Nation of Servants

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I know every Filipinos here and abroad have already read the discriminative post of Chip Tsao entitled "The War At Home". It is so sad that Pinoys are once again belittled by other nationals especially by fellow Asians.

Millions of Pinoy parents are spending thousands or even millions of peso just to send their children to school. Some of them even sold their most prized properties just to send their children to college. They have sacrificed so much for their children's sake of earning a college degree. But at the end of the day, after more than four years of school work, of years spent studying English, Physics, Algebra, Biology, Computer and other academic subjects, most of them will just end up working as maids or domestic helpers in Hong Kong or UK. Sad, but their dollar earnings are more than enough to pave away their degrading plight abroad. They would rather set aside their "pride" and "reputation" than to work in a respectable Philippine job but end up with an empty stomach.

This is a harsh reality that we have to face. We are indeed a nation of slaves because we are slaves to the poor economic and social systems in our country. We are slaves because we are allowing our county's economic and social managers to be lousy with their jobs. We are slaves because we actually voted these corrupt officials and allowed them to rule our lives. I was very angry with the words of Chip Tsao, but some of his statements are correct. Indeed, there are 130,000 Filipina maids working in Hong Kong, it is also true that they are earning a cheap monthly labor of $ 3,580 as compared with other workers in Hong Kong. With regard to his Filipina domestic assistant named Louisa, a degree holder on International Politics, there are millions like her who have respectful degrees in medicine, education, and science who are working as slaves for other Asians. Yes, it is a shameful dilemma, but what can we do? We can always file a diplomatic complaint or shout on the streets to protest other countries that mortify our fellow countrymen abroad, but how sure are we that it will change the impression of other nationals towards our OFWs? I am not saying that Chip Tsao is right. Just like you, I am against his style of stating facts with sarcasm. But we must also look at the facts. Yes, the truth always hurts. This is why we are all hurting.

The War At Home
March 27th, 2009
Written by Chip Tsao

HK-magazine.com

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being. 


Chip Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. A former reporter for the BBC, his columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.