A year ago, I wrote a piece in a social networking site about Chip Tsao- a well known writer from Hong Kong who employed a Filipino domestic helper. This pathetic loser was so unprofessional to have written something about her helper at home, and then ended up degrading the whole Filipino nation.
We the Filipinos are culture freaks! Admit it. Yes we are. We are very sensitive with regards to racism, especially if our culture and heritage are being insulted... Yun na nga lang natitira sa atin dahil lahat na ninakaw na ng mga bawayang pulitiko... aapakan pa nila... di, ba?
If you have not read my piece, here it is...
Although most of the Filipinos go overseas, and earn their living as house maids or domestic helpers, as a fellow Filipino, I'm proud of them. Being a house helper, a servant, a nanny, a cleaner or a maid is not easy. I could not even bear thinking about sleeping, eating, bathing at a workplace... these people are practically living at their workplace. They only breathe fresh air from the outside world on their days off. The dedication, the fulfillment in doing their jobs to nurture their families from back home is heroic and one of a kind. This type of job is not something that you look down to or ridicule on. This is an honest and clean job that Filipinos choose to earn money from... A type of job that most often than not help a lot of people feel comfortable in their lives, like Nannies, they help children grow, or the nursing aids take care of the sick How could you ridicule and be sarcastic to souls who clean your house, wash your clothes, cook your food and so forth? I understand that you pay them money for their services... but what if the Filipino servants are gone to offer their services? Let's face it, not all people can do what your so-called "Filipino servants can do...." but you would be surprised that most of these people can do what you can also do....anyway, I thought atleast the Filipinos don't manufacture FAKE (toxic) eggs, nor sell FAKE Chickens (in fact these were allegedly rats/rodents..Eew), we dont export low quality products that are health hazards.
The Chinese are NOT OUR MASTERS. C'mon it's year 2009... The world does not embrace this stupid mentality... Master vs Servants.
Chinese NEVER WERE our MASTERS, NEVER EVEN COLONIZED the Philippines. CHINESE NEVER EVEN HAD AN ERA IN THE PHILIPPINES. SO DREAM ON! CHECK YOUR HISTORY BOOK, CHIP!
Let the Spratly Islands be an issue of the Philippines and Chinese governments. If you want to take part by writing about this, go on but set the hardworking Filipinos aside... spare them 'cause all they wish to do is work for their families and nothing else.
Here's the infamous column of Chip Tsao (apparently been removed frome HK Magazine's Online site)
The War At Home
March 27th, 2009
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.
March 27th, 2009
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.
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I heard Chip Tsao did apologize to the Philippines... and I really hope he did... as well as to his Filipino helper at home.
Copyright D Benitez 2010 (images taken from an external source)
