The To Kit “Chip on his shoulder” Tsao discrimination scandal shouldn’t be taken that lightly as some op ed columnists write. While we can typically challenge ourselves to be better Filipinos, service workers, managerial workers or rulers of the galaxy and the infinite multiuniverses, the challenge should come from a frank criticism of our weaknesses and not from prejudice.
Reacting in a nice way to prejudice is giving ground to the bigot. This is something that the Filipino and larrikin in me will never do.
While Mr Chip Tsao can hide in satire, the best riposte to satire is satire itself garnished with sarcasm to rip out the innards of the bigot. Dr Jose Rizal and Mr Marcelo H Del Pilar knew this. I can’t understand why the mainstream op ed columnists are too nice. Methinks this is a colonial cringe, a reflex that is even worse than that dished out by bigots like Tsao. The too nice responses of our op ed columnists make me barf!
These are two of some of the typical discriminatory and/or patronising statements heaped upon us Pinoys overseas and even here sa Inang Bayan. Maybe readers can contribute more
Where did you learn to speak good English? Ambeth Ocampo has the most memorable riposte ” I had an English nanny!”
Now when Hong Kongers like Chip Tsao are asked the same, they have no choice but to say “I had a Filipina maid!” This isn’t sarcasm as what Ambeth intended but the truth. Well I can’t resist but skewer and crumble this Chinese Chip cookie for the glory of Inang Bayan!
Also the riposte in Australia for the same question….. Australians speaking good English…..!!!!!! LOL!
Do you want to see snow? This was a stereotypical line said by American consuls during visa interviews as immortalised in Lupita Kashiwahara’s “Minsa’y Isang Gamo Gamo”. But American consuls have learned to be more culturally sensitive these days and I never was asked that question. However to my horror Michael Gurfinkel ESq asked the same in “Citizen Pinoy”. Although I believe Mr Gurfinkel asked that in jest but old Yankee neocolonial habits die hard! I was asked this once by an American and I said “No I have stuck my head in a chest freezer once and I never liked it”.
However one US consul asked me why I never considered doing my PhD in America even if I had an offer. (This is the academic counterpart of “Do you want to see snow?”! It seemed that it was very strange that a Pinoy would turn down such an opportunity. Well the truth is. I told him, that the US university that accepted me did not offer me a complete scholarship. I just follow where the money is. And at that time, it was in Australia.
I learned cultural sensitivity while living overseas. Cultural sensitivity doesn’t mean that one has to be blind to differences and contrary to popular notion, brush off prejudices. One has to accept differences but one has to be extremely aware that some statements that sound prejudicial are really meant in good faith. I experienced this in rural Australia where even in the wired world, their global experience is limited because of circumstance. Once this bridge is crossed, we get lifelong friends. My mother was one of the first Filipinas sent to postgraduate studies in Adelaide in the early 1950s. One of the ladies asked her if Filipinas wore lipstick. She answered yes and thought it was rather insulting but she soon realised that in postwar Australia, lipsticks were rationed. Thus the lady asked the question without prejudice in mind. This woman became one of her closest friends and she still sends her letters to this day from a more multicultural and tolerant Australia almost 60 years later.
So this Chip Tsao is really an aberration, even for the Chinese.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Ok Blackshama, I’ll tell my Pakistani friend to stop calling America a nation of murderers.
BrianB
That kind of line never dies. Fundamentalism is always an aberration. If your friend doesn’t stop, rip out his innards (metaphorically of course)!
BS,
This slur was covered in earlier article by Pat. But I only posted comments on posts made by my favorite writers.
I said in one post which awaits moderation: “You would want Cheap Taho treated with kid gloves after insulting our nation? He started this brouhaha with his foul-mouth, why be parsimonious with our own full foul-mouth in return? Are you Chinese?
Our maids went to Hongkong to work and they worked well. They did not go there with a parapernalia of “shabu-making” to make money by ruining the future of these Chinese kids. Your Chinese compatriots came to the Philippines put up shabu factories in some parts of the country and tried to make money the most vicious and cabal ways.
Early Chinese got foothold in the Philippines by exploiting the locals. They morphed into successful businessmen centuries later and with their newfound money they bribed corrupt Pinoy politicians and judges to continue their domination of the country and the economy. Pinoys have their own share of fault, that I can be sure of.
It is not shameful to earn a living. As long as it is honorable. We
Filipinos value the Dignity of Labor. It is better than scamming
people, doing frauds, stealing from investors, etc…
So, we go thruout the World offering our Labors, to earn honest
wages. There is nothing wrong with that…Satire or no satire. The
Publisher should had known better.
Housemaids are slaves in Pilifinas. STOP BASHING HONG-KONGESES COLUMNISTA.
We have the right to bashingese the HONG-KONGESE until we treat our houseslaves as humans.
Pilifinos are numero uno hypokritos
Tama na iyan, :razz: mababait din naman ang Pilipino sa kapwa, ah. Tingnan mo, ang bukang-bibig ng Pinoy, “…paano kita matutulungan?”
Tingnan mo si Susan Ople — working hard na hard to make tulong ‘dose Filipina (and Filipino) OFW’s!
At iyong ex-newspaper people ay tuloy pa rin ang pagsulat at pag gawa ng kuwento para mayroon kang pagkakataon na sumagot. At karapatan ng lahat na i-bash si squatter-GMA. :sad:
We don’t have the right to attack Hong-Kongeses for discriminating Filipinos when we discriminate our very own brown-brothers.
I challenge you all bloggers and commentators in this site with following questions:
- Which ones do you likely rent among a line-up of prostitutes?
- Which ones in Beauty Contests you are likely to choose?
- Wanted ad: “… at least 25 years old with pleasing personality…”
- Wanted ad: “… submit 2×2 picture…” What? Hiring is based on looks?
- Can a brown-skin, punked-nose land a TV endorsement?
- Who gets a better restaurant treatment? Light-skin? Fair-skin? Chinita? or Igorot? or Filipino looking?
GET OVER IT, DUDE. ONCE WE GET OVER OUR OVERT DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES THAT’S THE TIME WE ATTACK HONG-KONGESES.
DUH!
Many years ago, we were in a mall in New Jersey and a senior citizen complimented my four-year daughter who was playing around and singing a sampong mga daliri. “How cute,” the old lady said. “Do you speak English, little one?” My daughter looked at her somewhat confused and answered with a question: “What about you?”
Once, I attended a six-month seminar in South Carolina and came to befriend some of the participants. On Christmas break I rejoined my family in the East Coast. The bright day in South Carolina when I left was in stark contrast with the wintery weather in New Jersey. So, I emailed a friend something to this effect: “It’s a bit frosty here now and we expect snow to come down tonight.” She emailed back somewhat peeved: “Lucky y’all, a country lass like me is always in hopeless chase of white Christmas, ya know.”
You’d thunk the Carolina lassie had told you that her dialect-english just as good as your bookish-english, considering.
UPn,
The first incident is supposed to be similar to this exchange (also a real one):
“Hey, Abe, so you blog too?”
“Yeah.”
“On what?”
“Many things, but largely politics.”
“In English?”
The second one is what blackshama calls “cultural sensitivity.” As you may know, there are people in the (American) South who have not been to NY or seen snow yet. So the country lassie, a highly paid consultant with Ivy League MBA, didn’t seem to appreciate someone from the tropics but lives with the Yankees chaffing with her about snow.
I have a 10 year-old niece in Fair Lawn, NJ. She was born and raised in America. She speakengese goot bisdak nary an accent. When she speakengese, Pilifinos ask her when she came “off-the-boat”.
We just laugh. Because patriotizing and nationalizing pilifinos believe that “class” people speakengese goot impeccable country-club-irish-englischeztezs. How could they be patriotizing and nationalizing when they don’t even want their children speakengese their dialect? HOW IDIOTIC AND HYPOCRITE AND MOST OF ALL OBLIVIOUS! AND THEY CLAIMED TO BE “DEGREE HOLDERS”!
I mean “… singing sampong mga daliri.”
Someone asked me that question, too!
I used to blog in Friendster. It got trashed. They hijacked my account. I closed it. THANK GOODNESS!
Friendster has narrow audience. They are Flippnos looking for a hook-up. I don’t need hook-ups. Then I realize Filipno blogs has an average of 15 stays with blogrolls of the same usual suspects as the original blogs. And the rest are hit-and-run-trolls
So instead of creating blogs, I ride on blogs. They already have hard-won 15 stays anyways why bother.
And is this discrimination???? Legalized discrimination against OFW’s???? H1B’s in trouble…. pass it on.
————-
WELLS FARGO told staff it may cut foreigners amid political pressure
1:12 PM ET 3/31/09 | Marketwatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Wells Fargo & Co., one of the largest U.S. lenders, told employees this month that it’s considering cutting foreign workers, citing political pressure stemming from the government’s bailout of the banking industry, according to an internal email obtained by MarketWatch.
Wells got $25 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, in October, joining other big banks accepting government support, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC, Trade ), Citigroup Inc. (C, Trade ), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM, Trade ), Morgan Stanley (MS, Trade ) and Goldman Sachs Group (GS, Trade ).
When the stimulus bill became law in February, it included rules that made it more difficult for TARP recipients to hire foreign workers on so-called H-1B visas.
. . . . . .
The legislation doesn’t apply to current employees of Wells and other TARP recipients who need to have their existing H-1B visas renewed. However, Wells is letting those visas expire anyway, according to a copy of an internal email sent to some of its foreign employees on March 20 from the bank’s human resources department.
Well, TARP, should be intended for Americans and American products only. Looks like your American government is headed for protectionism. Nationalization of banks and auto industry in the guise of bailout. Socialism is on a roll in America …
Your immigration department should be aware of Wells Fargo’s out-of-status employees.
By the way, why would Wells Fargo needed H1B visas? Tellering position in America can be had for two months in community colleges like a notary public …
Hmmmm ….
Well Renato Pacifico… dude! This country has never had Jim Crow laws even as an American colony, commonwealth. The Republic of the Philippines is better than the United States of America in this respect. The Philippines only now is realising why there is a need for anti-discrimination laws. We started with laws guaranteeing the rights of disabled people.
But like in The United States of Recession, implementing the spirit of anti-discriminatory laws will take time.
Class discrimination within Filipino society is not the point of my post. I will deal with that later. You will read probably with glee on how I skewer
1) Conyos
2) The noveau riche
3) Ateneans
4) La Sallians
5) UP alums who really believe their alma mater is the best.
and of course
6) Hyphenated Filipinos especially Filipino-Americans!
Blackshama:
True that “This country has never had Jim Crow laws even as an American colony, commonwealth. ” but it was living in a Jim Crow World, even before the Americans and the Spaniards came to the PI and kick indio butt.
The islands didn’t need a Jim Crow law because it already had a caste society.
We ought to thank Chip Tsao for reminding flipazzes to wake up and smell the crap.
And so it goes today, tangalogs contempt for bisdaks, “probinsyanos”, (as if Manila is the only “city” in the PI for crying out loud…) and vice-versa.
Well Bong in the former British Colonies of America (BCA) citizens that are guaranteed inalienable rights imposed racial policies on their supposedly free citizens simply because of the colour of their skin.
In the former PI now the REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES (RP) the colonial policy was to keep the indios in servitude. The colonizers were not fellow citizens but foreign rulers.
Example: William Howard Taft was a citizen of the former BCA and Sergio Osmena was a national of the colonial power but a citizen of the Philippine Islands. Taft and Osmena DID NOT SHARE THE SAME CITIZENSHIP.
It seems that the election of President Barack Obama of the former British Colonies of America hasn’t made you look at the injustices against people of colour the memorable “bad check” of Dr King.
I think the worst flipazz of all are FilAms who haven’t learned much from the history of their adopted country.
You have to thank Dr King.
Abe
Having lived in the American Deep South, I know that this is really in many respects a separate nation from north of the Mason-Dixon line. Your southerner friend really is a citizen of the Confederate States! :-)
Oh I forgot Renato, I love sticking the “knife” on gays who have “creative outbursts” on service personnel.
The Chip Tsao frenzy stirred the proverbial hornets nest that is the Philippines to the extent that Philippines officially banned him from entering the country. Senators demanded investigation, the DFA mulled diplomatic protest, and the Philippine Consulate in Hong Kong issued a formal statement criticizing Tsao. And rightfully so. We should shout to high heavens because Chip Chao is so wrong!
Chip Tsao is so wrong in his description of our country: we are not a nation of servants. At the very least, we are a nation of people too lazy to read. At worst, we are a nation of stupid people who already cannot understand what we are reading. To those who made conclusions and opinions without first reading the article of Chip Tsao (including our senators) here are the first two paragraphs of the article:
1. The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
3. 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.
Right there and then, you can already see that this article is not an attack of the Filipinos. Ironically, it is actually in defense of us. Chip Tsao’s bottomline is putting China to task for picking a fight with lowly Philippines for doing something so minor, instead of directing its rage against Russia and Japan who had done far more serious crimes against China. He even called Spratlys as scattered rocks! Hay, how difficult is that to understand?
Mabuhay talaga ang Pilipino!
if he is defending us why is he asking an apology now? he should have the balls to say that look people, i am at your side and not against you and you should have commended me instead of pilloring me.