The Internet carried this week a riveting article titled Trapped Between CulturesNeither Filipino Nor American. The author is Dr. Eugenio Amparo, who has lived in the United States since 1974 when he started residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Now Amparo is retired. I find time to contemplate [issues ranging from] quantum mechanics to the history of the bra, which has led him to an uncomfortable conclusion. Neither Filipino nor American, he is trapped between cultures.

A 2012 head count shows 14,785 Filipino physicians in the United Statesa distant second to Indians. And 2,952 Filipino nurses took US licensure exams from January to September 2013up by nearly 11 percent.

Nurses have a recent face. In his 2013 State of the Union Address, US President Barack Obama said: When Hurricane Sandy plunged New York University Langone Medical Center into darkness, nurse Menchu Sanchez from the Philippines didnt think of her own home Her mind was on the 20 newborns in her care. The rescue plan she organizedtaking babies down eight flights of stairskept them all safe.

As a child in Iloilo City, Amparo recalls dreaming of America: cars, supermarkets, snow. Now, I have a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz in a three-car garage; a refrigerator full of food; and obesity. Add loneliness. I miss the Philippines.

When he visits, I envy the close family and friendship ties. His first cousins are scattered in Metro Manila. Sundays, they lunch together in Quezon City. By contrast, I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I met, in the past 10 years, with my brother in Virginia and sister in Oregon.

Amparos daughter lives in San Franciscoa two-hour drive from his home. They meet once every two months. My son and grandchildren are a 20-minute drive away. Its a major feat to see them once a week.

Americans are too busy. The worlds greatest economic power also has the loneliest people with a very high prevalence of depression. I am not American enough to resign myself to loneliness, as a consequence of a rugged individualism

The solution? Retire in the Philippines? But it takes almost two hours to drive 13 kilometers from the University of the Philippines in Quezon City to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila. You can barrel 104 kilometers from Sacramento to San Francisco in the same time. Im no longer Filipino enough to be patient with Manila traffic.

Dealing with the US Department of Motor Vehicles or Internal Revenue Service can be frustrating. But it is done without bribes. Our medical school alumni association donated a cargo container of supplies for [PGH]. It was confiscated by Customs and released only after politicians intervened.

Read more from the original source:
Culture trap?