Nation of Servants

Philippines
April 1, 2009 4:38pm CST
A Hongkong writer once wrote that the Philippines is a Nation of servants. He got this notion because he had observed that through the years, a large number of servants in Hongkong came from the Philippines.Little did he know that there are high - ranking officials serving the Hongkong government. This write up paved the way to Filipinos to be United once again in the name of the country and to the Mother Land.
1 person likes this
6 responses
@ulqu1orra (307)
• Philippines
17 Apr 09
Yeah thats not something to be proud about. Cleaning other households, taking care of the sick abroad and sacrificing your happiness being away from your family just to sustain their needs to be able to live and get education should be acknowledged and be rewarded. I have a father working on abroad even though he's a truck driver of a construction company, that news for them are not just degrading the pride of our fellow OFW in HK but also the entire Filipino community in different places around the world. Who the hell cares if you have a high education but you can't respect people who are serving the needs of your country. There are also sayings that if there were no Filipino workers go abroad, the world will not move nor prosper because in each different jobs around the world high percentages of it are Filipinos.
• Philippines
2 Apr 09
Nation of Servants--This phrase is partially true since he based it on his observations although not all filipino OFWs went abroad to work as servants. I say that hongkong writer should have been more refined or choosy in his words because even most filipinos are servants abroad, none of these foreigners and none of these better off individuals around the globe know what it takes and what they all have been through outside and away from their homes, risking their lives living with people with a different culture just for them to be able to feed and support their families left in the philippines. All these talks no matter how true they maybe can add burden to the hearts of these people struggling abroad and to those whom they missed and supported back home. Media in general should be more responsible and should check first if the news they spit out can do wonders or improvements to the lives concerned on the issue. I should also say, the Philippine government should also do something about this global discrimination on the filipinos by not just letting these irresponsible and heartless mouths to apologize in public but mainly to improve the filipinos' access to quality education to make future generations better qualified for higher positions whether abroad or not and to find ways to have more local opportunities to earn money. I know they are doing their job but I hope they will continually do more because nothing is ever enough for everybody.
@rsa101 (38166)
• Philippines
2 Apr 09
Well it is hurting to know that we are called as such. But as I was hearing news about this issue, I heard a balance view about this. We also as Filipinos are also doing our own share of maligning other cultures in our own ways. We tend to malign too the Chinese and their culture at some point in our lives. We tend to discriminate them in the ways they act, and the way they speak. We call them by names that insult them in some ways. So I guess this kind of cultural gap we have from them is somewhat true. It just happen that this got magnified on a large proportion and many influential people around our society wants to ride on the issue to make themselves look like patriotic. I too am hurt by what the author wrote on his article but I guess we should also understand that we too are guilty of discriminating other races in some forms.
@jlamela (4898)
• Philippines
2 Apr 09
Actually I read this news yesterday in Philippine Star about the degrading and humiliating comment of that unknown Hongkong writer. Well, his name had been stripped from the website and the Hongkong based magazine for writing such degrading comment about the Philippines. That man should not set a foot here in the Philippines,he has no writing etiquette at all.
@cupcyke (363)
• Philippines
2 Apr 09
Its true because many filipinos are contented just to be a servants as long as they think they paid for a higher salary. there are some that are qualified to be a factory worker or in a office works but they afraid to try. they think as a servant is more easier than the others and most of all in agencies they applied for, the servants they just asking placement fees in a low amount but for a higher works they asking for a higher placement fees. some think that they may be cant afford to pay higher placements that's why they choose the lower one.
• Philippines
2 Apr 09
The Hongkong writer and the editor of the said magazine already extended their apologies to the government especially to all Filipino people for their disgracing acts of discrimination. Although we all know that most of our OFW's are working as domestic helper or servant abroad, we should be proud of their dedication and commitment to our families and our nation to bring a good life us. We can say that OFW's are the primary product that our government can trade to the other nation. Without them, our government cannot survive the financial crisis that we are facing right now. But sometimes or most of the times, the government is lacking of supports to our OFW's kababayan. In times like this, they should be the one that will protect into the misleading eyes of other nations. And one more thing, they should be the one to create more opportunities inside our country that these people will not anymore go to the other countries and served other nationality. Maybe we should all unite and step-up to be globally recognize not as servant but as leaders.