Guest Comments by Isabel Escoda

Escoda, a journalist and author originally from the Philippines, lives in Hong Kong. A version of this commentary first appeared as a letter to the South China Morning Post newspaper.

HONG KONG -- Commentator Chip Tsao, whose Politically Incorrect column appears in the weekly HK Magazine, aims his barbs far and wide, often mercilessly lampooning Hong Kong people and the Chinese in general.

Last month, one of his satirical pieces, about the Spratly Islands claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, China and the Philippines, raised a ruckus in Filipino communities worldwide. Tongue-in-cheek, Tsao had asked how “a nation of servants” like the Philippines dared to claim the Spratlys and said he’d threatened to fire his Filipina maid if she didn’t agree that China was the true owner.

In fact, a large majority of Filipinas do work as servants abroad and at home. Then why did the columnist’s use of the term “nation of servants” offend so many Filipinos in Hong Kong and elsewhere?

Tsao’s subsequent claim that his column was purely satirical implies that uneducated, unsophisticated folks like us weren’t able to see it as he intended. Likewise, his publisher averred that satire sometimes can be misunderstood. In other words, we folks from a poor country are an illiterate bunch.

Did Tsao’s careless labeling of our country inflict injury with his total lack of what we call delicadeza, meaning that he failed to show consideration for the vulnerable people of a poor country? Was it that we dislike reminders that we perform the dirty work in many parts of the world? Or was it because his jibes robbed Filipinos of the dignity they deserve?

The answer is all of the above, plus the reality that Hong Kong harbors racist attitudes towards migrant workers. That’s why the main chant by Filipina women in a responding protest march was: “We are workers. We aren’t slaves!”

Everyone knows that Filipinas and other Asian migrant workers doing menial jobs in Hong Kong provide important services. They deserve respect, something Tsao utterly failed to offer.

Once, the Chinese were known as a nation of coolies and refugees, the British as a nation of shopkeepers and the French as wine-swilling “frogs”. Sometimes the Thais are called a country of prostitutes and the Americans a nation of gun-crazed loonies.

So perhaps those of us from the Philippines shouldn’t mind our reputation as servants. After all, doing menial work is an honorable thing.

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