A Nation of Servants

Here is the Yahoo News Report on the matter:

HONG KONG, March 30, 2009 (AFP) - A Hong Kong columnist came under attack on Monday from angry Philippine politicians and migrant workers after he described their country as "a nation of servants" and condemned Manila's claims to the Spratly Islands.

Chip Tsao said in his column in the latest issue of HK Magazine that the Philippines' recent threat to send gunboats to defend the disputed islands in the South China Sea against Beijing, which also claims sovereignty, was "beyond reproach".

The reason, he wrote, was that more than 130,000 Filipinas were working for as little as 3,580 Hong Kong dollars (459 US) a month as domestic helpers in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China.

"As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

Tsao also wrote that he had given his own maid a harsh lecture, warning her to tell her people that the whole island chain belonged to China if she wanted a pay rise next year.

The column drew an angry response from Philippine groups and politicians who branded Tsao a racist and demanded an apology from him and the magazine.

"Instead of contributing to intelligent discussions on ways to resolve the Spratlys' dispute, Tsao only succeeded in eliciting hatred and sowing more confusion not only among Filipinos but maybe even among his fellow Chinese who are not aware of the intricacies of the issue," Pia Cayetano, chairwoman of the Philippine Senate's committee on social justice, said in a statement.

Gina Esguerra, secretary general of Migrante International, the country's largest alliance of overseas workers, said the article "smacks of unqualified racial bias that vilifies the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in Hong Kong and puts them in danger of prosecution and harm."

The group also called on Manila to declare Tsao a "persona non grata" in the Philippines.

Tsao, who is also a television and radio host, told the Mingpao newspaper that he was a little shocked by the response to his column. He said it was just his style of writing and asked his readers to take it easy.

The dispute over the Spratlys, believed to sit atop vast mineral and oil deposits, has been renewed following a near collision between Chinese vessels and a US naval surveillance ship earlier this month.

The chain of atolls and reefs is also claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.

I believe that the least we can do is not to overreact over this matter. But I can’t help it but feel so disgusted over this matter. I will not lambast the author or curse him through this post. That is pathetic. I would simply like to invoke to those who had read this article to take a moment to see ourselves and our nation in a new light. What he wrote is a signal of something malignant. And I also feel that we should not take it so hard about being called a “nation of servants”. Imagine, it is because of the “servants” that their household is intact, it is because of the “servants” that their child is taken cared off while they are busy working, and it is because of the “servants” that their day’s basic necessities are well prepared – jobs they simply have no time to do. He just needs to be careful on the racist overtones he implied. So I guess this is a wake up call to all of us Filipinos. What that call is, is really up to you…

SIN OF A CITY BOY

Summer has kicked in! And an end to that academic routine and the begninning of the summer freedom had led me to see myself in a new disturbing light. Now, I wake up around 10-11 am and sleep around 2-3 in the morning. When I wake up around that time, I feel that there is a sense of loss. I feel wasted and unproductive. I just wake up, fix the bed and eat breakfast which is typically a Milo drink and some bread and also freshen myself up . After that, I proceed to my study table to check my different online accounts, read some online information and most of the time chat in facebook. I just sit there until my mom or cousin calls me for lunch. After lunch, I would go back to the room and watch some news (ANC,CNN and FOX). After around mid afternoon, that is the time I would just sit around, watch tv or read a book. When evening comes, I again would spend most of my time surfing – doing the social networking stuff. I would end up sleeping around 2 am.

This is not quite a detailed picture of a typical in-house day, but I guess you see the picture. I am a sloth in terms of house chores. I do not prepare my own food, I do not clean after the plates, I do not throw the trash, and I do not clean the house. I am simply consuming oxygen, money, and energy if you put it that way. I feel like a parasite, a dependent dog who waits for the master’s food, or a spoiled brat who just points at things and gets it. I guess I just realized these very disturbing yet exaggerated feelings because school is over. I now spend most of my time in the house. Analyzing this disturbing realization, I believe this is one thing that you get when you grow up in the very heart of the city. You can’t really go outside because of the potential danger, so I grew up literally sheltered and pampered. I grew up having a yaya and a very caring household so house chores is not in the top of the family’s code. I can’t blame my parents though because they keep on reminding me on certain “tasks of common sense”. I simply blame myself for being so passive regarding the value of helping around the house. When I see my friends doing all the hard labour, I can’t help it but feel ashamed about it. I even recalled the farmers in Sumilao who I met during the immersion. I admire them because they toil hard. I can’t do what they do and I know that I can never do what they do – waking super early tilling an unforgiving land for us to have food in our table.

I may be so committed to volunteer work in school but I guess I missed out a lot in my own home. I would like to give a massage to all of us who feels that we haven’t done our best as labourers in our very own home. So now that I jotted this feeling down, I hope to grab every opportunity to help around the house and toughen my muscles in the process. So being a house boy for me now is a great title of privilege because it can slap me right in the face about the basic things I need to work on. This is being honest and being human. I could start by waking early in the morning, helping my mother prepare breakfast and the house and more. I should also start thinking about a work out (exercise). Amdg