ABSTRACT
A decade back, if one stood in front of the American embassy in Manila, one would see a peculiar scene unfold. On a regular day, between 200 to 300 people lined up, many of them nicely dressed to impress the American consuls who had the final say on their applications. Across the street from where the applicants stood would be about forty to fifty activists shouting slogans and waving banners condemning “U.S. imperialism.” After getting sufficiently riled up, the activists would cross the street to try to break through a phalanx of riot policemen and embassy security in order to scale the embassy walls, hoping to take over the edifice that represents the empire; they never succeed. Every so often, the two groups would eye each other, evincing mutual contempt. The activists dismiss the visa applicants as opportunists selling their soul to the “imperialist devil,” while one could see in the applicants’ eyes an unconcealed contempt toward these agitating “communists.”
