A small tongue do kill; in fact, it can also be a deadliest tool to commit suicide

Recently, I've read a blog post specifically discussing and at the same criticizing a certain columnist who had posted an article about the humble and hard-working OFWs whom she had encountered in her journey to Greece. Believe me, this was the first time I've stumbled into a blog post that has received over 2,000 comments and counting. The post, however, is intended to discuss about a specific column written by a columnist whose name is Malu Fernandez; note that.

This column, which had become a controversial issue not only in the internet world but also reached the peak of fame of being televised via satellite, must have been a popular tool to honor the hard work, suffering, and sacrifice made by the OFWs abroad. But not. Malu's article had reached the height of its popularity for arousing Filipinos fury with the unkind words that she wrote about the poor and innocent OFWs.

Her article titled Are you a stinky linky? Or do you smell like a divalicious babe? was published under The Manila Standard Today last April 2007. With the help of this newspaper, she had made her ignorance echo into publicity and be known among multitude. With all carelessness she said in her article,

"Call me whatever you like but when you are trapped in economy class that is filled to the brim with migrant workers the smell gets a little funky after nine hours of flying."

What an obnoxious expression!

Not only that. To make her ignorance of the real possible impact of her words manifest to the public, she further mentioned in her column titled "From Boracay to Greece" under People Asia magazine:

"I forget that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of OFWs were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phone and perfume. I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them."

I guess she had mistakenly published her write to the popular media papers like The Manila Times Today and People Asia. The news about her inhumane comment about the OFWs spreaded like plague in the net that resulted her to reap fuming insults even death threats.

Please read, Society columnist quits over OFW bashing

To calm the raging anger of OFWs who have joined forces to shout their strong disgust against Malu and against the insults she had written, Malu Fernandez filed her resignation to both The Manila Times Today newspaper and People Asia magazine.

Please read, Statement from Malu Fernandez on the OFW Controversy

Well, in the end I want to say and you may take it as my personal opinion towards this issue; I may not be one of those who are in the plane where she rode upon, but I am one of the OFWs who is out of the country sacrificing for a small amount of penny to support my family. I dont smell like a divalicious babe, I cant afford to buy expensive perfumes, but in all aspect I know how to mind other people's emotions before I speak; I guess all human beings have this kind of nature in them, unless of course, you are a pig and your manners stink.

Okay let's stop, she already resigned. I just hope that this incident serves her a good moral lesson which she would carry in dealing with every OFWs she may encounter all through her life. I hope she would learn to pay respect to her fellow kababayans for no matter how stinky or divalicious a Filipino's smell might be, we still belong to a low class and often discrimited Philippines. Now, that's another issue to tackle.

—pinklady