influence, or the intelligence to persuade that will shape the directions of our government towards that which is collectively beneficial. This collectivity is expressed through the specificity of so many groups divided according to ethnic background, racial origins, economic status, academic achievements, social rankings, gender orientation or others I forgot to mention.
As Filipino Americans, we are all invited to keep our identity as a people of a distinct history yet to set aside conflicting values that are not compatible with the current government we have accepted to be part of. America has given us the chance to be part of a system that fights for what is right and is not afraid of the struggles towards growth. We can either be here with hearts back home and not move anywhere except in our bank accounts or we can totally be here and truly enjoy the promises of American democracy without forgetting the treasures of our own ethnic values.
Rock the balut brother! Rock it hard.