It's a modest job

The Philippines, says a Hong Kong broadcaster, is "a nation of servants". So what? It's an honest job. I just read this on yesterday's local broadsheet and just heard tonight on local news.

Many have expressed their demands for apologies (which by now has been done as reported) especially women's groups. I understand. I too demand, on a rather calm, sincere, and reserved manner. Partly because I am a woman and a Filipina. But a larger part of which is because I am a daughter.

I remember being raised without the physical presence of my mama. Of going to school hoping that like my classmates, I was being accompanied to kindergarten school, not by my then 13 yrs old brother, but my mama or papa. I had my childhood and adolescence without the physical presence of a mother. This vital growing up stage has been compromised for the sake of our more secured future. I understand. We could have not finished school without my mama leaving and working abroad. And yes, she was a household help. She has endured a decade of giving foreign blood the comfort of living at home just to be paid by more than what she is paid in her own country performing a job more recognized and approved by a judging society.

She was perhaps at the upper 5% of her class when she graduated from a university, finished a degree in Education, and was an elementary teacher in our town's public school, but it wasn't just enough. Our family was growing, we are seven siblings, and my papa was then self-employed. I remember hearing stories of how difficult life was for them. My younger brother and I were just lucky to have been born in the later years, we don't have to experience so much of the troubles. This may have triggered her to go try luck abroad, like most teachers and many other professionals I guess have done then and now. All for the sake of feeding their families and hopefully create a brighter future for their kids; which I will not forget to credit to my mama. I credit this to her years of service to strangers and their children, to her years of lonesome nights, of longing to come home, and of wishing to serve her own family and her own country.

The job is not something to be ridiculed, and even any other jobs. It is not something to be talked about as less than great. Be it a balut vendor, a street sweeper, a takatak boy, a pedicab driver, a barker; or be it a farmer, a fish vendor, a sewer, a carpenter, a mason, a factory or a construction worker, etc. -- these are all honest workers earning a living for their families. They are the community's support. Little have their contributions been acknowleged. And little have they received praise for good work. The dirty jobs they call it, but its the hardest. We have been blinded by the impression that white collar jobs create professionals. It's a plain status. It still boils down to how you do your job, and how you perform it well. The only difference perhaps are their pay checks and their work place.

I, I work for a property developer and enjoys the convenience of an airconditioned room at our bulding's 28th floor and receives, for an entry level job, a perhaps good pay on the 15th and 30th of the month. But still, it doesn't make me think above the others. I remember a scene on the bus I took on my way home today, how a lady dressed in corporate uniform, has arrogantly warned, "Ano ba manong, paa ko yang inaapakan mo!" a middle-aged, medium-built, and by that time you could see, was already exhausted, mani vendor (from whom I bought peanuts for P5.00) of his stepping on on her foot. But prior to that, I already heard him, "pasensya na po kayo ma'am, makikiraan lang...", sign of his already courteous working attitude. It was so polite I myself have hated the lady for still being rude. The poor vendor humbly apologized one more, thanked the passengers who bought his goods and left. I could still see the lady being annoyed as her eyeballs rolled right-to-left. I hope scenes like this do not happen anymore - not in this country, and not in any part of the globe.

At the end of this all, every job still deserves respect. Not just those who are served but those who serves as well. We are not to make distinction between highest-paid executives or minimum-wage earners, or to draw a line between white-collar and blue-collar jobs, and more so, we are not to step on even the smallest in the workforce for if not... some can't even call themselves big.