Breaking through the glass ceiling
In America, the "glass ceiling" refers to the point considered  beyond the reach of immigrants and ethnic minorities such as becoming CEO of a Fortune 500 firm. Breaking through the glass ceiling in various aspects of mainstream American life has been a continuing struggle, particularly for people of colour, but modest triumphs have been won and these have led to bigger victories.
The biggest breakthrough was seen recently with the election of the first African-American president of the United States.
From those prewar years when signs on entrances to public places read, "Absolutely no Filipinos allowed," our people have come a long way in America. Proof of this are the recipients of the annual Filipinas Magazine Achievement Awards organized by the magazine of the same name which I publish and edit. The honorees have ranged from political figures like Governor Ben Cayetano of Hawaii and Hollywood stars like Lou Diamond Philips and Tia Carrere to military brass like Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba and Lt. Gen. Edward Soriano and corporate tycoons like Loida Nicolas-Lewis. In the last congressional elections, Steve Austria of Ohio, son of a Filipino doctor, won a seat in the US Congress. Still beyond the grasp of Fil-Ams is a seat in the US Senate.
It is in this context that events unfolding in Europe is déj� vu for us in America. For the rapidly growing Pinoy population on the continent, the glass ceiling still needs to be broken through in many aspects of European life, but a hardy few have been trying.
The most remarkable of these gallant efforts has been that of Gene Alcantara, a journalist and one of the most prominent community leaders of the Filipino-British community in London. In 1998, he ran for a seat in the Westminster Council as a member of the Labour Party. He lost by 200 votes. He ran again in the May 2005 general elections, as an official candidate for the British Parliament of the Veritas Party. Again he failed.
But Alcantara’s seemingly Quixotic efforts have begun to raise awareness among the United Kingdom’s large ethnic minorities of the need for representation in the government in the face of racial discrimination and scapegoating, not to mention instances of corruption and official misconduct in the seats of power.
In the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections on June 4, Alcantara will be running once again, this time as an independent candidate for one of the 78 seats allocated to the UK.
Since 1979, the European Union has held elections for seats in the European Parliament whose decisions have a profound impact on legislative initiatives in the 27 member states of the EU.
A look at Alcantara’s curriculum vitae reveals that he is no slouch. He comes more than adequately prepared to represent, not only the ethnic minorities in the UK and other EU member states but the British mainstream, as well.
Born in San Pablo, Laguna, he worked in Saudi Arabia before moving to London to pursue Russian studies, following this up with a postgraduate diploma in East-West Trade at the University of Westminster. He then got his MBA from Oxford Brookes University after successfully presenting a thesis on UK, French, and German Cultural Diplomacy. He also finished the TUC Employmanet Law course at the College of North East London in 2005.
Alcantara worked for the British Council for over two decades in various capacities, the last being as head of accounting services and accounts payables with 20 people under him. As a program officer of the British Council, he looked after scholars from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Africa, and as a management consultant, he travelled widely in Asia, South America, East and Southern Africa, and the Middle East. In 1999, he was assigned to Poland and operated between Warsaw and Krakow for three and a half years as assistant director and resource manager, promoting British cultural relations in Central and Southern Europe.
Aside from English, Alcantara speakd Russian and some Spanish and Polish and continues to be fluent in Tagalog. In fact, he occasionally does Tagalog news reports for ABS-CBN’s Balitang Europe. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1992.
I first met Gene Alcantara when my wife and I went on the road around Europe in late 2004 to encourage the participation of European Filipinos in the 3rd Global Filipino Networking Convention which was held in Cebu in January 2005. Already well known among Filipino-Britons because of his involvement in community organizations like the Centre for Filipinos, Alcantara had become the Pinoy to watch after his almost successful attempt to win a seat in the Westminster council.
Alcantara accepted our invitation to speak at the Cebu convention on behalf of Filipinos in Europe, along with Switzerland-based Anny Misa-Hefti of Babaylan. He delivered a paper on the growing presence of Filipinos in the United Kingdom while Hefti made a presentation on the plight of Filipina workers, mostly domestics, in Europe. Shortly after the convention, Alcantara announced his candidacy for the British Parliament.
I first learned about his current candidacy over a month ago from another Pinoy-Brit in London, Peps Villanueva, a colleague in my ad agency days in Manila. According to Villanueva, Alcantara has generated a lot of attention and growing support, not only among fellow Filipinos but also among other minority groups. This is because one of Alcantara’s thrusts is fair treatment of illegal immigrants and a path to legalization. Exactly what ethnic minorities are trying to achieve with immigration reform in the US.
Alcantara currently works as an immigration adviser and case worker, a function regulated by the Office of the Immigration Services (OISC), and deals with various immigration issues affecting migrants in the UK and their families. He has dealt with cases involving Filipinos, Thais, Pakistanis, Indians, Turks, Africans, and East Europeans.
Alcantara thought he could adequately serve the needs of his clients and the community through his immigration and journalism work, but he soon realized that he would be of greater service and impact if he was in an elected position, to give voice to the many who are not heard. It was for this reason that he decided to throw his hat into the electoral ring again.
Hopefully, this third time, Gene Alcantara will finally succeed in breaking through the glass ceiling.
Source: Business World.
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