Achieving Happiness

Okay friends and readers, hold on to your hats: am writing this from Hong Kong.

Call this a vacation, which is what it really is. With a measure of shame I admit: am taking a break when back in the Philippines (and even here in Hong Kong) all other matino political activists are working like crazy. Oh well, no use being guilty about it. I’ve resolved to merely go with the flow, eat vegetables like my husband keeps urging me to do, and recover my loss energy and strength as soon as possible so I get back to my real life.

This break is affording me a chance to rethink and discover new things about myself. I’ve realized that my social skills are really no downright poor: in the last ten years, I have mostly associated with people and organizations who carry more or less the same ideas as I do about the the world and how life should be lived, so now it’s like I’m learning how to communicate again, this time with people  (decent, hardworking, kind and considerate)  whose worldviews are quite, well, far and different from mine.

I am learning to stop making assumptions, and to stop being surprised or even shocked that the people I meet and speak to have very little awareness of political discourse or economic analysis. This is a very eye-opening experience, and quite humbling as well.

  "There is more to the world than is dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio…"

I am learning how to walk all over again.

I have also realized that it is already IMPOSSIBLE to divorce one’s self from one’s awareness of the world. The accumulated experiences and training of the last 13 years makes it impossible for me to not see and look more deeply into people and developments, as well as the circumstances that shaped and moulded them. It’s like having an extra pair of eyes, only this other pair has x-ray vision.

The most pressing concern of migrant groups here led by the Asia-Pacific Migrant Mission and United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL) is the wage cut policy being pushed by the Hong Kong government and treacherously supported by the Philippine government through its consulate here (well, if it’s not outrightly opposing the policy, then the Consulate is essentially supporting it right?.)

The policy is intended as a tax-generation measure by the Hong Kong government, supposedly aimed at ensuring that Hong Kong’s  economic woes will be shared fairly throughout the community. The APMM and UNIFIL, however, are strongly campaigning against the wage cut, pointing out the obvious:  wage cuts — along with increasing  fees and charges will have a devastating impact on the economic welfare of migrant workers and their dependents back at home.

There are more than 240,000 foreign maids working in Hong Kong. More than half of them, about 150,000, are Filipina. The rest come from Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal and the Indian subcontinent. Hong Kong does not officially define a poverty line, but NGOS put it around HK$2,500 per person a month. On that basis, 18 percent of the population of 6.8 million lives in poverty.

Magkano nga ba ang natitira sa isang OFW na DH dito kada buwan? HK$500? Ang kalkhan naman kasi pinapadala sa Pilipinas — kay Nene at kay Totoy na nag-aaral; para makapagpasemento ang iniwang pamilya ng bahay; para makapag-ipon ng pondo para sa napakaraming emergency na laging dumadagsa sa buhay ng mga manggagawa at iba pang maralita.

There are Filipino migrant groups here - quite unlike the APMM and Unifil- who refuse to take action on such economic (and ineveitably political - as it all boils down to the orientation and thrust of the Philippine national government which negotiates with the host country’s government) issues and instead focus on providing rest and recreation for our kababayans here.

I don’t think there’s nothing immediately wrong with that - I would be the last person to say that our kababayans who work here as domestic helpers or entertainers do not need these R&R venues because I know how horridly difficult and physically draining their jobs are. It should be pointed out, however, that it is infiniely more important to defend and protect the economic rights and job security concerns of migrants than to make sure that they can play volleyball or badminton on their Sundays off.

It was in 2003 when the HK   government announced plans to cut welfare payments. The move, the government tries  to justify, will bring savings of HK$1.03 billion this year and next year, HK$1.55 billion in 2004/2005 and HK$1.71 billion in 2005/2006.

Yup: savings at the expense of migrant workers and their families.

——

I have yet to find a bookstore here. Rows and rows of ukay-ukay shops, but no  Booksale-type stores. Hmmm. Am not really interested in gadgets (and the most my husband wants is a relatively powerful telescope- he’s into astonomy), and I’m not into food (apart from the fruit. I like fruit, and its cheap here), so am mostly on the lookout for bookstores and theater companies that show plays in English while charging less than an arm or a leg. A finger, two at the most is all I can afford.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 15th, 2006 at 9:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.