Last week I applauded the imminent departure from America of a jihadist-supporting university student. And now it’s the deportation—or worse—of an abusive foreign vlogger in the Philippines.
Believe me, I don’t always cheer when someone gets arrested. Especially if it’s a fellow foreigner in the place I now call home.
This time, however, I’m willing to make an exception. I’m talking about the recent arrest of noted Russian American vlogger Vitaly Zdorovetskiy. Which, if I’m honest, made me clap loud enough to damage the eardrums of anyone within earshot.
The first time I ever heard of him, actually, was in a Facebook video showing the guy acting obnoxiously towards an earnest-looking surfing instructor in Boracay. Hurling derogatory and abusive insults, the 33-year-old vlogger ended by urging his 10.2 million YouTube subscribers to post fake negative reviews undermining the surfer’s business.
Which, apparently, many did.
Then other videos popped up depicting Zdorovetskiy rampaging through the streets of Taguig City mocking passersby, threatening to rob one, stealing several vehicles and an electric fan, grabbing a security guard’s hat while going after another’s gun, striking ridiculous Herculean poses atop a moving jeepney, and possibly injuring a pedestrian while driving a tricycle. All, it appeared, to attract more views.
So you can imagine my relief upon learning that he’d been arrested and faced deportation. Then the plot thickened: immigration officials announced that, before he’s sent packing, the cocky attention-grabber will be tried and probably serve time for charges including unjust vexation, alarm and scandal, as well as theft. And please forgive me, that’s when my relief turned to cheers.
Let me explain. Obviously, anyone as obnoxious and threatening as Zdorovetskiy deserves condemnation. But there’s another element at play here feeding my anger: he’s a foreigner. Which reflects poorly on the rest of us. And, frankly, plays right into something I’ve observed and written about before: a burgeoning national backlash against increasingly disruptive aliens.
Are they “really a blessing…or a curse?” one Filipino recently wondered in a Siargao Island chat group. Perhaps the Philippines, he suggested, needs to rid itself “of this foreign trash.”
Surprisingly, while most applauded the government’s actions, some online reactions to Zdorovetskiy’s shenanigans were less than piercing. “This is crazy,” lamented one member of a private Facebook group called Cebu Foreigner’s Club. “He didn’t do anything to send him to jail.”
Complained another: “A massive overreaction…he did not harm, rape, or kill anyone.”
In fact, this isn’t Zdorovetskiy’s first rodeo. Since 2012, it seems, he’s been arrested many times, in the US and elsewhere, on charges ranging from making bomb threats to injuring a female jogger he assaulted without provocation. He’s also been accused of practicing insultingly racist pranks on unwary bystanders. And yet none of those charges ever stuck.
But here’s the thing: if you want to be obnoxious and threatening, you’d best not do it in the Philippines. Because this is a country that—following centuries of abuse by foreigners—is not likely to take any more. Not to mention, of course, the notoriously slow crawl of justice here making long pre-trial prison stays more often the rule than the exception.
The larger problem, of course, is the global culture of online exhibitionism that encourages lifelong attention addicts like Zdorovetskiy to consistently go too far. “People have to take responsibility for the content they create,” Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla said during a press conference following the still-cocky vlogger’s arrest. “It is not a license to shame or to hurt or to besmirch anyone…We’re done with foreigners who only insult Filipinos. People like Vitaly need to pay for what they’ve done.”
My gut instinct tells me he will. Here’s what I would say to the guy if I could: enjoy your stay in prison, dude, which I expect will be quite long. Then, please, don’t ruffle your handcuffs as they scoot you straight out of town.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author with homes in Southern California and Northern Mindanao. His latest book, Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise, is available for preorder on Amazon. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times.
