i know the topic's a LOT LATE (it happened on mid-August 2007) but still i find it worth commenting..especially now that i can relate
Key Statements In Malu Fernandez’s People Asia Article
However I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them.
While I was on the plane (where the seats were so small I had bruises on my legs), my only consolation was the entertainment on the small flat screen in front of me. But it was busted, so I heaved a sigh, popped my sleeping pills and dozed off to the sounds of gum chewing and endless yelling of “HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga sann ka? Domestic h
elper ka rin ba?” Translation: “Hey there? Where are you from? Are you a domestic helper as well?” I though I had died and God had sent me to my very own private hell.
On my way back, I had to bravely take the economy flight once more. This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.
All in all, it’s been a pretty good summer. Jetting from the Aegean Sea to the Pacific may sound a bit pretentious until you wake up in economy class smelling like air freshener.
However I forgot that the hub was in Dubai and the majority of the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) were stationed there. The duty-free shop was overrun with Filipino workers selling cell phones and perfume. Meanwhile, I wanted to slash my wrist at the thought of being trapped in a plane with all of them.
While I was on the plane (where the seats were so small I had bruises on my legs), my only consolation was the entertainment on the small flat screen in front of me. But it was busted, so I heaved a sigh, popped my sleeping pills and dozed off to the sounds of gum chewing and endless yelling of “HOY! Kumusta ka na? At taga sann ka? Domestic h
elper ka rin ba?” Translation: “Hey there? Where are you from? Are you a domestic helper as well?” I though I had died and God had sent me to my very own private hell.On my way back, I had to bravely take the economy flight once more. This time I had already resigned myself to being trapped like a sardine in a sardine can with all these OFWs smelling of AXE and Charlie cologne while Jo Malone evaporated into thin air.
All in all, it’s been a pretty good summer. Jetting from the Aegean Sea to the Pacific may sound a bit pretentious until you wake up in economy class smelling like air freshener.
i find it hard not resort to argumentum ad hominem as i write this. as an amateur blogger slash writer i know i lack the grammatical wisdom and the writer intellect to counteract what the columnist had written in her article. i mean, she's the columnist and she does it for a living. maybe she even got a degree in journalism (god hope not) under her belt to back up her credentials. and to go on head-to-head collision with her and criticize her column would be downright suicidal for me (i'm malnourished *wink*).
from the tone of her words i guess that she's from the alta sociedad or is she? i just wondered why a channel-wearing, havaianna clad woman like her would resort to economy-class? gasp! i thought the whole article was pretentious, pretentious in the fact that the author was trying to be caucasian slandering his oriental seatmates.i know some of us are sick or even maybe numb from racist jokes about the "asian guys". but a fellow filipino? or perhaps the author was in denial, denial of the fact that the blood that runs through her veins are the same blood as the person seating next to her on that plane, the people that smelled Axe and Charlie-Cologne. i get it... she's not proud to be filipino because being a filipino would mean that you're an OFW working as domestic helper in Dubai or as nurse wiping geraitric patient's fecal matter in London. Re-reading her article, i must admit that it was well-written and the humor was supposed to be taken tongue-in-cheek. if you're the intellectual kind then you will totally get her humor, but what if you're not? and it's true that she writes for a certain target audience only but what if someone outside of that target audience suddenly reads the article? is she still liable for her own words? maybe the big professors who gave miss fernandez her degree in writing failed to teach her responsible journalism. well, even if she didn't graduate with a journalism degree, would a little tactfulness hurt?
miss malu fernandez is one of the thousands of people (elitists or non-eletists alike) who just simply DON't get it. and i'm ashamed to say that I used to be one of them. i used to make fun of the OFW's or the overseas factory worker in jeddah who comes home wearing blue leather over-alls with gold jewelry flashing everywhere. i used to make fun of "indays" and "dudungs" as DH in Hongkong and i used to look down on nurses who work abroad. back then, i simply just didn't get it. but after my second-oldest sister went to UAE to look for work, then i started to realize what being an OFW means. i suddenly realized that she won't be around anymore to cook small meals for me. i realized now that she won't be around anymore to ask me to run an errand for her. i now know that she's not around to clean our toilet anymore, or to cook sinaing, or to watch Kokey. i get it now. i know she won't be around for Christmas or New Year and i don't even know when she's coming back, or if ever she's ever coming back. she won't be here tomorrow, or the next day or even the next year. i get it now. i know now that i can't say tanga or gaga or kukang (our family calls her kukang) to her in person anymore, i have to settle in saying that to her in SMS roaming or in YM. i know i just have to put her laundry away in her closet before my mom sees them and get emotional all-over again.
after reading her article, i didn't feel hatred or anger. i felt sadness and envy. sadness because i used to be one of her. envy because miss fernandez doesn't have someone dear to her work miles away from the comfort and security of her sosyal mansion. she doesn't have someone fighting loneliness and longing for their loved-ones;people who everyday fight the urge to go home, people who settle for christmas cards or birthday cards and polaroids of their loved ones. she doesn't have someone calling her from Dubai or HK or Saudi and have inaudible and conversations and crying sessions with them. she doesn't have those kinds of people. she doesn't have an OFW loved-one. and she should be thankful for that.
god i hope that the likes of Miss Malu Fernandez doesn't have and OFW sister/brother/mom/dad. the struggle everyday to fight loneliness ...or to fight tears when one finds and empty bed or a shirt left in the hamper that belonged to someone in another country. i know just the thought of not knowing when or if ever you're sister is coming back will ceratinly kill her. she doesn't have what it takes. she doesn't have the guts to have an OFW loved one. God may you have mercy on the soul of Miss Malu Fernandez and i pray that someday she won't be a domestic helper in HK.
my sister who's currently working as an OFW in UAE...i'm so proud of her!
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