Much has been said about the so called “racial slur” by Jimmy Kimmel in his late night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” I really don’t take offense because the joke was not really on us as a people but with the Americans because obviously they don’t know better. As much as i hate to generalize, there is a pattern that an average American doesn’t know anything outside their country, heck, Fil-Am friends would even quip that Americans themselves doesn’t know much about their country except Hollywood.

The joke is on them because thousands of teachers from the Philippines leave every year for the US to teach English (yes!) and other subjects in English of course to their children. Also the call center industry is booming, meaning, Americans call for tech support and customer inquiries to Filipinos whom they think (or we fooled them to believe) that they are talking to an American because the accent and ability to speak English is indistinguishable to that of an ordinary American. A lot of BPO’s has even set shop here to telemarket, that is to sell stuff to Americans all thru the gift of gab and proficiency in the English languange.

So who is really laughing? We are all, all the way to the bank.

And as for Josh Hartnett, he seems to be on the joke himself. He didn’t even offer an elaboration on the Jimmy Kimmel quip. He made a joke himself about it, laughed about it. He was here on location for his film, I Come With the Rain. All throughout those, he was sorrounded by military/police personnel. He couldn’t possibly assess an entire race’s proficiency of the English languange on that basis. If he did, then I pity him.

Josh Harnett, who starred in blockbuster films such as Pearl Harbor,
Black Hawk Down, Sin City, and Hollywood Homicide, will play the
role of a Los Angeles cop-turned-private eye who comes to the Far East in search of a Chinese billionaire’ s son, but he’s preoccupied with the memory of a past encounter with a serial killer—the reason he decided to quit the police force.

The film is called “I Come With The Rain” and it will be shot in the Philippines, particularly in Mt. Diwalwal in Davao. Film producers of the said film recently went to Mt. Diwalwal to scout the place in preparation for the actual filming.

The producers were reportedly happy with the location and even promised to come back to film three to four more movies. One of the proposed movies is said to be about Diwalwal, which would chronicle
the location’s colorful history.