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Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Coz I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines. ~Susan Mayer Delfino

Those were the lines of Teri Hatcher from the hit show Desperate Housewives. Apparently, this was from a scene in the 4th season’s first episode aired in the US just recently. Susan (Teri’s character) was talking to a doctor, which I supposed was an OB-GYN.

It was purely accidental how I found out about the dialogue. I was reading Ricky Lo’s article from the Philstar website and a reader mentioned that dialogue in the comment box. The comment was very irrelevant from the Lo’s article (about an old couple who got married), so I was intrigued and googled it.

I then found the pinoyblog website whose author was emailed by a friend from the US about that scene. To hear the MP3 version, which I got from the fellow pinoy blogger, just click here: Desperate Housewives Dialogue. I found the lines not funny, but so offensive to our medical schools and doctors. I still believe that Filipino doctors, including our dear nurses and aids, are one of the best in the world. I don’t want to be racist here, but hey, at least Filipino docs are not sued for malpractice in other countries (none that I know of), like an Indian doctor in Australia who practiced for many years but turned out to be a fake. Maybe the TV show was referring to those fake diploma mills from Recto, but did the show’s writers know about those sham diplomas? More so, the dialogue singled out the medical schools in the Philippines, not the diploma mills.

Anyways, I am a fan of Desperate Housewives. Aside from House,MD, I really enjoy watching this no nonsense program. Being a housewife and a mother, I can relate to some of the characters and scenes. I had a Desperate Housewives DVD marathon last year and finished its seasons 1-2. Same with my fascination to House, I watched the two seasons almost every night until early mornings. Now that I just finished watching the DVD of House’s Season 3, I have just bought Desperate’s 3rd season DVD and started watching it up to the 7th episode.

However, as I have mentioned earlier, I was so disappointed with that dialogue (not with the whole show because I still like watching it). I know Susan Mayer’s character is the most tactless and clumsiest character in Desperate, but using such derogatory line is not funny. I am not being onion-skinned about these insensitive TV lines, but I think those words are foul. Our medical schools are carelessly implied to be incompetent, and of course these also connoted that are medical professionals are bungler. Although incompetence is debatable, I refuse to believe that. As I have noted earlier, Filipino doctors are one of the best and passionate in the world.

Good thing, the new season is not yet shown here in the local TV because it would really create a stir for issues like this would definitely spread like fire.

               

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Entertainment and Events . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.