A Hong Kong journalist was under fire in the Philippines yesterday for calling the Southeast Asian country a “nation of servants” in a column about disputed areas in the South China Sea.
In his Friday column for HK Magazine titled “The War At Home,” Chip Tsao denounced the Philippines’ claims to the Spratly Islands, which are also claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia.
“As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from where you earn most of your bread and butter,” he said.
Tsao said he gave his Philippine maid a “harsh lecture” on the issue and “sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots … that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.”
The magazine said Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. He is a former reporter for the BBC.
The Blas F Ople Policy Center, a Manila-based non-governmental organization providing assistance to migrant workers, called on the Philippine labor department to blacklist Tsao as an “undesirable foreign employer.”
Susan Ople, the center’s chairwoman, said Tsao should not use his Philippine maid as a “pawn” in the dispute over the Spratly Islands.
“The household is not the place to resolve multiple claims to the Spratly Islands, and Philippine domestic workers should not suffer because of it,” she said.
Ople added that Tsao’s maid “deserves a sane and more humane employer while he deserves to clean up his own filth.”
Congresswoman Risa Hontiveros Baraquel, a representative of a left-wing party, condemned the column and lamented that Tsao’s “disgusting, derogatory and vile remark can only come from dim-witted and mediocre writing.”
“The article reflects the attitude that promotes intolerance and abuse against Philippine domestic workers,” she said.
On the magazine’s Web site, Tsao has received numerous negative comments.
“There is a point where irony done in very poor taste becomes not humorous, but crass, bigoted and stupid,” one commenter said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS