“Mommy, I don't want to eat anymore. My teacher is telling me that eating with a spoon and fork is yucky and disgusting.” These were the words of seven year old Luc Cagadoc to her mother. From what I have read from an article from the The Chronicle online ( http://www.westislandchronicle.com/pages/article.php?noArticle=6063 ), Luc is transferred by his school's lunch monitor to a table isolated from other kids whenever he is “caught” eating with spoon and fork. When the mother confronted the lunch monitor and complained to the principal. She was shocked to hear the principal’s reply: “Madame, you are in Canada. Here in Canada you should eat the way Canadians eat.” And when she asked about the punishment of isolating Luc in a table, the principal remarked: “If your son eats like a pig he has to go to another table because this is the way we do it and how we’re going to do it every time.”
Is there anything wrong with using both fork and spoon? When I was a kid, I was taught by my mother how to properly use spoon and fork. When I entered the seminary, I learned the more gracious way of using both utensils through our “social graces” seminar. Using fork and spoon in eating is a cultural mores just like the use of chopsticks in other Asian countries. Saying that such manner of eating is wrong is like saying that our culture is wrong. How much more if they see us Filipinos eat “kamayan” style? I love to eat with my bare hands especially when sumptuous native meal is served (that would be tuyo, daing or salted egg with kamatis). Does that make me a pig or lesser human? Certainly not!
Four years ago, Bishop Eijk of the Diocese of Groningen, Netherlands (communio partner of our diocese) paid a visit to our diocese. Among the many affairs he attended was the Diocesan Youth Day. We ate “kamayan” style as it was a barrio-fiesta type of celebration. The couple who were part of Bishop Eijk’s entourage were betting whether or not he would use his hands to eat as it was anathema to do so in Netherlands. They were surpirsed when he began to wash his hands and he ate with his bare hands. I admired him for his flexibility and respect to a tradition. He did not feel degraded to eat with his hands and more so, he did not hesitate to do what was anathema in his homeland. More so, during meals at the Bishop’s Residence, he ate with both spoon and fork.
Punishing Luc for using spoon and fork is wrong. Saying that his manner of eating is disgusting is worst. It is plain discrimination under the guise of instilling table etiquette into Luc. I pity the child because the sad experience seems to have traumatized him.
Does using spoon and fork turn us into lower beings and turn the Canadians who eat with fork and knife into higher beings? NO!!!!
I hope that this is just an isolated case. Otherwise, some Canadians are bigots and racists.
G.C. UANAN
8 May 2006
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7 comments:
I am willing to go to the Canadian Embassy here in the Philippines and eat kamayan infront of the Canadian Ambassador, if only to drive a point- that people should not be discriminated by the manner they eat.
Eh ano kase ang pakialam nila sa pag-gamit natin ng kutsara't tinidor sa pagkain? Porke ba kutsilyo at tinidor ang gamit nila kelangan ganun na rin ang gamitin ng mga dayuhan sa Canada? Ano kaya kung pilitin din natin silang magkutsar at magtinidor o pagkamayin din natin sila kung sila ang napunta sa Pinas?
bakla nman ung principal at lunch monitor na un eh bata lang ang kinakaya nila
Thank you so much for your comment on my blog. It really broke my heart to see the pain this person caused to that young child. This person made Luc feel ashamed of himself for no reason, and now Luc will never, ever, forget that.
Hi GCU,
I just wanna tell you that we Fil-Canadians condemn what the principal said and what the lunch monitor did to LUC. I read the online account and was happy to read a comment from a pure blooded Canadian:
Lunch Room Behavior???
Casey Jones
I think both the lunch monitor and prinicipal were the ones who need to be punished not the kid. The kid was just eatting lunch in the traditional Filipino way. He wasn't hurting anyone or annoying anyone at all. The staff there need to be educated that we as Canadians are to respect each other's cultural practices and beliefs- under the Canadian Human Rights act we cannot discriminate against others based on race, religion, physical/ mental disability, color, creed or sex at all. That kid has a right to eat and enjoy his food without being abused by the staff at school. He has the right to enjoy his meals with his peers regardless if he eats with a fork and spoon or not.
I just would like to point out that not all Canadians are racists. I condemn what the principal and the lunch monitor did. What the heck if Luc uses spoon and fork as long as he does not mess with his meal....
Fr. Grev, Archbishop Oscar Cruz got a blog on this too, i will paste it here ha:
pig
The Philippines is poor. Majority of the Filipinos are suffering from poverty. Many children no longer go to school. There is much criminality especially in the urban areas. A good number of our local and national political leaders leave much to be desired in their honesty and integrity. The people of the Philippines are sufficiently humbled by many socio-ethical liabilities in their country.
The people of other countries may be very wealthy, much educated, highly sophisticated. Their schools, principals and teachers may be the best in the globe�with students who may have the highest standard in table manners according to their excellent culture and exquisite tradition. And all these are laudable and admirable.
But for a supposedly highly educated school principal to call a young school boy a �pig� for eating with fork and spoon, this is forgivable but not understandable, this is excusable but not acceptable. The little boy is just that�a boy. He is a foreigner in the country. He belongs to a humble family. But a pig he is definitely not.
The boy and his family are in that foreign country not to beg but for his parents to earn a living. They can be neither dependents nor liabilities of the country. In fact, they must be contributing to its progress and development no matter how little and insignificant. But savages they are not.
The parents of the boy might not belong to the elite in that foreign country. The boy himself might not be a member of a royal class. But to say that he eats like a �pig��this is definitely not the way of someone respectable and honorable. By merely saying that a boy has eating habits like a pig, this in effect betrays the questionable mentation and disposition of one so much immersed in prejudice and discrimination.
One wonders what the school principal would call the Americans who eat their sandwiches with the hands, the Chinese who eat their food with chopsticks, the Filipinos who eat their rice and fish with their bare hands. It would be much advisable for the said principle never to travel to Asia at least. This continent must be filled with �pigs� according to the standards of the same principal.
It is commonly said that �when in Rome, do as the Romans do�. No matter what this may actually mean, there is much doubt if Romans would call a young boy a �pig� if this were eating with fork and spoon!
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