None of My Business

The river in Cagayan de Oro

My second weekly reflection:

Yesterday I interviewed a moneylender at a gas station on the outskirts of town.  We sat on small plastic stools facing the highway, and even though it was dusk I fanned myself with the survey papers as she answered.  After several minutes an old woman approached us.

“Go away,” she told me in English.  She had orange hair done up in a perm and wore a bright purple shirt.  “You don’t belong here.”

My translator tried to explain the purpose of my research.  Hearing that I was an American, the woman turned to the small crowd that had gathered around us.  “Always the Americans!” she cried out.  “They need to stop coming here.”  Looking back to me, she continued.  “Go talk to the bank.  Go talk to the co-ops.  This place right here is for Filipinos.  Leave us alone.”

And that was that.  The moneylender informed me that she was no longer comfortable with the interview; my translator and I hopped on a passing jeepney and headed home. 

This was an isolated incident.  My first week of surveying has included many more desserts than diatribes, a sign of the incredible hospitality of the people here (hospitality so reliable that I now leave for fieldwork on an empty stomach).  Still, the angry old woman at the gas station raised a serious question: how could I ever persuade an antagonistic audience that my research was relevant? 

The central square, under construction

I thought back to my first year of mock trial when we learned Aristotle’s modes of persuasion, logos, pathos and ethos.  I could logically explain the reason for my research (logos): we need to know the informal credit environment so that NGO’s could make their loan products more effective.  I could appeal to her emotions (pathos) by pointing out the obvious poverty visible from our vantage point at the gas station.  As for an ethical appeal (ethos), I struggled to find one that was reasonable.  On a personal level, my short length of time in the Philippines prevented me from claiming a vested interest in the Filipino economy; on a more global level, the several decades of shellacking that the country received as a result of the American presence (coming not just from the USA but other nations as well) made any sort of concern appear a little belated.  According to my mock trial coaches (hearsay!), Aristotle said that ethos was the most important element of any rhetorical piece; without coming up with a better ethical justification, I fear, my arguments will meet little success.