The Coven

I was looking at the online versions of the newspapers today and came across an interesting article (Displaced domestic help to return as ‘supermaids’). Well, okay others may not find it interesting, but the idea of a 'supermaid' certainly piqued my interest. Some time back, I wrote in my other blog about the Arroyo administration's plan to encourage more of our nurses and teachers to go out of the country and join the millions of OFWs to be able to send dollars home (Who cares if they are separated from their families, so long as they are sending home greenbacks? Obviously not Shorty.) So I grant that not all of them are sad to leave the country (many probably couldn't wait to), but still it bothers me that our government is actually encouraging our people to leave and work abroad rather than find ways to give them good jobs here and keep them with their families. No, actually, I'm not just bothered...I'm pissed.

And now, here comes the news that Shorty has a new plan for the displaced domestic helpers coming home from Lebanon. Good ol' Tesda will train them to become 'supermaids' who will be "upgraded with a higher price,” said Tesda chief Augusto Syjuco (as quoted by the Manila Times). Uh, upgrade with a higher price??? What the hell does that mean? Okay, heading over to the Philippine Star, it appears that the returning DHs will be trained on first aid, evacuations from high-rises in case of a fire, and other skills to help them get higher pay when they once again apply for work in other countries.

Okay, so I've accepted the fact that the problems of this country is not likely to be solved in my lifetime, and maybe not even Ben's lifetime, but stuff like this is ridiculous. It would be okay I guess if there is some obvious efforts to improve the way things are going in the Philippines so that while there will still be OFWs, their number would stabillize and not keep going up. Which means that there will be jobs created in the country so that many of our fellow Filipinos will no longer feel the need to work abroad just so to keep their family afloat...okay, okay...wishful thinking on my part. Instead, what we have are bickering politicians who cannot relinquish their positions to those who are more deserving and more capable of maybe giving this country the fixing it needs. Aba, baka nga naman mawalan sila ng kickbacks at income sources. It always makes me wonder what the heck they're going to with all the money they accumulate. They are just so insatiable.

Reading stuff like this makes me really sad that I live in this country. Oh, I'm sure there are others in worse situation that we are, and to be honest, I'm still very thankful for the life I lead. But looking at the faces of the returning OFWs from Lebanon, and listening to them in the interviews (about their homesickness and worse, about the abuse some of them have received from their employers), I feel bad that they have to suffer so much just to be able to send money to their families here, and even worse when I realized that many of them are willing to go through it all over and over again. And I think, shouldn't we be focusing more on ways to give them jobs here and keep them from leaving rather than worrying about charter change and building international airports around the country?