Filipinos

These are the cookies. A colleague in the office brought them from Spain. He said they're sweet, like the real thing. :-)

I was tickled when I saw them. And yes, they're very sweet. But some of my officemates weren't thrilled. They wanted to find the reason why they named those crispy little doughnuts after our noble race.

I checked the website. www.filipinos.com is redirected to a Spanish site, where they have this promotion that gives you a chance to win gadgets, Peugeot motorcycles, and a trip for 4 to the US. (Why not a trip to the Philippines, then, where the winner gets to meet several million of the real thing?)

I checked Wikipedia. Filipinos are made by Kraft Foods. The entry says that in 1999, Congressman Heherson Alvarez filed a diplomatic protest with the Spanish government over this cookie, and even Erap reportedly called it an insult to Filipinos. I could find no other article online about what happened to this protest, or whether Kraft (Artiach in Spain) ever responded.

Personally, I don't feel an immediate need to kick a** just because I share the name with a pastry. It's not an issue of patriotism; it would be hard to say you're insulted when you go to Starbucks for a coffee and a bagel for breakfast (ok, so your mug says 'Starbucks Philippines'), use imported Dove and Irish Spring soap at home, and flaunt all those Italian leather bags and shoes.

In my mind it's something like, Ok, I'm a Filipino. Kenneth Cobonpue designs furniture for Angelina Jolie's offspring; he's a Filipino. Lea Salonga, Charice, and Manny Pacquiao are Filipinos. The world's shortest man alive is a Filipino. Imelda Marcos was in Newsweek's 'Greediest People of All Time' in 2009. The 'I love you' virus, which drove CIA and Pentagon to shut down its mail system in May 2000, was created by a Filipino. There are reasons for pride; there are reasons for shame. And oh, we got a cookie named after us, too.

I think I know my own worth, and it's enough not to become insecure of a tiny crispy doughnut that's actually quite delicious.

Would you take offense?