The Lot of a Filipina domestic helper in Hong Kong

[ginapeterb]

<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">The Lot of the Filipina domestic helper in the Metropolis of Hong Kong </span>

Did anyone see last nights BBC 2 Documentary called &#39;Imagine&#39; although the documentary was about Tall skyscraper buildings, and how people live in close proximity, it was talking about how crowded Hong Kongs tower blocks are, some 6000 people live in 1 tower block alone.

What made me sit up and take notice, is the sudden mention of how 3 thousand Filipina domestic helpers, suddenly can cram into the walkways and basement areas of tower blocks to meet on Sunday&#39;s simply because they have nowhere to go.

The programme was trying to illustrate how tower blocks seem to house unbeleivable numbers of people when required to do so, in this case, it mentioned how thousands of young domestic helpers from the Philippines, all take packed lunches and snacks, and sit together in some of the districts of Hong Kong under tower block entrances, simply because as the programme narrator said and I quote

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'> They congregate here on Sunday&#39;s because they only have 1 day off a week, they are simply thrown out of their employers houses until Monday Morning, when they then return to a life of servitude and squalor.[/b][/quote]

The cameras then panned to show at least a thousand Filipina&#39;s huddled under a tower block basement, chatting way, amazingly, laughing and smiling, passing snacks around and having fun.

It just goes to show even in 2006, some of us are very lucky, and not just the Flipina&#39;s I&#39;m also talking about us the Western Boys, coz in by accident of birth, that could be us.


In the old saying:

<span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">There I go by the grace of God </span>

[baboyako]

I didn&#39;t see the program, but it&#39;s true that the domestic servants sit & have picnics in the central district. I doubt they&#39;re thrown out until monday morning - the streets clear up by the evening.

Just remember that its not just the domestic staff that work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day (in HK that is). When I worked there its all the office staff too - they are all nuts.

I think the taxi drivers have a much worse lot. A london taxi driver probably earns 40-50k a year, in HK there are millions of them&#33; all queuing up for a fare of around 1/10th a london fare (i.e. so maybe earning 4-5k).

HK is NOT the place to go looking to make money. Stay in the fil & export mangos & pineapples&#33;

[kristleh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(baboyako &#064; Jun 18 2006, 10&#58;09 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
I didn&#39;t see the program, but it&#39;s true that the domestic servants sit & have picnics in the central district. I doubt they&#39;re thrown out until monday morning - the streets clear up by the evening.


[/b][/quote]

I&#39;m sorry to be oversensitive here but these Filipinas are domestic HELPERS not servants although some of them are treated as such by their employers. peace [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

[baboyako]

its all semantics.

I would describe the job as "domestice service" (cook,cleaner,nanny,chauffer etc) hence "domestic servant". If you work for the government you&#39;re a "public servant". When I&#39;ve asked people what line of work they&#39;re in I am answered "I am in domestice service".

whether being a servant implies servitude is down to your interpretation. being a "helper" sounds like something made up by some agency ( asking for someones help will always get more results than asking them to do it directly - thats called manipulation). I&#39;ve seen the adverts on TV..

"we urgently need helpers to go to kuwait.. expenses covered to go to interview&#33;"

probably more people fall for it than,

"domestic staff required in kuwait. Agent will take 50% of your salary."

Dont be fooled into thinking that the job is different, just because of how you&#39;re asked you to do it. Or indeed your job description.

Maybe if I asked for your help picking mangos I would pay you less than if I wanted you to pick mangos?

[kristleh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(baboyako &#064; Jun 18 2006, 01&#58;15 PM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
its all semantics.

I would describe the job as "domestice service" (cook,cleaner,nanny,chauffer etc) hence "domestic servant". If you work for the government you&#39;re a "public servant". When I&#39;ve asked people what line of work they&#39;re in I am answered "I am in domestice service".

whether being a servant implies servitude is down to your interpretation. being a "helper" sounds like something made up by some agency ( asking for someones help will always get more results than asking them to do it directly - thats called manipulation). I&#39;ve seen the adverts on TV..

"we urgently need helpers to go to kuwait.. expenses covered to go to interview&#33;"

probably more people fall for it than,

"domestic staff required in kuwait. Agent will take 50% of your salary."

Dont be fooled into thinking that the job is different, just because of how you&#39;re asked you to do it. Or indeed your job description.

Maybe if I asked for your help picking mangos I would pay you less than if I wanted you to pick mangos?
[/b][/quote]

Partly I agree with you, but how we label or call people also shows how we treat and perceive them. I am not surprised that a number of OFWs especially the DHs complain about how their employers treat them. If we call them as servants we treat them as such. E.g. some employers or "amos" speak in their language (e.g. mandarin, cantonese, or fookien) and make fun of Filipina maids complaining how lazy, ugly, etc. And they do this in front of the person since she can&#39;t understand and is merely a "Hua na po". "hua na po" in Fookien means maid and Hua na means Filipino. So how will we call maids who are from Indonesia, Malaysia, or India. Will we also call them Hua Na Po when they are not even Filipinos? With how maids are labeled, it is no wonder the word Filipino used to mean a domestic helper in the dictionary.

I am slightly going out of the topic but I just wanted to give light about this subject. Some may find this insignificant but for some people it is not. Even some fellow Filipinos call maids name like "chimay" and even jokingly call them "longkatuts", "alipin". And look how some Filipinos view and treat maids as below their level when they are not?

I&#39;m not starting a fight. I am just telling the other side of the story. So Peace. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/BouncyHappy.gif[/img]

[baboyako]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/BouncyHappy.gif[/img]

I wanted a fight [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xxmixed-smiley-017.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/xxaction-smiley-047.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Grin.gif[/img]

[Admin]

Our friend works in HK, and say it&#39;s better than Singapore, with regard to money, but it all depends on your employer no matter which country they work in, some good, some bad, same as any employer.

She says they all hang around together, as apart from it being fun, unlike Singapore, HK is crap & boring to them, and very squalid in places.

[baboyako]

I get the impression that HK has lots of competition from Shenzen & other towns just over the border.

Everyone in HK seems to work really hard & dont get paid a lot "since we can always move your job to shenzen&#33;&#33;". Singapore is more equiped to deal with a global economy (I think it has highest per capita GDP?) and keeps the streets clean & tidy.

Ok question for admin- when do you deal or no deal? First offer over 15k - or play to the end?

[Admin]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cwm24.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Erm.gif[/img]

Not that stupid game, I can write a program in 5 mins, that plays the whole game in less than 1 sec.....saves paying Noel&#33;&#33;&#33; [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Whether you take the money, depends on the true odds in relation to what is left on the board....generally speaking they offer 30% less than the true odds, so the higher the offer, the less value you are getting....makes William Hill look generous [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cwm24.gif[/img]

[baboyako]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(admin &#064; Jun 19 2006, 08&#58;36 AM) Quoted post</div><div class='quotemain'>
[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cwm24.gif[/img] [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Erm.gif[/img]

Not that stupid game, I can write a program in 5 mins, that plays the whole game in less than 1 sec.....saves paying Noel&#33;&#33;&#33; [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img]

Whether you take the money, depends on the true odds in relation to what is left on the board....generally speaking they offer 30% less than the true odds, so the higher the offer, the less value you are getting....makes William Hill look generous [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cwm24.gif[/img]
[/b][/quote]

but you only get to play the game once. isn&#39;t that the key point?

and the board is highly skewed, thats why the offers are lower than the mean. I don&#39;t see why these people all get greedy.. - just go on, take 10-15k then go home.

[Admin]

I wouldn&#39;t call it gambling though, as your starting bank is ZERO so you have nothing to lose.