Anupam Tripathi at Christian Lagahit
NAKARANAS din ng matinding diskriminasyon sa South Korea ang Filipino actor na si Christian Lagahit na naging instant star sa mga Pinoy dahil sa hit K-drama na “Squid Game.”
Sa lahat ng hindi pa nakakaalam, si Christian ang nag-iisang Pinoy character sa nasabing Netflix series na gumanap bilang Player No. 276. At dahil nga sa matagumpay na proyektong ito, biglang sikat ang aktor sa Pilipinas.
Pero knows n’yo ba na naging biktima rin siya ng pambu-bully at diskriminasyon sa South Korea tulad din ng nararanasan ng iba pang OFW at iba pang lahi roon?
Sa panayam ng Asian Boss YouTube channel, naikuwento ni Christian na kung bibilangin niya, baka raw aabot na sa 60 production shows o movies sa South Korea ang nilabasan niya.
Aniya pa, bukod sa pagiging part-time actor, isa rin siyang data analyst, marketing explorer at community leader sa South Korea.
Kasunod nito, naibahagi nga niya sa nasabing panayam ang ilang masasakit na karanasan niya sa nasabing bansa. Pag-amin niya, “For me, it’s more of the discrimination.”
Isa sa mga hindi niya malilimutang insidente ay nang sumakay siya sa isang bus, “I was inside the village bus, it was the last trip, and I was sitting at the back.
“It can only accommodate a few people to sit. So, other people were already standing in the bus,” kuwento niya. Hanggang sa may mapansin siyang isang may-edad nang babae na nakatitig sa kanya.
Hindi raw niya ito pinansin dahil baka raw ang mga kabataang Koreano na nasa harapan niya ang tinitingnan ng matandang babae.
Pagpapatuloy pa niya, “A few minutes passed by, I was just surprised when something hit my face. She threw a cabbage on my face—a cabbage, the vegetable—straight to my face.”
“The first thing I did was to look for my eyeglasses and when I found it, it was already broken. Then I asked, like, ‘I’m sorry, what’s happening here? Why did you throw this vegetable on me?’” aniya pa.
Ang ikinasama pa raw ng loob niya ay wala man lang daw tumulong sa kanya o nagtanggol sa kanya nang batuhin siya ng repolyo sa mukha, “Everyone was there. There’s a lot of people inside the bus. It was filled, but no one was there to, at least, help me.”
May isang pasahero raw na nag-translate sa kanya ng isinisigaw ng matandang babae — dapat daw siyang bumaba dahil para lang sa mga Koreano ang sinasakyan niyang bus.
“And I told her, ‘There’s no foreigner bus here in Korea. Why would I step out?’ And then she said, ‘Oh, she said you just have to go out.’ And I was crying inside.
“For me, there was nothing I could do anymore. I couldn’t complain, but what I didn’t understand was there were other people inside that small bus. I just felt so bad that no one was ready to help me.
“Even when she was about to leave the bus, she was still screaming, ‘All foreigners here in Korea are bad people!‘ I remember those lines from her,” sabi pa ni Christian.
Sa tanong kung talamak na ba ang diskriminasyon sa nasabing bansa, sagot ng Pinoy actor, “I hear a lot of stories, but not to this extent, to the point that someone would throw something on your face.
“I heard from my friends and stories from my friends that they heard a lot of bad words from Koreans, or sometimes in buses,” sagot ni Christian.
Mensahe pa niya, “I hope this will be a wakeup call for the government to also check, especially those who are assigned to the welfare of foreign workers.”