Barely three weeks into Manila’s successful hosting of the 23rd World Economic Forum on East Asia (WEF), ambitious Pinoys basking in the glow of the event were rudely awakened by reports that a primary textbook in Hong Kong depicted Filipinos, not as young, upwardly mobile technopreneurs who drive the country’s IT industry, but as lowly “domestic helpers.”
The Inquirer news article published in May 31, 2014 was actually lifted from the blog of British activist Tom Grundy, who posted a photo supposedly taken from the Hong Kong textbook titled, “New General Studies P3”.
The chapter, “Living in Hong Kong” carried sketches of a dark-skinned woman identified as a Filipina, saying: “I am a Filipino. I am a domestic helper in Hong Kong.” Other illustrations depicted a Briton identifying himself as an English teacher, a Japanese woman who described herself as a sushi restaurant owner and a Chinese woman saying her city is Shanghai. An Indian boy was also included in the illustration saying he is studying in an international school.
Grundy posted the photo in his blog in an entry titled, “Hong Kong Text Book Tells You to Know Your Place!” It is as if the blogger himself was talking to Filipinos who love to visit Hong Kong to shop in swanky boutiques and dine in fancy restaurants.
Immediately after the article was posted online, it went viral on social media where irate readers who felt insulted expressed dismay by the stereotyping of Filipinos.
There are no reports yet if the primary textbook had the imprimatur of the city-state which is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.
This is not the first time that Filipinos are boxed in the category of domestic helpers or in other demeaning categories.
Fourteen years ago, the Philippine government protested to Greek authorities over the publication of a dictionary that defined “Filipineza” as a Filipina working as domestic help in Greece.
The entry in the dictionary was meant to describe the community of some 5,000 Pinoys in which more than 80 percent are women, mostly concentrated in Athens working as household workers. I’m not sure if the entry in the Greek lexicon was deleted but many Pinays who were then working as TNTs (undocumented and therefore illegal) were favored by the Greek legalization program that effectively deleted their unlawful status. After gaining legal status, work was unhampered and fostered better social conditions for many Filipinezas in the adopted Mediterranean country.
The moral of the story can be summed up in the virtue of fortitude.
In 1999, the Philippine government also filed a diplomatic protest with the Spanish government, the European Commission and food manufacturer Nabisco over the brand name of biscuits called “Filipinos”. The protest was triggered by a Congress resolution authored by then congressman Heherson Alvarez who was offended by the reference to Filipinos by the cookies which looked like our very own rosquillos except that the Iberian product was coated in dark chocolate.
Despite the diplomatic protest, the biscuits called “Filipinos” are still being sold in many Spanish food stores. In fact, when I passed by Andorra in 2009 en route to Lourdes, France, I saw fellow travelling Filipinos bagging plenty of “Filipinos” biscuits. Someone told me many Pinoys like to take a selfie with the famous brand and post photos in social networking sites. In other words, many Pinoys don’t find the product offensive. It must be tasty, and who wouldn’t want to be associated with something that makes one’s taste buds bloom?
Categorizing Pinoys as household workers is certainly insulting and painful. It is as if we cannot rise above the category and be English teachers, owners of gourmet restaurants, administrators of international schools or executives residing in plush capitals of the world.
However, before you throw more incendiary statements and add to the angry chatter online, let me tell you there’s a nongovernment organization in Hong Kong that is actively supporting the rights of Filipino domestic helpers working in that city-state.
Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a charming young lady whom I met during the World Economic Forum post-summit called Ocean 14 which was held in Mactan, Cebu two weeks ago.
Carine Kiala is part of the Global Shapers Community Hong Kong hub and is actively working for women victims of human trafficking in the crises center called Liberty Asia.
HK is host to over 300,000 foreign domestic workers, more than half of which are Pinays. The job of a domestic helper appears very lucrative, she said, but it also presents many dangers because the women who are caught in a cycle of poverty are desperate.
“Behind a façade of regulation, countless women are actually victims of labor trafficking,” Kiala said.