(Note: I would like to post an article written by a certain Dr. Nosca Khalid and my reply to this article at the bottom. - Gener)
OFWs: the unspeakable…DARK SIDEby Dr. Nosca Khalid -
For all the talks of the good life that foreign employment accorded to some, the flip side is dark and nasty. It is not worth it coming from one who is a beneficiary of it. Except for the government that survives upon its fruits, the future of this country is bleak if it continues to economically depend upon its overseas foreign workers. We have sold our souls to the devil is a Faustian chronicle (of the damned) that perfectly describe the state of our nation today.
Instead of the government devising means to streamline the exodus of our finest (the best of them are not coming back for good), it emblazoned in media headlines of how the government negotiated with this country and that country to enslave more of our people at a miserly wage. This is a government who takes pride at the rising number of its citizens seeking employment outside of the country to serve the people of the world. In simpler terms, the government is a pimp who sells its people not to the highest bidder but anyone who has a change to spare. Domestic helpers are paid a miserly wage of 100-150 dollars for 24 hours of work a day, 7 days a week and on the sideline, they get raped, beaten, starved and chained. Unlike GMA, I am not proud. Calling them SUPERMAIDS is glorification of modern slavery of our women and GMA being in that gender breed should of all people strive to stop it. (as of this writing; another DH in Kuwait killed a child under her care. She tried to kill the other siblings before leaping from the second floor in an attempt to end her life.)
I want to see someone in Malacañang who will take pride at keeping its people within its borders and herald with joy the lessening number of its citizens leaving the country.
INFIDELITY, the mother of break-ups is a delicate issue that the media will not touch with a totem pole. It is an unspeakable topic that even NGOs don’t feel comfortable with but it is a damning scourge that cannot be ignored for long.
Of the 21 Filipino couples that I counted in this town out of little more than a hundred PINOYS, not one is properly married. Only 5 are legal but not proper because they are Filipino females (cream of the crop) married to aliens from the Indian subcontinent. Either one or both of the couples have families back home (no exception). Call it marriages of convenience but it is wrong viewed from whatever angle coming from a country we often call “seradong katoliko†meaning strictly catholic. The ones that give me goose bumps (and scare) are those females living double lives. They go home to their husbands and come back to Saudi Arabia in the embrace of their waiting lovers. We live in a society where men, but not our women although we don’t condone it, live double lives. Women can argue that if men can, why not us? While it is a logical argument, it is not acceptable in most societies we consider civilized. Even feminists will not condone its practice by women of decency.
Due to my fear that it could lead to violence (if husbands learn the truth), I encourage some of the women to divorce their husbands. So far there are no takers and after many years; my fear seems unfounded. I like to call them THE FEARLESS because neither are they afraid of God nor of the social mores they are bound by society to abide with. I found it obnoxious that on weekends, they attend religious meetings. They continue to break the most fundamental of the TEN COMMANDMENTS (Moslems and Christians subscribe to it) and they go to religious gatherings. We are neither saints or angels but to ridicule our faith with impunity is damning. Religion is not a joke..
OFWs will continue to fuel the engine of the Philippine economy while the social fabric that is supposed to be the foundation of a stable society will continue to loosen. Prolonged family separations are social strains that undermine the family’s cohesiveness. As a result, the inflating number of broken families is destabilizing the social fabric that offsets whatever financial gains we get from our foreign workers.
In the early days when foreigners started to trickle in the Middle East that eventually mushroomed to what it is today, the government of Saudi Arabia was very strict. It verified marriage certificates at the Philippine Embassy but due to bad publicity they get from western media for being too strict, the government stopped caring. Today employers not only amusingly accept anything resembling a marriage contract but they wed anyone who accepts Islam without any questions asked. Fake marriages run into trouble when children are born but Filipinos are doers of the impossible. To avoid landing them in jail, the embassy is forced to provide papers to the illegitimate children but it is nonetheless a partner in the crime. To the men, I advised them to revert to Islam where polygamy is allowed in circumstances exactly similar to where they find themselves in but for the women, I said, “sorry, there is no salvation for you in Islam.†I advised them though to seek salvation among the Mormons, a Christian sect where Polyandry is permitted (the practice had been long abandoned by its adherents). My town is cradled in the mountainous heights of Saudi Arabia. It is a tiny dot of TIHAMALAND in your map better known to western adventurers as ARABIA FELIX straddling the border with Yemen. It is the last frontier of Saudi Arabia meaning old traditions are practiced here more than anywhere else in the Arabian Peninsula. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere in the world. If you imagine this town at the tip of an inverted Pyramid, you begin to see the big picture where sky is the limit.
Nosca Khalid
Author: "APOCALYPSE COUNTDOWN 666"
(amazon.co.uk/januspublishing.co.uk)
My reply:
OFWs Voice from the DarkBy: Gener Marcelo
In as much as I don’t want to give credit to this article written by a certain Dr. Nosca Khalid titled, “OFWs: the unspeakable DARK SIDE†by replying to it. However, I feel the need to defend not only our hapless OFW migrants but also my personal belief as a Christian.
The author (I assume is a believer of Islam and I doubt if he is a Filipino) is right when he pointed out the Philippine government ineptitude in providing decent jobs for these talented but luckless Filipinos. However, this is already a proven fact. Ask every OFW’s you may know and they will tell the same observations as what the author had said in his article and we don’t need anybody, not even an author with a doctorate degree to tell us Filipinos the sorry state of our government’s policy with regards to migration. However, I would appreciate more if Dr. Khalid offers solution more than just stating the problem as it is. As I have said, we already knew it that is why we are relying in our own way of helping ourselves more than our government. At the very least, this would be far better than just crying and howling in the dark waiting for alms to feed ourselves. Given this situation, Filipinos are embracing the risks and all the downsides of leaving our families back home. While there may be happy stories in Filipinos going abroad but sad stories outweigh the good ones. This however does not prevent us from fulfilling our obligation to our families.
Filipinos are well known for its resiliency and because of it, we are often the subject of abuse by the very same people we believed will treat us in a humane way, regardless weather we are Christian and they are Muslims. Look at the headlines of the news today, how many OFWs suffered at the hands of their employers? Look at the statistics of human rights violations committed against OFWs by their employers in the Middle East? Isn’t it they are also believers of Islam?
One should not claim superiority over the other by way of finding justification on some else’s failure. While Filipino Christians abhor sinful ways of our fellowmen, however, it is not right to label every Filipinos alike to be one and the same in the same way that Muslims abhor their Muslim brothers who resorted to violence in the practice of their faith.
Respect is the key to a mutual coexistence. Without this, nobody has the right to claim superiority over the other just because they have what other may not have.
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