Filipino Artists Losing International Clients Because of Politics

I’m a month late to discussing this trend but thought it would still be a nice way to spread awareness.

TL:DR version:

Filipino artists lose international clients due to backlash for the recent Philippine 2022 National election results last May. For those of you who aren’t aware, the elected Ferdinand Marcos Jr. became the president of the nation by a landslide. He is the son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos which has contributed to the bloody history the country has witnessed. So international clients commissioning Filipino artists decide to pull out their requests leaving several artists struggling to put food on the table amidst the pandemic.

Here are some of the links discussing about the events. I’m not going to bother quoting what’s in those links as the content there has better blogging formats and nice visuals than what I can come up with on this post.

Filipino Artists Are Reportedly Losing Jobs Because of the Current Political Situation
Philippines Artists are losing Commissions because of the New President
Merrydawg's Tweet on the subject (comment section is where it's at).
Rev Says Desu YT Video on the Subject
Mohammed Agbadi's YT Video on the Subject

The links above do a better job covering the story. Past the links above are just my scribbles about the subject down below.

Now I’m not really into local politics and left the controversies on toxic social media during and after elections but hearing about this news somehow struck some already sensitive nerves when it comes to dealing with toxic Western media. When I say Western media, there’s just that one specific country that somehow tries to socially muscle in their culture on the Far East and even touched some of the nice things I’ve got going in life (search toxic twitter and topics about culturally appropriating anime/Japan’s creative works on Google for another rabbit hole).

They don’t want to do anything with the country that supports dictatorship so they’re going to take it out on people that have literal no control over the matter. Smells like virtue signaling and making oneself feel good to make a difference in the world. It’s more understandable to just drop the contract if you think the artist botched the work or just can’t deliver within your reasonable expectations but to use the political card just smells so bad.

It probably did some favor for both parties to be rid of each other in hindsight. I’d certainly don’t want to have that kind of client even if the job pays well but I can’t say for certain that I can afford to lose work when rent is due.

I can't fully understand the struggle of a freelance but I can empathize enough to know I’d be in the same situation if I ever did pursue being a digital freelance illustrator instead of a physician as a career.

Some faith in humanity got restored when fellow artists out there extended their hand to help out my countrymen. Browsing through the links and checking out which artists with substantial amount of following, I saw artists I disagree in terms of their art views coming in to help out (changed my mind about their social stance on another issue too).

And then there’s always that side to the story where some happy endings don’t really end up happy as there are shits out there that like to take advantage of the situation faking being a Filipino just to get a share of the sympathy (and commissions).

The whole situation is just a repeat of how Russian artists get caught in the backlash due to the ongoing war. It’s not like individuals have control over the macro decisions of a country but it’s more convenient to displace that negativity to something benign. Whatever keeps our self-image intact and the horses we ride with standing tall.

I haven’t been shitposting because life happens a lot. But I’m glad that I am crossing off the things that bring me closer to fulfilling life making less people talk shit about me on my funeral. I can see my future in fire and darkness as I get cremated and my ashes stored in an expensive urn. It has to be expensive because cheap urns look bland and I don’t want my living relatives to discard the urn because it doesn’t look fancy on display.

I bought a microphone (waiting for it to arrive) in a soft attempt to start some podcasting content just for the sake of trying it out. Will try out 3speak so I can have more reasons to cringe at my past content.

If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.