So amid everything else going on in the world right now, there was one story I was completely unaware of until yesterday, when Rev says desu on Youtube, who covers internet news/drama, especially when it’s relevant to anime & similar things, made a video about it. Watch it below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHr7qyLaKg0
Apparently, there either are or were just elections over in the Philippines, and the leading candidate is the son of a former dictator. (There also may be election shenanigans going on, but I haven’t looked that closely into this aspect of the story.)
So, of course, the logical thing for people to do in response to is cancel commissions they had planned from Filipino artists. Not because they openly support this guy or anything, but just because they’re in the Philippines.
Here are screenshots of a couple instances of this being shared online.
…excuse me?
We saw something similar happen not too long ago when, due to the Russia/Ukraine war, people stopped working with or supporting Russian artists & other content creators. (In that case, the worldwide attempts to sanction Russia even led to Russians becoming unable to use PayPal, which is vital for many freelance artists.)
This attitude is just wrong.
How have we reached a point where the side allegedly espousing freedom and democracy has led to its citizens being convinced that they can’t even do business with people living in countries that aren’t on the same exact political page?
Not one of these people asked the artists they’re cancelling commissions with–artists who depend on freelance work to make a living–if they support what’s going on there, because it doesn’t matter, and they don’t care. “Thing is bad, therefore cannot support anyone tangentially connected.”
You help nothing with this virtue signal; all you’re doing is hurting hardworking artists trying to make a decent living–artists who may already be worried about the future of their country. This does nothing to “hurt” the people you don’t like or “fight” whatever “bad thing” is happening there, in your opinion. It isn’t impacting you personally at all; you’re just doing it to make yourself feel good, or to earn Social Justice Points on the internet.
I’m proud to have been working with an awesome Filipino artist for over a year now, and I do not intend to stop any time soon. In fact, in my upcoming Kickstarter for Light Unto Another World Volumes 6-10, I plan on setting a stretch goal which, if reached, will net him a nice bonus. Not just because I want to make a statement regarding this situation, but because he’s great and deserves it. I hope we get there.
Also, below is a link to one of several threads where Filipino artists are sharing their work/commission rates, etc. If you need great art for your project, I’m sure you’ll find someone to work with here!
I don’t want to make this about me, of course, since this issue isn’t harming me, but, obviously, supporting my projects also helps support my amazing artist. In addition to the light novels we’ve worked on and are working on together, we’re going to be doing a manga soon too! The better my stuff does, the more art I’ll be able to commission from him.
Check out Light Unto Another World Volumes 1-5 over on Amazon, and stay tuned for Kickstarter launch day announcement!
Writing, Ascendant 
A lot of us here were really depressed after seeing the election results. Imagine suddenly losing a bunch of your commissions on top of that. I feel sorry for those artists, especially the ones being punished even though they voted against the guy.