By Dennis Clemente
NEW YORK, 12/31/11—In the United States the media hailed her as an “American hero.” In the Philippines, Robin Lim is a “Filipino-American hero” who grew up in the Philippines with a Filipino mother and American father. On December 11, she was honored as CNN’s 2011 Hero of the Year.
Her nationality is not the issue here. We are proud of her selfless crusade to provide free prenatal, birth and other medical services in Indonesia.
What aroused our interest is the strength of her votes, following CNN’s contest format where the network chooses 10 equally impressive nominees and let people from all over the world vote for one winner.
Incidentally, CNN’s 2009 Hero of the Year was Filipino-born and -raised educator Efren Peñaflorida. He garnered the most votes for his pushcart classroom idea in the Philippines. It’s another well-deserved win, whether he’s Filipino or not.
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http://opinion.inquirer.net/20225/the-good-bad-of-ph-as-world-social-net...