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

Who said this? not  Hitler, nor Stalin, nor Idi Amin. It would have been better if  it came from one of these infamous world leaders then it would had been understandable.

Ironically it came  from a despicable species of a journalist named Chip Tsao who wrote an article on HK Magazine Online maligning the dignity of Filipinos as a whole.

Chip Tsao Of HK Magazine Online

He further states: ” 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 belong to China.”

So, this is about the Spratlys.

Why the hell then in the name Mao Zedong would he resort to such a blatant display of arrogance and mouth personal insults to a people whom as far as I know is a member of  the human race and deserves respect whatever their jobs or status in life maybe.

“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 or sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean windows 16 hours a day.” He continues.

Sixteen hours a day. That is for a meager salary of HK$3,580 a month, more or less US$470.

I have heard of stories about Hongkong employers’ abuse of their “servants”. This is clearly an admission. I bet he is very happy he could get that high quality labor which the Filipinos are known for, for a pittance.

Not all OFWs are maids in Hongkong. There are a lot of OFW engineers, architects, computer programmers, technicians and analysts in the Middle East… doctors, nurses, caregivers in the United States and Great Britain,  and other professions as well, in the other parts of the world.

Sad but true, we are a nation producing highly educated and hard working individuals who then work abroad, their enormous talents and steadfast dedication to work benefiting the
economies of other countries.

It may well be said that we are fairly limited and under privileged as a nation. The second World War left us in ruins. Our leaders faced the enormous task of reconstructing our country from rubble.

Our political history was full of chaos… marked by power-grabbing politicos, people’s uprisings both from the left and the right factions, guerilla wars, muslim wars, and military coup attempts… our economy had  suffered a stagnant growth.

When it is quiet in the political front, we would be struck by natural  disasters. Volcano eruptions, earthquakes, succession of typhoons, floods and when it dries we had drought.. u name it, we have it.

This is the main reason why we have OFWs. No other country has that. No other country had suffered as much as we had. But despite all these, we are a people who chose not to be beaten.

Despair is not an answer. Neither is resignation. We cannot change the past, we cannot change the facts, we cannot change what is inevitable,  but we can be in charge of what we have, we have talents and education.. we would use them. We can do menial labor, we will… because nothing is wrong with that.

We are unfortunate that we lie in the earthquake belt in the middle of the pacific ocean where typhoons and natural disasters are normal occurrences. We are double unfortunate where our government and political leadership are concerned.

Are we asking for pity? No.

We only want fair treatment and what honest working human beings deserve.

We  are not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of those who consider themselves as our masters.

We deserve the full menu of respect of our dignity  and worth as a part of humanity.

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Note:

Just recently an apology by HK magazine online was issued due to a wave of angry reactions from Filipinos all over the world and the Philippine government itself. The original article War At Home had been deleted from their website. However the apology (which implied that the post made by Chip Tsao was a satire and was misinterpreted by some readers) came from the magazine not from the author of the article itself.

Related Articles:

Filipinos not in Servitude

An Open Letter to Chip Tsao

Race Row Escalates Over Magazine That Called Philippines “Slaves”

Filipinos March in Hongkong Over Nation of Servants

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