Dignity and Respect for the Filipino Worker

Published by Philippine Foundation on Oct 05, 2008
Category: Media Issues
Region: United Kingdom
Target: Broadcast Industry in the UK

Description/History:

There is now a significant Filipino population in the United Kingdom. Over the past twenty years, the number of Filipinos living and working in the UK has increased by more than 833% from roughly 18,000 in 1986 to more than 150,000 by 2006. Of this number, about 70% live in Greater London area.

The Filipino community works in a variety of sectors, ranging from IT, aviation, education, hospitality sector (hotels, restaurants and casinos) and healthcare, chefs, and house managers. Increasingly, Filipinos have been recruited to the UK in significant numbers. Over the past five years, thousands have been recruited for the hospitality and healthcare sectors.

Perhaps the Filipino community is best known for the contribution it makes to the healthcare sector. Filipino nurses are consistently recognized for their high standards of professionalism. In the past eight years, more than 45,000 Filipinos were recruited into the health service, most of whom are nurses serving in the National Health Service while the remainder are working in the independent healthcare sector – mostly in private nursing homes.

Equally well received are the thousands of domestic workers who are housekeepers, cleaners and nannies. They are often employed by the members of the British establishment. Young professional women entrust their children to be looked after by Filipina nannies. Filipino domestic workers are well known to be hard-working, trustworthy and responsible.

Almost all of these domestic helpers are well educated with most of them having a degree-qualification as their background. Hence their high-demand as preferred employees by various sectors of the international society living in London.

A survey conducted amongst a limited sample of Filipinos living in the UK at present yielded some interesting findings:

65% of Filipinos are nurses and/or in the allied medical fields.More than 10% are in domestic service.A growing number of entrepreneurs of about 5%.10-20% of the second-generation youths has gone to university or are still finishing university courses. Some of them have also become known as 'celebrities' due to their high profiles as models, actresses or musicians.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS MESSAGE TO ALL?

"On 26 September 2008 at 9 p.m., BBC 1 aired the comedy series Harry and Paul starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. The opening scene showed Paul seated on a chair on his front lawn, while still in his pyjamas. A young Asian-looking female was shown gyrating in front of him in a lascivious manner. The postman arrived to ask Harry, Paul's friend, what was going on. Harry told him that he is trying to see if his ‘Filipina maid' can seduce Paul who obviously looks depressed.

Harry then continued to shout instructions to the young girl and to Paul to 'hump' the Filipino maid. He remained unmoved while the girl even played with his hair. On further instructions from Harry, she continued to gyrate sexually in front of Paul. Harry then instructed the maid to 'present her rear' which she did while wiggling her bottom in a seductive manner. The maid did not succeed in seducing Paul as he got up from his chair to go to his house. Harry shouted at the girl in an angry voice to leave as she was useless in doing her job. The girl walked towards the pavement looking upset. While walking on the pavement, the postman looked at her in a leering way and followed her. After catching up with her, he was shown to be whispering in her right ear and the girl then walked off with the postman.

"While the BBC series did have a warning that the contents of the show may be of an offensive nature and has been rated 16, this particular sketch is completely disgraceful, distasteful and a great example of gutter humour. The sketch reflected insensitivity on the part of the producers and the British Broadcasting Corporation who did not seem to worry that by particularly naming the girl as a 'Filipina maid' and with her employer ordering her to openly behave in a lascivious manner toward the neighbour on the front lawn of a house where the public can watch what she was doing, was tantamount to racism and worst sexual abuse and exploitation of the hapless young Filipina domestic worker employee.

You can watch the actual video by clicking here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00dnf21/

The BasketBoleros of HalliVoltrons

Are you in a rut? Do you need a break from the grind? If so, thank God you landed here in your Internet travels! Just sit back and read a few funny basketball quotes that we've gathered here.

Yes, it's OK to once in awhile step back from your daily basketball training and allow yourself some relief.

What's that old saying? Laughter is the best medicine... Sometimes we take ourselves and the game a bit too seriously, don't you think?

So, take a break from your basketball drills and basketball plays and enjoy a few hilarious basketball quotes...

... When you're done laughing, watching the BasketBoleros for a serious look at their awesome antics through the eyes of their friends.

• And here it is!!! .... The BasketBoleros of HalliVoltrons in practice for a Woodridge Streetball Challenge at Woodridge Park Apartment in sunny Houston Texas, USA.

• "Some things you just can't question. Like you can't question why two plus two is four. So don't question it, don't try to l ook it up. I don't know who made it, all I know is it was put in my head that two plus two is four. So certain things happen. Why does it rain? Why am I so sexy? I don't know." - Shaquille O'Neal
  
• "The psychology instructor had just finished a lecture on mental health and was giving an oral test. Speaking about manic depression, she asked, 'How would you diagnose a patient who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?' A young man in the rear raised his hand and answered, 'A basketball coach?'" - Old Basketball Joke
  
• "Mick Jagger is in better shape than far too many NBA players. It's up in the air whether the same can be said of Keith Richards." - Bill Walton
  
• "These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it." - Charles Barkley

For more videos and photos of Tropang HalliVoltrons, please click and join here.

Food for thought

A principle I truly embrace…………..

A group of university graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit one of their honored professors, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of porcelain, glass, and crystal cups with some being rather plain looking while others were expensive and exquisite looking. He then asked them to help themselves to the hot chocolate. When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress." "The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this:" "Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have." "Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups." "The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have." "Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy the hot chocolate in your life."

Excerpt from an email received from Sir June Mendoza

Wireless recharging one step closer!!!

Wireless recharging one step closer to realityStory HighlightsWireless power transmission is creeping closer to becoming viableDemonstration shows 60-watt light bulb glowing from an energy source 3 feet awayWireless transmission of electricity makes use of some basic physicsTechnology could one day wirelessly power pacemakers and artificial hearts.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Imagine juicing up your laptop computer or cell phone without plugging it into an electrical socket.That's a luxury that could be provided by wireless power transmission, a concept that has been bandied about for decades but is creeping closer to becoming viable.Building off work unveiled last year by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, Intel Corp. demonstrated Thursday how to make a 60-watt light bulb glow from an energy source 3 feet away.The Intel team did it with relatively high efficiency, losing only a quarter of the energy the researchers started with."That, to me, is the most striking part about it: transmitting 60 watts at 75 percent efficiency over several feet," said Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner."The power pack for your laptop isn't that efficient. ... It's one of those things that's almost too good to be true."Wireless transmission of electricity makes use of some basic physics. Electric coils that resonate at the same frequency can transmit energy to each other at a distance.But this technology has a long way to evolve before it becomes a commercial product. In both the MIT and the Intel work, researchers used charging coils far too large for wide-scale use.Even so, Rattner said Intel is in the early stages of trying to modify a laptop to accept wireless power. One challenge is figuring out how to prevent the electromagnetic field from interfering with the computer's other parts, he said.Eventually, a homeowner could attach a large transmitter to a wall -- or even bury it inside the wall -- and plant many smaller receivers inside nearby tables and chairs and other pieces of furniture, creating the ultimate in recharging convenience.MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic said researchers have proposed many intriguing ideas for real-world applications since his group disclosed its breakthrough last year in a scientific journal. Those include the possibility of wirelessly powering pacemakers and artificial hearts.One of the big challenges in transmitting wireless power is preventing too much energy from escaping while in transit.The MIT researchers, who call the technology WiTricity, a combination of "wireless" and "electricity," had lit their bulb from 7 feet away with larger charging coils and between 40 percent to 45 percent efficiency.That means most of the energy didn't make it to the light bulb.But Soljacic said his group has been able to get up to 90 percent efficiency when the devices were moved to about 3 feet apart, better than the Intel demo.Soljacic, who didn't work with Intel, said Thursday that he was pleased the world's largest computer chip maker is getting behind the technology and helping push the envelope."For me, it's like a confirmation that it's so exciting, it's something people would like to have," Soljacic said. "Now, the question is if it's feasible or not. It's exciting that they're also inspired, and it seems closer to reality every day."