Another grave, grave error on National Geographic.

Sometimes I wonder if they actually made a mistake and confused one language for another. Or if they just blatantly disregarded the obvious facts and for the sake of simplicity, just substituted one language for the other (who’s gonna know? Asians are Asians after all. They’re all alike). Given the fact that this is National Geographic and not some low-rate-documentary-channel, I’d think it was the latter (they better have some North Carolina health insurance for what I’m about to say).

Just to set the record straight and just to get it off my mind, let me say this to NatGeo:

WE ARE NOT INDONESIANS! We are Filipinos. Filipinos speak Pilipino (Tagalog). Not Indonesians. They have their own unique language. Don’t confuse the two.

I am referring to an episode in NatGeo’s Locked Up Abroad, a series where they document various people who find themselves locked up in foreign lands (for drugs or what not, but usually for drugs).

In this episode (Busted in Bali), an Australian busted for illegal possession of drugs in Bali, Indonesia finds himself in an infamous prison there. It turns out that NatGeo used Filipino actors to play the part of the Indonesians. Nothing wrong with that, ’cause we do have similarities (we’re all kayumangi!). But what I think was wrong is to have these actors speak in Filipino- Filipino!- while playing Indonesians.

That’s right. Instead of having them speak in Bahasa, the Filipino actors portraying Indonesians were speaking Filipino.

It’s all wrong if you ask me. Get it straight, NatGeo.

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