UDPATE: Tuloy tuloy pa rin pinag-uusapan

ang Malu Fernandez issue in the blogosphere.

pero wala pa rin sa mainstream media.

UPDATE: Finally, there's one from Connie Veneracion. But like cathcath, she seems angrier at the non-OFW people and bloggers calling for malu's resignation or a boycott, even to the point of questioning their motives and agendas. I think she's a little paranoid, writing in her cocoon at the MST. Sabi niya:

The sadder truth is that we, migrant workers and non-migrant workers alike, are all part of this twisted culture of cracking jokes at the expense of others. Haven’t you laughed at and disseminated Erap jokes via SMS and e-mail? Don’t you watch Bubble Gang and guffawed at the impersonations of politicians and media personalities? Don’t you giggle at the local version of Candid Camera hosted by Michael V. which victimizes unwary people on the street, subjecting them to embarrassing and humiliating situations all for the sake of entertaining the show’s viewers? See, everything is funny until we find ourselves to be the subject of the jokes. Then, it isn’t so funny anymore. And, often, it is not easy to tell where the humor ends and the insult begins. Then, it becomes an emotional issue.

What amazes me that no one seems to realize that media is responsible for the workers’ reaction. Media spoiled and pampered them by building them up as modern-day heroes and they have gotten used to the title. So who is this woman with the gall to look down on them? She’s part of media too. Why isn’t she writing the way media has always written about these migrants? Thing is, there is a way to disagree with the sensational declaration that they are nothing less than heroes without making fun of them as persons. And not everyone is incapable of discerning between an obvious insult and one that has been sugarcoated to make it appear as humor. Under the circumstances, the reaction of the workers is understandable and the demand for an apology cannot be considered unreasonable.

What is truly mind-blowing is that non-OFW sectors of the Philippine blogging community are in on the act too and demanding far more than what levelheaded migrant workers are asking for. In the e-mail I received, and this was circulating among OFWs, the demand was for an apology. There was no name-calling such as what has been going around in Web logs posts and comment threads where Malu Fernandez is referred to as Miss Piggy, slut, fatso, oink oink... Some of the worst name-calling appear on Web logs that are not even written by migrants and they go as far as calling for her resignation, or for People Asia magazine and Manila Standard Today to fire her and issue public apologies. Otherwise, a boycott. These people want blood. Why? Sympathy? Or is it something else?

I tell you, there is nothing more useless and unreasonable as an angry, unthinking mob. And there is nothing more dangerous than a mob with an agendum—lest we forget, the Philippine blogging community is a medium too and hardly exempt from the mentality that anything goes if it translates to readership/audience.

She's seems to think it's unusual for non-OFWs to react negatively to Ms. Fernandez's drivel. First of all, hindi lang naman OFWs ang target eh. She's also targetting poor, masa-type Filipinos with her "humor."

I don't think Malu has any issues with middle class, or upper middle class professional Filipinos working abroad at all. And that's why cathcath and her ilk feel like they're not the target of malu's screed.

As for Connie to claim that OFWs are less angry than non-OFWs re Malu, and none of the OFWs have called for her resignation, just apology lang raw? do you think that's accurate? what do you think peeps?