by. jun asuncion
The article War At Home written by Chip Tsao -where he arrogantly ridiculed his Filipina maid and the whole of the Philippines as a nation of servants -seems to me rather a war inside Chip Tsao after losing the Chip that’s holding his brain together. His case must have been a post-traumatic decompensation to the Mao- indoctrination he underwent, a kind of what the Germans call Dachschaden- a Rooftop (cranium) damage. For his otherwise literary-schooled brain became fragmented like the Spratley Islets he has claimed to be rightfully belonging to China, the master, and not to the Philippines, the servants. Well for sure, I yield to the fact that his fragmented Spratley brain belongs to his China, not to my Philippines. But I do not yield to his arrogant attitude to the Filipino people.
Before I go on, I have to make it clear that this is my personal response directed to the person of Chip Tsao alone in reference to his insulting remarks to his Filipina maid Louisa and to my nation the Philippines.
They said Tsao has written a number of satirical books- books I will surely not want to see-, came from a family of writers, studied English literature, worked for BBC and for diverse newspapers and magazines in Hong kong. All these, even far from being a Nobel candidate, are achievements that attest to intelligence and sanity before March 27, 2009, for from this date on he attested to us quite sarcastically that he no longer can hide the mental derangement that has been dissolving him inwardly- most of all his brain and common sense. He lost his professionalism, his Asian cultural sensitivity- and soon his Filipina maid and the sales of his books.
Symptomatic of decompensation is a diminished ability to think including loss of long and short term of memory.
Chip Tsao admits that “We can live with Lenin and Stalin for they were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people” and that “The Japanese That’s no big problem-we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke”. This is a proof of Tsao’s remaining memory content- which is nevertheless a shallow one, already symptomatic of progressive mental deterioration and regression to infantile developmental stage as shown in his fascination with Japanese cartoons.
Actually, these are all his personal problems and these should bother him alone, not us. What bothered me was where in the world did he derive his justification to viciously ridicule and belittle before the world the Philippines and the Filipina maid working in his household? The problems of one country should not be used by any outsider for insulting honestly and peacefully working Filipinos in Hong Kong and the rest of the world. Chip Tsao is sick; his distorted face seems to reveal to us a long history of pains from feats of convulsions and epileptic seizures, or of a man drowned in alcohol day-in and day out, or of a man’s face adopting itself to the cartoon figures he is watching everyday.
The Philippines’ claim of some islands, notably the Kalayaan Island Group, of the Spratley Islands, is not just a product of whims and fancies of the Philippines for it has a long standing historical and legal ground. And as a matter of fact, the Philippines is about to present her Philippine Archipelagic Baseline Law on May 13, 2009 to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
This was probably the latest news that triggered the convulsions and distorted Chip Tsao’s face – and intellect. Now he lost quite a big deal in his life: Aside from being declared by the Philippines as persona non grata, for sure the Filipinos will boycott his books and anything about him aside from attacking him in Internet- and probably in the streets of Hong Kong. The Internet has been boiling from heated attacks by Filipinos against Chip Tsao since end of March and this will go on, enough for Tsao and his relatives to read for a lifetime- and even beyond that. Many families in Hong Kong with Filipina maids will hate Chip Tsao for now they are no longer sure about the noodle soups being served them and about the security of their children when they (the parents) are working. Not that the Filipinas would go amok for it’s not in their nature, but the minds of these Hong Kong parents have been polluted, made paranoid by Tsao’s unpatriotic misdemeanor.
Louisa should take Tsao on a wheelchair and walk with him into the deeper regions of Chinese history after his meditation on Mao’s teachings or after he has watched his favorite face- distorting Japanese cartoons or doing his round-the-clock obsession with karaoke (round the clock? lack of sleep causes amnesia).
Anyway, here are other facts not mentioned by Chip Tsao of why he can forgive Lenin, Stalin, Mao and love the Japanese:
1. Lenin and his Bolsheviks murdered around 4 million people – men, women and children – by mass executions, death camps, and state-caused famine.
“Here [in San Francisco] we are in sight of America since yesterday without being able to disembark, placed in quarantine on account of the 642 Chinese that we have on board coming from HongKong where they say smallpox prevails. But the true reason is that, as America is against Chinese immigration, and now they are campaigning for the elections, the government, in order to get the vote of the people, must appear to be strict with the Chinese, and we suffer. On board there is not one sick person.”
It should be clear by now to Chip Tsao that he missed the lessons of history and failed to notice that the Philippines is not to be found in the list of nations that butchered tens of millions of their own people or other people; it should be clear to Chip Tsao by now that his success in Hong Kong did not really offer him the answer to his search for identity and the right therapy for his feelings of inferiority. Inwardly Chip Tsao is torn between worlds: he wants to be a Chinese but he doesn’t trust his own people, he loves the European nobility but he looks Chinese. Unlike Bruce Lee, he cannot express himself honestly. His article War At Home is double- edged: he attacked his society and his own people by way of attacking the Filipinos. The communist indoctrination has made the Chinese suspicious about each other. A Chinese would rather trust a foreigner than a Chinese he doesn’t know. This is simply the result of oppressive totalitarianism, not really of an inherent Chinese character. It would take time to overcome this. We understand now how Tsao is divided within himself- at one point he is inside the Great Walls Of China, at another point he is outside of it. This pains his Dasein terribly.
Chip Tsao was said to have made a public apology for this article War At Home. I do not accept such insincere behaviour after callously making fun of the Philippines’ position on the Spratley issue by way of insulting Louisa and the rest of the OFW who are serving the world and their own families back home. Chip Tsao also insulted the Chinese-Filipinos in the Philippines for many of them are also workers at home and abroad, servants of lesser degree as Chip Tsao declared, not worthy of self-assertion. Indeed, Tsao is missing his Chip since March 27.
Bulan Observer
—————–
Here’s Chip Tsao’s Clinical Document:
The War At Home
March 27th, 2009
The Russians sank a HongKong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that-Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem-we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.
But hold on-even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the SpratlyIslands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.
As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.
Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.
Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.
——————end————————–
Bulan Observer 
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Hello Jun,
I read this article [War At Home-by Chip Tsao] a day before yesterday while I was browsing the “bridging the Distance” Malasiqui, Pangasinan. It was published in Hongkong and was sent by Ms. Acosta of Malasiqui. I was horrified after reading it. I thought, this person Chip Tsao was an uneducated imbicile. But according to your research, he is well educated. What happened with his common sense and sensitivity? Well, he is an educated fool! After reading it, wow, did he forgot the “Nanking Massacre” the vicious atrocities against his own people inflicted by the Japanese? The invasion of Mongolia? Hey, I am not propagating that we have to hate the Japanese. They are good people but we should not forget also the past history of what happened during the second world war in the Philippines as well as the rest of the world. But it doesn’t warrant us to insult the japanese people either. He probably has a short term and long term lost of memory. If not with the Americans that gave them the Special trade Agreement under the old former Pres. Bush Sr. China will not progress as they did today. Now he is arrogant as hell. No matter what color, religious creed, nationality, we don’t treat people like what he thinks he is entitled to humiliate and degrade them because they happened to work under him. That is communism at its core. He is probably afraid of his own shadow- The shadow of communism. This has been botheringl me for a long time. If the people read the writings ” Sad for my country” and “Poignant Memories of the Distant Past” by tiger of serengeti, these are all about our government and corruptions. Where is President Arroyo? Her people working in Hongkong are being insulted, humiliated and degraded by this arrogant imbicile China man. Anyway, I was going to let you know about this article but you beat me into it. I am glad that you read the article. I am glad that you let this China man know that his arrrogance got into his idiotic brain and his insult will not be tolerated. This is just my opinion about chip tsao and not the Chinese people in general. Thank you for this article Jun. I support and agree with you 110%.
Dora the Mouse
Hello Dora
Thanks for your comment and concerns. The past should not hinder us grow but should only prevent us from becoming arrogant to other people.
It’s our reflex to defend our own no matter how imperfect it is.
But for sure our national leaders have failed until now to keep our poor people home. Arroyo’s administration made use of this shortcoming to her advantage by pushing on the labor-export policy, which in effect resulted to these poor people feeding Arroyo by sending the country billions of dollars, instead of Arroyo working sincerely and properly to provide the country decency, sound economy and good paying jobs to our poor people enough to keep them home. I even played with the idea at one point that all her corruption scandals were of intention in order to drive more poor Filipinos out of the country to support her labor-export policy and to have more poor people feeding her. This is Arroyo’s strength- of seizing the situation and turning it to her own advantage, like what she- and her husband- did with EDSA II. Later on she was seen a couple of times beside Manny Pacquiao for obvious reasons. Obama was right to snob her calls when he won the election.
jun asuncion
To quote PDI columnist, Conrado de Quiroz, “For someone from Hongkong to call us a “nation of servants”, that is obscene. That is unforgivable”! “Of course, we send maid, also called servants, to Hongkong. Of course, we send caregivers, also called servants, to Canada. Of course, we send janitors, also called servants, to clean toilet bowls of the world. And of course, we are nation of servants. But to be called so buy a Chinese person, that is too much. I don’t know which is the worst insult being called so or being called so by the Chinese person”.
Such senseless, irrational, unethical, uncalled for and out of proportion comment by Chip Tsao to us Filipinos as a nation of servants, is deplorable and unforgivable talaga, but, in the observance of semana santa, and spirit of the season of Lent, we, as Christian people, are called upon by our faith to forgive those who have sinned against us and learn to forget the sin of the past and begin a new chapter in our lives.
My message to Chip Tsao – “You, sir Chip Tsao must respect the integrity of the human being ha, nakakasakit ka ng damdamin! Tagos sa buto at kasukasuan ang sakit ng sinabi mo sa amin bilang nation of servants. You should not arrogate unto yourself your social standing in the community as a master saying that your servant is a Pinay. You should not use or abuse your privilege as a journalist to insult or besmirch the reputation of somebody in that status. That means that regardless of the race, gender, social standing in the community of a person (e.g. magnate, millionaire, billionaire, tycoon, farmer, scavenger, janitor, beggar, etc.) we all have an equal and alienable rights to be respected. One should not abuse or overuse such privilege by maligning and slandering the person and integrity of our kababayan.”
An individual, like the state, must value the dignity of every human being and guarantees full respect for human rights. No ifs, no buts!
As citizens of this country, we all have the moral duty and responsibility to stand up for the cause of the oppressed and the underprivileged, harassed, persecuted, marginalized sectors of society and the disadvantaged and are being persecuted for it.
In line with Chip Tsao comment, the “CHR” or Commission on Human Rights is called upon to take a pro- active role in protecting human rights of Filipino abroad, lalung-lalo na ang mga biktima ng hindi patas na pagtrato sa pagkatao o “discrimination” – To Provide appropriate legal measures of the protection of human rights of all persons within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad, and provide for preventive measures and legal aid services to the underprivileged, whose human rights have been violated or need protection. (Constitution, Art. XIII, Section 18, par.3)
The case of Chip Tsao’ pinay housemaid is one of them.
we will remain as is and the name tag “nation of servants” will linger as long as the Filipino people and the government will not put an end to the exodus of millions of “low quality” labor serving the world doing unskilled, menial, dirty and hazardous jobs. now we are even working for the Chinese who were the original servants of the world – and where did you get the original servant word “amah” if not for the Chinese. unfortunately it is now being replaced slowly by the Pilipino word “yaya”. there’s nothing wrong working outside of one’s country as long as you are treated as a valuable, significant, strategic employee and not being looked down as an irrelevant and trampled like a dirty rug by your employer. sending unskilled workers should have been a temporary strategy to help the economy during the Marcos era, sadly it became a multibillion dollar source of remittance that is irrefutably sprucing up the economy and continuously exploited as an essential and integral part of economic plans. the burden of working a comprehensive plan to gradually put an end to this debacle and humiliation is upon the government with the support of the people. as long as we can not emerge and rise from this pit we will continue to be looked down as the servants of the world.
At face value, Tsip Chao’s article appears offensive but actually it is a satire directed primarily at the Chinese government. The problem, he used the Philippines and the Filipinos as a punching bag to drive his point. This we can read behind the lines one of which is quoted as follows: They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution.
But of course, sabi sa kasabihan, “Dai ma-aray kung warang lugad”. We are hurting because Chao’s words are true. We remain a nation of servants and this is because of the policies of the government. Our elected officials prefer to send the Filipinos abroad to search for job, suffer the insults of the employers, be shouted upon, and be estranged from their families rather than generate local jobs and make life in the Philippines as satisfactory and livable as possible. Our elected officials would prefer to have these Filipino OFWs return to the Philippines in a box, lifeless, and name them “new heroes” rather than generate jobs and make life in the Philippines, to borrow Ninoy’s words, “worth dying for.” Ang problema, nasasayang sana ang buhay kan kadaklan na mga OFW dahil instead na maging useful ang buhay ninda na kaiba an mga kapamilya, nasa ibang nasyon nagpipirit magdilehensiya ki kwarta.
Of course, we have lucky friends abroad like Jun A. and Rudy B. But how many are they?
The main point here is that instead of focusing too much on Tsao, we should also give equally and even more attention knocking on our government officials na binabayaran natin ng ating mga buwis para gumawa ng paraan at maalis ang mantsa ng katotohanang tayo ay bansa ng mga alipin. And we should not close our eyes on the truth for, quoting the Bible, “the truth will set us free”. This is what Black Americans did — they accepted their history of being servants but look at now: A Black American in the person of Barack Obama rules one of the most powerful nations in the world.
To J.A. Carizo
Of course we understand the purpose of satire as a literary tool for social criticism. Rizal used it in his novels Noli Mi Tangere and El Filibusterismo. But unlike Chip Tsao, Rizal used it with style and authentic literary value and form. Chip Tsao’s style is primitive and underdeveloped, and his article Nation Of Servants was a cheap piece written for a Hongkong boulevard paper. He surely wanted to expose the bad habits of China and its amnesia but he used the wrong medium, Luoisa, his Filipina maid and ridiculed the poor Filipinos who already are suffering enough from their corrupt and selfish public officials. Being a satirist does not give you the right to ridicule a nation who has no history of injustice, violence and oppression done towards other nations and peoples but a long history of hospitality, abuses and sufferings inflicted by other aggressive nations like Spain, America and Japan.
Chip Tsao has not learned that we had a long history of trading with the Chinese, that Chinese were one of the first foreigners who settled in the Philippines and were welcomed by the Filipinos, not discriminated as they were in the US and other parts of the world. One Chinese even became part of the history of Philippine revolution- General Ignacio Paua.
When they were once servants and railroad workers of the world, no Filipino writer ridiculed the Chinese. Rizal would have had the capacity to criticize the Chinese but for him there was no noble justification to do it.
A satirist should maintain political correctness, sense of justice and cultural sensitivity when working and should not assume to be enjoying the privilege of fools. A satire is a serious literary form.
One thing more, I do not see any positive intention of Chip Tsao’s writing but to offend and ridicule the situation. Unlike us, we have the sincere desire of improving our nation when we criticize some of our stupid, corrupt and greedy politicians who percieve nothing but their most elementary bodily functions such as hunger, excretions and fatigue, who,-should they ever use the brain, – will think of ways how to steal public funds intended for basic services or how to circumvent the law to get the bribes. Here they are world champions.
Arroyo’s closing sale of the Philippines to the whole world is another topic by itself and we will deal with that again soon. Almost a tiring topic but we should never give up where opposition is needed. Democracy lives with opposition, not in giving up to the forces of selfishness by some few.
jun asuncion
hold on to your seats fellows, i have come across with a very interesting article in Manila Bulletin today (please read below) that tackles the importance of our overseas workers’ remittances to Philippines’ economy. sadly there will be no abatement to the millions of Filipinos going abroad in the near future if the morons in the so called economic policy making body of the country continues to rely on our poor countrymen’s meager earnings from working abroad to artificially prop up the economy. in spite of the fact that they knew that this is not the best policy and strategy to attain a real sustainable economic growth, yet they defend, rationalize and fit it in their long-term economic plans and policies. there is the concern that these remittances will create a “Dutch Disease phenomenon – a nation of unproductive citizens who are content to just laze around waiting their monthly fund transfers”, which is already happening right now. as a result, we have no indigenous and homegrown industries that we can rightfully claim we have developed it on our own. we even haven’t developed and propagated technologies that is crucial to the advancement of our nation. even the basic needs such as dairy and milk, we cannot produce it commercially, we still rely on the produce of other countries. sadly i have to go over and say again that we have missed the once in a lifetime opportunities to fully industrialize our nation. Marcos no matter how dreadful as a leader as he is, but he’s a man of vision – he has defined his seven industrial projects that could have catapulted the Philippines to an industrialized country status at this time. during his time the Philippines and South Korea were neck to neck in the industrial race. but it was squandered and wasted by the Aquino administration that sent the country into its darkest hours. again another opportunity breaks during the Ramos administration but was again devastated by the Estrada regime. a never-ending boom and bust cycle because of greed! will be our country a nation of servants forever? Quo vadis Pilipinas?
Channeling Remittances To Spur Economic Growth
Global fund transfers in 2008 were estimated to have reached $305 billion so the significant of the discussions and research exchange during the two-day event was timely since countries, including the Philippines, have been developing strategic policies to make sure remittances have more of an impact in the GDP tally.
There is now some urgency in this since, according to the World Bank, remittance flows will slow down this year, the low end of forecast being $280 million.
This was the second time that the central bank hosted this event and the first one was with the Bank for International Settlements. This year’s theme, which was “The Macroeconomic Consequences of Remittances: Implications for Monetary and Financial Policies in Asia ” focused on the trends among emerging economies over the past decade as far as remittance policies are concerned.
The participants of the conference attempted to answer the question of how to harness remittance flows so that it could be more significant and permanent as a growth driver.
According to Ratha, remittances as a share of GDP are expected to fall this year and in 2010, but the economist qualified that the decline will not be the same extent as private flows or official development assistance funds. “Migration flows from developing countries may slow as a result of the global growth slowdown, but the stock of international migrants is unlikely to decrease,” said Ratha.
Remittances’ still on the positive
The BSP and the rest of the world central bankers have an ongoing debate on the “pro-cyclicality” of remittance flows. In the case of the Philippines , unlike in other countries such as India which has heavy reliance on remittances as well.
Tetangco said the effect of remittances is not countercyclical but is instead procyclical. This means remittances can go their own way seemingly undistracted or unaffected by foreign exchange trend or business cycles. Its procyclical trends bode well for households that depend on remittances, especially in a volatile exchange rate market.
And then there is the issue of whether remittances are creating a nation of unproductive citizens who are content to just laze around waiting their monthly fund transfers.
In a 2007 study, the BSP said there is no evidence of “Dutch disease” despite government’s tendency to depend on these remittance flows.
According to a BSP paper “Philippine Overseas Workers and Migrants’ Remittances: The Dutch Disease Question and the Cyclicality Issue,” while remittances play a significant role in the economy, there is still “no strong evidence to suggest that remittances have led to a Dutch disease phenomenon.”
Dutch disease, which describes the deterioration of the manufacturing sector in the Netherlands in the 1970s due to strong reliance on natural gas production, is an economic theory that explains that de-industrialization of a nation because of its dependency on other revenue sources, specifically, foreign exchange inflows.
According to the BSP paper, this has not happened to the Philippines yet, despite that remittances have become the second largest source of foreign exchange for the Philippines , after exports.
As for the other issue of the remittances’ impact on the exchange rate, the study said it “finds evidence pointing to the procylicality of remittances.”
Cyclicality, as used in the paper, is defined as the correlation between the inflow and GDP.
Policy directions
The central bank’s policy directions as far as remittances are concerned, has always been to answer the question of whether remittances can support consumption, especially now under these external financial conditions.
“Although remittance flows now constitute increasingly larger portions of recipient countries’ GDPs, these still cannot be readily counted upon to moderate ‘sharp’ fluctuations or swings in the economy or to hedge against macroeconomic shocks,” said Tetangco.
“Indeed policymakers would be wise not to be drawn into complacency that remittances can help the economy comfortably weather economic downturns.”
Last year, the services sector, which constituted nearly half of total GDP, grew by 4.9 percent. This translated to a 2.3 percentage-point contribution to the 4.6 percent GDP growth in 2008. Real estate led the growth in the services sector, owing to strong demand from the OFs. However government consumption growth markedly fell, increasing only by 4.3 percent, lower than 2007’s 8.3 percent.
Guinigundo said the first step would hardly be realized unless there is a supportive policy environment that facilitates the flow of remittances through formal channels.