Joe Philippines: Hey Joe

Vintage G.I. Joe

Before my trip to the Philippines, my soon to be wife briefed me on greeting etiquette so that I wouldn't make a total baboon of myself while there. I was so focused on greeting others properly, I was totally unprepared for how they would greet me. As soon as I stepped out of the airport into Manila, Philippines people started calling me 'Joe.' It's not my name, not even close, and for a while I simply thought they were referring to someone else or were saying something in Tagalog that sounded like 'Joe.' Later I would learn that they were indeed calling me Joe.

The American military has been a big presence in the Philippines past and there used to be several military bases there. People grew up seeing these 'G.I. Joe's' walking around hence labeled them as such. I am six foot two inches tall, white skin, short-cropped blond hair and during my vacation there, I tended to wear military looking cargo pants so that I had plenty of pockets to stash things. Needless to say, I looked plenty military to the locals and so they inevitably greeted me with a "Hey Joe!" and large smiles.

Every once in awhile, I would get a different greeting from those more hip with the times. One fellow gave me a "Whatzzzzzzz Upppppppppp!" like the beer commercial and several others would give me a "Yo!" that Sly Stallone would be proud of. But my favorite of the entire trip was one young lad who started singing, "Camptown ladies sing that song, do da, do da, Camptown races five miles long......" a song I hadn't heard since my grade school days. Another greeting that stays close to my heart is my wife's Inang (grandmother) referring to me as the tall white guy.

Despite what I tried to do greeting others and how they greeted me, the universal sign always seemed to work best. You simply had to make eye contact, put on a big smile and it really didn't matter what was said.

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All these  years later, "Hey Joe" is more of a rarity. I suppose it could be with me looking a lot older and not looking like a soldier anymore. But I'm guessing is that it is just falling out of favor as the population changes. The U.S. granted the Philippines it's independence in 1946 and closed most of the military bases in the mid 1990's which was nearly 30 years ago. When greater than 30% of the population is under 14 years old and almost 20% are between the ages of 15 and 25, few people are around that even remember what a U.S. soldier looked like or who G.I. Joe was. Now I most here the term "Kuya" applied to me which is a term used to address those that are slightly older than you in the family structure.

Although it is much safer to be an American or white for that matter in the Philippines, I still prefer to keep a relatively low profile when I am there and about, as much as someone 6 feet 2 inches tall, very white skinned and blond hair can anyway. There are a lot of expats from many predominantly white skinned countries everywhere now and so I blend in to those who don't blend in. But no matter where I go, one thing hasn't changed and that is the friendliness of the indigenous population. It is rare not to see a toothy smile looking in my direction.