To the victor the riches and as such the annals of history are inscribed by the narrow and ethnocentric

views of the victorious. With this in mind, sociological analyses can be commonly found to be ignorant and confined to a narrow passage of learning. Kale Bantigue Fajardo's book, Filipino Crosscurrents: Oceanographies of Seafaring, Masculinities, and Globalization attempts to step outside of these bounds and views the globalization of Filipino culture through the mindset of the poorer classes, the working class immigrants. The normal views of globalization centered about politics and economics are no longer the focus, rather branches in an approach that view these aspects through the course of Filipino growth in the postcolonial to the postmodern era. Through the influences of Fajardo's writing, this paper will attempt to do the same. With today's growing globalization and an undeniable need for absolute globalization in order to achieve the complete and stable form of globalization, the Philippines growth into a global arena can be framed about the globalization brought about by the Filipino sea workers. The globalization process as a whole can be exemplified through the Filipino sea workers, of course the changes incurred by the Filipino seafarers do not demonstrate the only way in which globalization can occur, but one of the many ways. Fajardo used the Filipino maritime exploits as the basis for her globalization points whilst using cultural movements and economic changes as start, rendezvous and destination points for her explanation. In the same manner, this paper will discuss a process of globalization in which the Filipino Seafarers were a focal point in the

globalization of the Philippines. The Filipino seafarers were the victims of both a neoliberal government, specifically during the reign President Fidel V. Ramos, that wished to grow the Philippines into a Newly Industrialized Country who was backed by the IMF which was in part backed by the United States, and a relentless treatment as second class citizens dating back from the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade routes of 250 years to the present where Fajardo notes a continued growing feminization of the Philippines and its Filipino seafarers ( location 749). These factors caused the Filipino seafarers to be the focal point of a globalization movement that was the core focus of the governing regime in the Philippines although the government failed to see the seafarers as the backbone of the globalization as can be seen by the little care for the Filipino mariners provided by the government, discounting the small waiting area created by the Buhayin ang Maynila Program (location 1503). In order to reach the level of a Newly Industrialized Country that President Ramos so heavily dreamt, he implemented plans that were dangerous to the poorer working class citizens of his nation and the large masses of immigrants that worked daily to send portions of their earnings back to the their homes and families still residing within the Philippines. The Filipino seafarers currently number a fifth of all shipping labor worldwide. Not only are Filipinos one of the most renowned and currently implemented shipping labor force, the Filipino family in regards to their upbringing and financial demands of the Philippines government send home close to 2.5 Billion dollars back home (location 118). One of the reasons noted by Fajardo for this tradition is held within the Filipino sense of utang na loob (gratitude or solidarity Just as Fajardo refuses to italicize words of the native language, a choice influenced by Noe Noe Silva, this paper shall also do the same) (location 2541). Although the effects and meanings of utang na loob may differ, this particular interpretation makes way to better understand a large factor in

the globalization of Filipinos and the factors regarding it. As Filipinos create a sense of undying debt and gratitude to their family, to which no greater debt lies, the Filipino seafarers step out and immigrate in order to live a life along their most fundamental lively hood, seafaring, and bring forth the proper sustenance for their families whether close or afar. The reason the Philippines government relied on the Filipino seafarers to send money home was in order to repay the debts they had taken out from the IMF and other large international banks in order to build the Manila Harbour Centre and the plans that came with the Philippines 2000 new economic plans and the strides to reach NIC-hood (location 856). With international seafarers sending home close to 80 percent of their income, the banks in the Philippines are attempting to close the debt that had be incurred for their lucrative plans. With such heavy reliance caused by the neoliberal plans of economic growth, the lower class immigrant families were pushed into harder situation. Having to maintain utang na loob, the Filipino seafarers were beginning to show signs of a different ideal in place, lakas ng loob (or what can be closely translated to "guts" (location 1175) With growing wear on the seafarers and complications at home, many will abandon their duties at home and attempt to live a new life within the states, doing so would take laka ng loob, and an opposite attitude to that of utang na loob. Many seafarers had begun to jump ship from a growing sense of dissatisfaction, "with the national economic and social context of the Philippines" and a growing disgust for the "exploitative and duplicitous state practices and policies" (location 1442). With these Filipino seafarers expanding out into a national market, whether by ulang na loob or lakas ng loob, the actions of the Filipino government has forced a globalization backed by their economic trends that have caused a movement within the lower classes.

Without a history of professional seafarers and the movement of the poor immigrant class, neither the Philippines 2000 economic plan nor the use of Filipino seafaring pride as propaganda would have been successful. Jumping ship had been a trend throughout the years of Filipino seafaring history but that is not to say that the modern seafarers have changed their ways. Relations with the US have deepened the push for change amongst the seafarers and have backed the push of the economic changes and needed movement of the lower classes for globalization to take effect. Just as Geographer Doreen Massey states regarding space and places, it is also probable that globalization is not natural or already a pre-existing notion, rather it is "social and political relationships, materiality, power, and flows of people and ideas" (location 439) that create globalization. With this in mind, as the United States and Allies used the IMF in order to push forward neoliberal plans like those of Fidel V. Ramos, the United States was also present in allowing the deserting Filipinos to take refuge in the States. As a precautionary measure, many crews withheld the passports and identifications of their crew in order to discourage any members of jumping ship and losing their identities. But with the aid of agencies in the United States, specifically the Philippine consulate, procuring a lost passport or identification for stray immigrants became viable and are still implemented today (location 1466). The racial aspect of Filipino seafarers and the globalization that came about with it is deep and still an issue to this modern day. During the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade era, Spanish sailors would be compensated near a 100 pesos for labor received whereas the Native counterparts of the Philippines only number in the 50's. Factors such as these had forced Filipino seafarers to muster the lakas ng loob to jump ship and set out for distant lands. Combined with the opposing ideals of utang na loob, the Filipino seafarers exemplify globalization in the a form that is ever

present yet ignored, forgotten and under analyzed in comparison to the economic and political agendas that are at the forefront of modern global studies. The neoliberal standings of previous leaders and those most strongly implemented by President Fidel v. Ramos and the string of international organizations such as the IMF along with the two-sided participation of the United States were large factors in the push towards Filipino seafarers actions between utang na loob and lakas ng loob. With the shifts in Filipino feelings and the use of their historical presence in the Manila-Acapulco trade and their continued domination of the shipping labor and maritime markets, the Filipino seafarers were the backbone of the globalization of the Philippines and continue to be so now.