Philippines, A Nation of Servants?

GekiDan · Mar 28, 2009

I was shocked when I heard a late night news about a Hong Kong Chinese article writer. He wrote an article about the Phillipines who wants to wage war on the claim of Spratleys Islands on the Philippine border. The said islands were claiming by different countries including Philippines and China among others. It's true that Philippines will not hold back on claiming what is rightfully ours and defending it from conquerors.

What I don't like about the article is what Chip Tsao, the writer, said:

"But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter."

It is such an insult that they our our masters.

I don't think he have a right to say that. In fact, I don't think there are servant countries who are serving master countries. Am I right?

The whole article is here: http://hk-magazine.com/feature/war-home

curious · Mar 28, 2009

That's an incredibly arrogant statement.

Unfortunately, the Philippines bigget export is its people. And in Hong Kong, as in much of the Middle East, most people have servants, and most of them are from the Philippines. So that is the only contact people in Hong Kong have had with Filipinos.

GekiDan · Mar 28, 2009

curious said:
That's an incredibly arrogant statement.

Unfortunately, the Philippines bigget export is its people. And in Hong Kong, as in much of the Middle East, most people have servants, and most of them are from the Philippines. So that is the only contact people in Hong Kong have had with Filipinos.

I can say Filipinos are invading the world because most workers abroad came from the Philippines. Many said that Filipinos' work cannot be compared to others. Thus many other countries do seek for Filipino workers. Like Australia and Canada.

curious · Mar 28, 2009

Because the Philippines was a US territory, a lot of nurse training programs were set up there that train the same way as programs in the US and Canada, and the students take the same board exams. Therefore, unlike nurses trained on the British model, their licenses are good in the US and Canada, and hospitals recruit heavily there. So when I think of Filipinos, I think they are nearly all nurses. The US doesn't provide visas so people can have maids, so we don't really have a lot of Filipinos that work as servants.

GekiDan · Mar 28, 2009

curious said:
Because the Philippines was a US territory, a lot of nurse training programs were set up there that train the same way as programs in the US and Canada, and the students take the same board exams. Therefore, unlike nurses trained on the British model, their licenses are good in the US and Canada, and hospitals recruit heavily there. So when I think of Filipinos, I think they are nearly all nurses. The US doesn't provide visas so people can have maids, so we don't really have a lot of Filipinos that work as servants.

I don't think you are right. Philippines is not a US territory since we do have a different government than that of US. But you can say that we are a good ally to US.

In the nurses part, well, it's true. Many students do like to study nursing just beacause they want to work abroad. I can say nurses are very high in demand nowadays.

deanhills · Mar 29, 2009

The Filipino people have a fantastic work ethic and are sought after as workers everywhere in the world. Regrettably some Filipinos will however go to any length to obtain jobs, and are easily prepared to work for lower salaries, such as in the Middle East. Some are very competitive and will go to any length they can in order to secure employment. Quite a number have to send funds back home to the Philippines to take care of their families. Quite often it is the grand mother in the Phillipines who is taking care of the grand children, and when the children retire, it is usually their children who migrate for jobs overseas. That is probably what gives the impression of a nation of slaves. In the Middle East the Filipino people are very sought after in nursing and nursing aid positions. The standard of medical practice in the Philippines is very high, so that makes nurses popular in the Middle East as they are excellent care givers, also come very highly trained. Quite a number of Filipinos are working as domestic servants and au pairs, the latter being quite hard work as they could easily land with Arabic families that mistreat them.

curious · Mar 30, 2009

GekiDan said:
I don't think you are right. Philippines is not a US territory since we do have a different government than that of US. But you can say that we are a good ally to US.

I used the past tense. The Philippines were taken from Spain by the US in the Spanish-American war in 1898. They remained a US possession until July 4, 1945. The Japanese invaded and occupied the country during WWII, driving the US out. We drove the Japanese out, and granted independence on the scheduled day.

On the island of Leyte there is a statue on the beach of General MacArthur wading ashore, replicating our return to the Philppines.

Surely you learned this in school, if that is where you are from?

deanhills · Mar 30, 2009

Curious, perhaps the writing of your original posting was very clumsy and it could have been easy for GekiDan to have come to the wrong conclusion. I also thought you had it wrong. Maybe you should have a look at your original posting again .... :

Because the Philippines was a US territory, a lot of nurse training programs were set up there that train the same way as programs in the US and Canada, and the students take the same board exams. Therefore, unlike nurses trained on the British model, their licenses are good in the US and Canada, and hospitals recruit heavily there. So when I think of Filipinos, I think they are nearly all nurses. The US doesn't provide visas so people can have maids, so we don't really have a lot of Filipinos that work as servants.

curious · Mar 30, 2009

curious said:
Because the Philippines was a US territory,

I don't really see what is unclear about that. I used the past tense, and the statement is accurate. Perhaps both you and GekiDan should read more carefully.

deanhills · Mar 31, 2009

curious said:
I don't really see what is unclear about that. I used the past tense, and the statement is accurate. Perhaps both you and GekiDan should read more carefully.

Nothing wrong with my reading skills, perhaps the problem lies with the writing of the posting, I had to read the posting a few times because it had been clumsily written. It is obvious that it must have been written in a hurry.

Delta · Mar 31, 2009

Let's try to keep it on topic guys - no need to get personal. curious did clarify what she meant here:

I used the past tense. The Philippines were taken from Spain by the US in the Spanish-American war in 1898. They remained a US possession until July 4, 1945. The Japanese invaded and occupied the country during WWII, driving the US out. We drove the Japanese out, and granted independence on the scheduled day.

On the island of Leyte there is a statue on the beach of General MacArthur wading ashore, replicating our return to the Philppines.

Surely you learned this in school, if that is where you are from?

As far as my opinion on the statement, I think it was completely uncalled for. Other countries need workers, and Filipinos want work. Regardless of the price paid for the work, both parties have something to gain and lose from the relationship, so I don't see why it should be considered a slave/master relationship at all.

If they want to look at it that way - everyone is a servant to someone.

Glee · Mar 31, 2009

I don't much about the Philippines. The only thing I really know is that my best friend is dating a Filipino girl. She isn't native to the US and has troubles with our culture. She mostly is trying to convert my friend to adapt to Filipino culture. This is alright, except my friend seems to think I need to as well... which means eating yucky food, listening to Filipino pop songs (men singing... men singing pop is just wrong) and watching bad over-dramatic soap opera like movies. Now I'm sure there is good Filipino food out there. But I don't know what is and what isn't. So when we go to these restaurants I just tell my friend to pick something for me. It's always been bad. His tastes are horrible. But he's blinded by love. He admitted to me once that he doesn't really like the food all that much but has gotten used to it... but when I repeat this to him, he acts like he never said that. Oh well.
As far as Maria (the filipino girl) goes she's really nice. Well kinda, she doesn't like me. But other than that she's nice. I mean I am a girl who's best friends with her boyfriend... how can she like me, no matter how nice I am. I told my best friend if things don't work out with the Filipino girl, to date a Japanese girl, that way I can ate Japanese food when he get obsessed over her. ^.^

Uh I'm not sure this really added to the conversation, but yeah...

Sparks · Mar 31, 2009

Chow King?

Okay, Glee, now it is true that there are not a lot of trendy Filipino restaurants around the world. And culinary-ily wise, the Philippines is a bit challenged. But lomi (think a sort of thick egg noodle soup with bits of beef and occasionally liver) can be made as a thick shrimp flavored stock with the same egg noodles and it really does taste great. I like both, but one was really good and could be served anywhere while the former, more common recipe is what we would call home cooking. (And yes, Maria will always view you as a potential threat, Glee.)

Anyway, if things don't work out, tell your friend to get a Thai girlfriend and you'l be in spicy heaven. The Chinese have a number of different styles of cuisine and most of them don't resemble anything made in the USA (generally).

As to the original post about the Chinese attitude toward Filipinos, it is not uncommon for cultures to be very racist or whatever you want to call it. Heck in the Middle East, people performing the same job get paid according to where they are from. And Filipinos are usually close to the bottom of the pay scale.

There is a great amount of Filipinos working abroad (in countries other than the Philippines), maybe 10 percent of the population also known as OFW's. They constitute a significant amount of the national income. And while working hard for small wages, they support their families, feeding them, sending them to school, paying medical bills. The OFW's have my deep respect. In fact, it is the upper classes I have least respect for. And the politicans, well, I live here so I can't really comment as freely as I would like. The ruling people get very touchy about negative comments by foreigners.

So I think the Chinese comment about the Spratly Island claim and the reference to OFW's in Hong Kong, it is totally off base. Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines all claim parts of the Spratly group. None of them are going to go to war with China in a serious way over their claims.

curious · Mar 31, 2009

Clumsily written? I said the Philippines was a US territory. Note the past tense. I was told I was wrong because the Philippines isn't a US territory. Note the change in tense.

Now, if I had been questioned on the meaning or clarity of the post, that's fine. But I was incorrectly challenged on a basic fact. No matter what anybody says, the Philippines was a US territory.

I'm especially clear about this because my grandfather was stationed in the Philppines during the Spanish-American war. He killed a python and cured the skin. My mother had it, and I used to take it to school every year for show-and-tell.

deanhills · Apr 1, 2009

Glee said:
I don't much about the Philippines. The only thing I really know is that my best friend is dating a Filipino girl. She isn't native to the US and has troubles with our culture. She mostly is trying to convert my friend to adapt to Filipino culture. This is alright, except my friend seems to think I need to as well... which means eating yucky food, listening to Filipino pop songs (men singing... men singing pop is just wrong) and watching bad over-dramatic soap opera like movies. Now I'm sure there is good Filipino food out there. But I don't know what is and what isn't. So when we go to these restaurants I just tell my friend to pick something for me. It's always been bad. His tastes are horrible. But he's blinded by love. He admitted to me once that he doesn't really like the food all that much but has gotten used to it... but when I repeat this to him, he acts like he never said that. Oh well.
As far as Maria (the filipino girl) goes she's really nice. Well kinda, she doesn't like me. But other than that she's nice. I mean I am a girl who's best friends with her boyfriend... how can she like me, no matter how nice I am. I told my best friend if things don't work out with the Filipino girl, to date a Japanese girl, that way I can ate Japanese food when he get obsessed over her. ^.^

Uh I'm not sure this really added to the conversation, but yeah...

I enjoyed this posting so much, especially since it is sincere and honest. As well as entertaining. I have had experiences like this too. And for sure she would see you as competition. Be careful!

deanhills · Apr 1, 2009

curious said:
Clumsily written? I said the Philippines was a US territory. Note the past tense. I was told I was wrong because the Philippines isn't a US territory. Note the change in tense.

Now, if I had been questioned on the meaning or clarity of the post, that's fine. But I was incorrectly challenged on a basic fact. No matter what anybody says, the Philippines was a US territory.

I'm especially clear about this because my grandfather was stationed in the Philppines during the Spanish-American war. He killed a python and cured the skin. My mother had it, and I used to take it to school every year for show-and-tell.

This is how I would have written the introductory sentence for greater clarity:

Since the Philippines has a long tradition with the United States, a number of the nurse training programs are similar to those in the US and Canada.

I did some research on what you said, and maybe some of the information you have given has changed. It is not as easy for nurses/physicians from the Philippines to get into the US and the US has tightened the qualifications for immigration. If you are interested to learn more, there is a really good and current article below that gives a complete history about Philippine Nurses in the US:

Philippine Nurses in the U.S.—Yesterday and Today

GekiDan · Apr 4, 2009

curious said:
I used the past tense. The Philippines were taken from Spain by the US in the Spanish-American war in 1898. They remained a US possession until July 4, 1945. The Japanese invaded and occupied the country during WWII, driving the US out. We drove the Japanese out, and granted independence on the scheduled day.

On the island of Leyte there is a statue on the beach of General MacArthur wading ashore, replicating our return to the Philppines.

Surely you learned this in school, if that is where you are from?

Yes. I have learned this from school. I grew up here in Manila and knew most of Philippines' history.And when I was still at school, we always studied it almost every year.

deanhills said:
Nothing wrong with my reading skills, perhaps the problem lies with the writing of the posting, I had to read the posting a few times because it had been clumsily written. It is obvious that it must have been written in a hurry.

I thought of the same too. Maybe the sentence constuction is the only problem. But hence, let's just forget about that and curious have already clarified his statement.

deanhills said:
I did some research on what you said, and maybe some of the information you have given has changed. It is not as easy for nurses/physicians from the Philippines to get into the US and the US has tightened the qualifications for immigration. If you are interested to learn more, there is a really good and current article below that gives a complete history about Philippine Nurses in the US:

Philippine Nurses in the U.S.?Yesterday and Today

I have heard of that too. Nowadays, Filipino nurses are in demand in other countries like Canada, Australia and Middle East. So that's why many students are studying nursing so that they can work abroad. But we, here in the Philippines, are, too, lacking of experienced nurses.

And regarding the article of Chip Tsao in the first post, a certain commentarist states that we are thinking the opposite of the article. He said that the article was meant for the Chinese Government, and not for the Philippines. And he also said that the article was a satire.

I can't really understand what satire meant but I'll research on it.

deanhills · Apr 5, 2009

GekiDan said:
But we, here in the Philippines, are, too, lacking of experienced nurses.

That is really interesting to learn GekiDan. Does that mean that most of the good nurses choose to work abroad? How is the Philippines dealing with the shortage of nurses? Are they trying to train more nurses or make it more attractive for experienced nurses to stay on in the Philippines? Why is it really necessary for people from the Philippines to work abroad? From what I have heard it is a country with a wonderful style of living, food and accommodation are low-cost, medical services are of a good standard.

Glee · Apr 5, 2009

Sparks said:
Okay, Glee, now it is true that there are not a lot of trendy Filipino restaurants around the world. And culinary-ily wise, the Philippines is a bit challenged. But lomi (think a sort of thick egg noodle soup with bits of beef and occasionally liver) can be made as a thick shrimp flavored stock with the same egg noodles and it really does taste great. I like both, but one was really good and could be served anywhere while the former, more common recipe is what we would call home cooking. (And yes, Maria will always view you as a potential threat, Glee.)

Anyway, if things don't work out, tell your friend to get a Thai girlfriend and you'l be in spicy heaven. The Chinese have a number of different styles of cuisine and most of them don't resemble anything made in the USA (generally).

As to the original post about the Chinese attitude toward Filipinos, it is not uncommon for cultures to be very racist or whatever you want to call it. Heck in the Middle East, people performing the same job get paid according to where they are from. And Filipinos are usually close to the bottom of the pay scale.

There is a great amount of Filipinos working abroad (in countries other than the Philippines), maybe 10 percent of the population also known as OFW's. They constitute a significant amount of the national income. And while working hard for small wages, they support their families, feeding them, sending them to school, paying medical bills. The OFW's have my deep respect. In fact, it is the upper classes I have least respect for. And the politicans, well, I live here so I can't really comment as freely as I would like. The ruling people get very touchy about negative comments by foreigners.

So I think the Chinese comment about the Spratly Island claim and the reference to OFW's in Hong Kong, it is totally off base. Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines all claim parts of the Spratly group. None of them are going to go to war with China in a serious way over their claims.

It wouldn't be all that inaccurate to say the the Philippines are like the Mexico to the asian world right? I mean they are a race of people who were conquered by Spain and are highly influenced by Spanish culture. Also they aren't the ... *looks around hoping not to be called racist* richest country around... and because of that they are kinda a nation of immigrants. Add to the fact that crime supposedly is crazy with different corrupt factions. From what I also understand, like South America the Philippine have about four or five languages that are all pretty similar, but Tagalog is the language they use to communicate with each other. So yeah, would that be a good comparison, or am I completely off?

GekiDan · Apr 5, 2009

deanhills said:
That is really interesting to learn GekiDan. Does that mean that most of the good nurses choose to work abroad? How is the Philippines dealing with the shortage of nurses? Are they trying to train more nurses or make it more attractive for experienced nurses to stay on in the Philippines? Why is it really necessary for people from the Philippines to work abroad? From what I have heard it is a country with a wonderful style of living, food and accommodation are low-cost, medical services are of a good standard.

Yes. Most of good and experienced nurses do choose to work abroad to get more income. The costs of living here in the Philippines is getting high so many do choose to work abroad.

From what I knew, medical services here are very good and influences more foreigners to do their operations here.

Philippines, A Nation of Servants?

Similar threads