Here, there, and somewhere else

Only 40-minute train ride away from HK Central, Shenzhen is one of the most popular destinations for immigration services (read: visa extension). This place is also supposedly the shopping haven for Filipinos who own retail shops for clothes in the Philippines. One of my cousins who also later opened a small tiangge shop in Greenhills, and later on in Eastwood, would also exclaim how the wholesale purchasing of (cheap-cheap, as touts here would say) goods in China promises one budding business person so much profit. Most if the items being sold in Manila and elsewhere in the Philippines are, as my cousin once told me, are generally purchased (called pakyawan system in Tagalog) by Filipino or Fil-Chinese wholesalers from China.

I have heard of many stories about Filipinos taking 3 to 5-day budget tours to HK from the Philippines. With relatively cheap flights abound, one can easily grab a package tour to HK, go sightseeing for a day or two, then proceed spend the remaining days of the tour in Shenzen or China to shop for cheap items or fake goods, factory overruns, or maybe smuggled goods. I have heard, though, some interesting stories about Filipinos touring in HK. When I was in university, one of my aunts in the US paid for the holiday vacation of 17 (?) of my relatives, most of whom have never been abroad, to see HK. For Filipinos, traveling abroad is a sign of "wealth" ("can afford" in Filipino slang"). The mass exportation of Filipino labor has sharpened the divide between Filipino tourists and the Overseas Filipino Worker. And my relatives, as I recall, were very happy and they were very proud that news got around our little town that my family could "afford" such luxury. It was a very generous gift indeed!

During the abovementioned trip of my relatives to HK, I recall that the tourist guide made some of my family members wear a special tag on their chest which meant to tell the rest of the world that the group is in fact in HK as money-spending tourists and not as domestic helpers. The overwhelming presence of Filipino women domestic helpers in HK has given an impression to the population that the Filipino nation is that country which produces citizens bound do fulfill the gendered role of a domestic worker. The travel agency just had to prepare measures to avoid incidents where their clients would experience discrimination just because of their color or the because of the passport they carry.

Having visited HK for the third time this year (staying from two weeks to a month), I have come to observe that Filipinos have indeed become branded as maids. And because of this, Filipinos in HK , whether they are in the domestic occupation or not, seem to have lost a great amount of freedom to consume spaces which could easily be enjoyed by other races -- those who, "by default," are tagged here as second, or even third class. Toilets inside the high-class malls in Central are even closed during Sundays, perhaps afraid that Filipinos would even invade the mall to picnic at its alleys.

Allow me to paraphrase the opinion of some foreigner friends or acquaintances about Filipinos in HK:

1. "They're literally all over! On the streets, under and on the bridges, in the parks, in the malls."
   
2. Referring again to the "Sunday invasion of Filipinos", another said, "they're really annoying, ayt? They take up all the space!"
3. Central becomes like a jungle. Or a market.
   
4. They're ugly (this is the single description which I find hard to forget and forgive)
5. They're like flamingos gathering on the beach.
   

They were referring to this crowd of Filipinos, who during Sundays, picnic in most part of Central Hong Kong:



Annoying?!

Excuse me. I'll tell you one story which is unquestionably more annoying than seeing a mass of domestic helpers enjoy their one and only day off of the week.

It was Saturday and HBB and I decided to take the tram to the Peak. A couple passed by while we were sitting on one of the benches at ____ Lane. They were pulling a cute but overly huge Chauchau which was already heavily panting. The Lane is quite a long walk of ___ kms and perhaps the couple took the dog for its much-needed exercise. Extremely fat, the dog was obviously having a hard time to go uphill. Who else was there to save the day? Of course the couple called on somebody, a Filipina maid, who was carrying nothing but a cart. The three struggled to carry the dog to the cart and after successfully placing the dog, off went the maid to pull the cart... The couple just walked slowly while the Filipino struggled to pull the cart uphill...

I personally did and still does find it hard to get around HK, just because I am brown and that I look very Filipina (or maybe Indonesian, the second biggest group of domestic helpers here). Some of my experiences are:

1. I can count the number of times that the security guards of the apartment where my HBB is staying have greeted me. They do acknowledge me however when I walk in the building with HBB, who by the way is "respectable," being Caucasian sporting a business attire. I don't really care if I am greeted or not, but I swear they greet all (mostly Caucasian or businessmen) passersby and residents, but me.
2. Window shopping is not so easy. I can almost read the minds of the staff saying: You can't afford it! (Well I can't but I am just looking, hmp!)
   
3. A middle-aged Caucasian lady seemed very surprised to walk in the elevator to see, well, me. What was I, a little brown Indio, doing in that posh serviced apartment?
   
4. I once couldn't find the exit to a building which I was supposed to visit. I called HBB to ask for directions and he told me that I should just look around. I replied that I would just go ask someone. He replied that I should be "careful" because that area is where the Filipino entertainers hang out.
5. I was once invited by a friend to have lunch at his company's canteen. His company is perhaps one of the most prestigious corporations in HK. He instructed me to dress up and so I did. I was excited, my friend's been bragging about the cheap buffet inside their company building. But it wasn't my day... The guard immediately stopped me before we could even purchase lunch tickets. He said that guests are not allowed and that the canteen is for company employees only. That of course is not true because I have been assured by the friend who invited me that they've let other friends from other companies in before. Worse, a Caucasian friend managed to get past security just 5 mins after I was refused entry. Obviously, I was singled out from the crowd just because of race or color.

And when you tell friends, they laugh at you and say: Mukha ka kasing katulong! (It's because you look like a maid!). That comment, joke or not, comes by the way from co-scholars like me.

So I sigh...

The Philippine government's "management" of overseas labor is much to blame for the displacement of Filipino labor. Boasting that the government is merely supporting individual migratory decisions, it has conveniently used international migration from being an interim strategy to being a pillar of the country's diplomatic relations, and worse, as an easy escape to raise the Philippine's GDP and to of course finally give fundamental solutions to the the structural problems in the Philippines: poor education; insufficient agricultural system; lack of employment; neocolonialism and over reliance on the great Uncle Sam; "insurgency," among many other seemingly unending internal issues.

Perhaps I should end here. I am getting very heartbroken.

Leda was admired by Zeus, who raped her in the guise of a swan. As a swan, Zeus fell into her arms for protection from a pursuing eagle. Their consummation, on the same night as Leda lay with her husband Tyndareus, resulted in two eggs from which hatched Helen—later known as the beautiful Helen Of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux (also known as the Dioscuri—also spelled Kastor and Polydeuces).

and this is Michaelangelo's depiction of Leda:

I will try to edit a video of HBB which is somewhat related to the very popular Kanchou dame...

Watch out for it!

Mata ne... and kanchou dammmmee!