For more background on this issue, please look her up on a search engine. You'll get tons of interesting results, I assure you.
Many have typecasted Malu Fernandez as the insensitive elitist rolling in cash, or alternatively as the ignorant socialite who is too absorbed in her own fantasy world to deal with reality, or whatever we may take that to be. Prominent bloggers (when I say prominent, I do not necessarily indicate more or less credible) have stated that OFWs, maids, construction workers, managers, CEOs, regardless really, [must we really euphemize everything? Capitalism always tries to make it sound glitzier], have made enormous and growing contributions to the country and were key in helping our currency size back up to the dollar and so on, and therefore a lifestyle "Columnist" like Fernandez had no right to bitch about them.
I would like to think of it in another way, though, the fact that we can use this rather blatantly written and tactless article to not only expose the split in Philippine society (Oh yes, regarding this matter. I fully believe that everyone, regardless of social class, has the capacity to understand the implications of Fernandez' article. Whether or not they find it tasteful is another story entirely.) but also the never-ending question of the role of OFW's and the feminization of Philippine labor.
The only question I'd like to ask about all this squabbling is this. Isn't this diverting attention away from the fact that the jobs that seem to be 'created', 'destined' for most Filipinos are these jobs with very little security, low pay and high risk? Why should we accept this sort of fate? We have heard of the numerous horror stories regarding filipina women in Singapore, the Middle East, in Hong Kong, and so on, and the appalling conditions and responsibilities many of our seamen are subject to, and we ask, are we not capable of achieving more than what the global economy has 'predesigned' us to? I have often wondered if the liberation of the first world woman, the fact that the idea of a woman from a G8 country being domestic helper in the Middle East is unthinkable, has meant that the other countries of the world, us, have to be subjected to lower wage costs, menial or (Tadiar's) 'feminized' jobs, prejudiced salaries and capacity, and so on.
Is it really our fault, that we were leaked of our resources to make other countries rich, that we were subject to other's whims, so that they could rise to be great, capture the world's intelligentsia and we could provide to serve them? This may be a rather dramatic statement, but what I am really trying to say here, is that we are capable of doing more, and by silence, or letting things pass by, I am guilty, guilty of not speaking out against this oppression, when I can.
