My MIL & the “Biscuit” that rocked the nation
How true was it that a couple of years ago, the Philippine senate lodged a complaint against the biscuit manufacturer of “Filipinos” in Spain? If that was really true, then wow, forgive me… that was bloody stupid!!!
Okay, granted they were offended, but with what… because some biscuit manufacturer named his biscuit invention after us Filipinos and simultaneously happens to hold citizenship and establishment in the same country of our past colonizer? Uh, so what?! I didn’t know “Filipinos” is or was patented? Since when? Nor have I heard or knew Dutch was, or Cebuano?
Here is the culprit, the “once” very controversial biscuit that rocked the Philippine nation. They come in different variety of flavors: Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Caramel Chocolate, White Chocolate.
Let’s see. We have a Dutch pizza called Americans and Americans living here buy them with gusto. The French didn’t squeal merde when they were downgraded from Le Cuisine to French fries, though the Belgs claimed to have invented fries. And the Germans always loved being a sausage, right Frankfurters? I guess it’s pretty obvious how oversensitive some of my fellow country men are. But why should our self esteem and spirit as a group of people be tattered by simply a biscuit’s name? I don’t know but that just spells P-E-T-T-Y to me. The challenge should have been this: Stop being onion skinned, look beyond the biscuit!
In fact this would have been a great source of advertisement to delight and take advantage on. Do I have to spoon feed people and say, “Ride on its popularity, be constructive, be a genius, think opportunity!” And if I may add, it is indeed a nice diversion from the flood of Google and Yahoo search results of “Filipinos” (or Filipinas) coughing up on my screen right now.
They’re also not only popular in Spain. They are here in the Netherlands under the Dutch brand name of Verkade, which is a daughter company of United Biscuits, headquartered in the U.K.
I have a sweet story to tell. When my in laws learned that Dutchman is dating a girl from the Philippines, they were of course surprised. Not because I am a Filipina but because I live all the way across the globe.
One time, this was circa 2000, the Dutchman told me that his mother (my mother in law, in short, MIL) dropped him a present in his mailbox that afternoon. He thought it was so sweet of her. I asked, “What was it?” He then told me accompanied with his gleaming white teeth (through the webcam), “A Filipinos Biscuit”!
From then on, his mother would drop a pack of “Filipinos Biscuit” in his mailbox when she has the opportunity to pass by his flat. I guess she’s trying to remind him of the obvious. Now that was really nice.
I bought a bunch of them last week and sent them to the Philippines for my family.
