Wounded pride

HK Magazine, a publication that is distributed free in Hong Kong, pulled out of its website the other day the column and photo of its resident bigot Chip Tsao, but not before his March 27 article and photo had been downloaded by many people. 

Yesterday all that could be accessed on the Internet were stories about the controversy plus mostly negative comments and jokes. One of my favorites: Chip Tsao’s Pinay maid has stopped flexing her muscles, as ordered by the boss. So now, Chip Tsao, who’s gonna clean the toilet? Who’s gonna clean the oven? (With apologies to Cliff de Young and Christina Raines.)

The magazine, founded in 1991 by three individuals whose names seem British — Greg Duncan, Stephen Freeman and Gretchen Worth — apologized for any distress the article might have caused. It said Chip Tsao’s comments were “politically incorrect” but described the article as satirical.

I must have been sleeping when satire was taught in English class, because I can’t find anything satirical about the article, titled “The War at Home.” Hong Kong labor authorities should go after Chip Tsao for making his Pinay “domestic assistant” named Louisa “wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day.”

Now after letting off nationalistic steam, we should ask ourselves why we have developed an image abroad as “a nation of servants” — a perception that HK Magazine’s publishers do not seem to believe is inaccurate, although they think it is “politically incorrect” to put down such views in black and white.

* * *

This is the second controversy within just a month that has caused us national embarrassment.

The first was the departure of the woman we call Nicole after she signed a recantation and declared that she was no longer sure if she had been raped by US Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith.

Nicole, according to her relatives, was already in the United States with a new American boyfriend, there to stay “for good” — indicating that she had obtained an immigrant visa.

How did Nicole manage to swing that? The US embassy isn’t talking, but the three-year stint in Manila of Ambassador Kristie Kenney will be remembered for that visa, on top of her government’s support for the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Rape being, legally speaking, a public crime in the Philippines, Smith will still have to fight final conviction all the way to the Supreme Court despite Nicole’s recantation.

But the surprise development in his case has led to perceptions that all that Nicole ever wanted was to go to the United States. Pinoys told each other in jest: If you want a green card, get raped by an American.

As in the case of Chip Tsao, however, Nicole’s story hurts too much to laugh about.

The blow to national pride could be eased if Chip Tsao’s Louisa quit her job in protest. But we can’t even tell her to do that and come home, because there is no guarantee that we can give her a job that pays HK$3,580 (about P22,300) a month. Cleaning toilets and washing windows certainly will not fetch that kind of salary in the Philippines.

* * *

There is nothing to be ashamed of in doing honest work. The Chinese are well aware of this. In another era, they cleaned Filipinos’ ears (really) and took care of Filipino babies.

But there isn’t much to brag about either in seeing our teachers and, in the case of Chip Tsao’s Louisa, a graduate of international politics from the University of Manila, working as servants around the world. 

The multibillion-dollar remittances of millions of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) – about a tenth of our total population — account for a hefty chunk of those positive economic figures trotted out regularly by the government.

That army of OFWs guarantees that Chip Tsao will have to contend with Filipino workers not just in his home but also in hospitals, hotels, cruise ships and restaurants in Hong Kong and most countries.

But there is nothing to be proud of in the fact that millions of Filipinos are leaving their own country to clean foreigners’ toilets, wash their windows and wipe their butts because of lack of better opportunities at home.

The thrust of any self-respecting government should be to create a better job market in the Philippines that will stop the exodus of workers and persuade the army of OFWs to return home.

Instead the Arroyo administration has encouraged the exodus to continue, thereby worsening the brain drain and the continually growing lack of teachers and health professionals nationwide.

Our industries are running out of skilled workers and there aren’t even enough qualified Filipinos to fill thousands of vacancies in the business process outsourcing sector.

Unable to stop the exodus, the next best thing to do is raise the quality of our human export. Our overseas work force can’t forever be overwhelmingly made up of maids, caregivers and blue collar workers. Indians, for example, are dominating the information and communication technology sector in several countries. Though poverty incidence in India is still high, its human export is increasingly made up of doctors, engineers, economists and financial managers.

The only way to raise the quality of our human resource is by raising the quality of Philippine education. It’s the kind of education that should land a graduate of international politics in our schools a job that befits the college degree.

The Chinese in the Philippines have graduated from cleaning ears, babysitting and selling taho to owning the taho factory as well as airlines, shopping malls and many other businesses.

They did this by learning well and working hard, rising above any insults or racial slurs thrown their way.

Success is the best balm for wounded national pride. Success is the best revenge.