You are currently browsing the monthly archive for August, 2008.
Thank you very much, Mrs Arroyo, for the heads up on all those loco maids the Philippines has been sending out all these years and for your newfound zeal to rid the world of them and your assurance that as long as presidential blood runs in your veins, you will never again let any luka-luka and baliw work for a God-fearing household in the First World.
Thank you, indeed, for making the world a safer place. Now, everyone can sleep soundly knowing that when they have a Filipino maid in their employ, they can work her to death without paying her a whiff, beat her to a pulp, molest her and basically strip her of her humanity and treat her worse than they would a stray dog, and she’d still come through the day singing, smiling and shouting, “Mabuhay, y’all!”
Isinulat ko ito bago ako nagkaroon ng pagkakataong makapag-trabaho sa Singapore. Foreshadowing. Inaamin ko, sumuko na din ako.
PARA sa isang motoristang naipit sa trapiko, nakakairita naman talaga ang makakita ng isang convoy ng mga pribadong sasakyan na, sa tulong ng ilang police escorts, ay nagsusumiksik at nambabraso ng iba pang mga sasakyan gayong napakasikip na nga ng kalsada.
Higit nga bang mahalaga ang oras ng kung sino mang mga Ponsyo Pilatong ito kung ihahambing sa panahon nating mga hoi polloi?
Naalala ko tuloy ang essay ng nobelistang si F. Sionil Jose, ang Bakit Mahirap Tayong Mga Pilipino? Ayon sa kanya, mahirap tayo dahil mahirap tayo. Nasa kultura natin ang kahirapan. Bukod sa karamihan sa ati’y tamad, masyado rin tayong mahangin.
August last year was a particularly bad time to be looking for a flat in Singapore. Property prices were going through the roof and, with them, rents. A four-room flat that would’ve cost just S$900 a month in rent a few months back was already going for S$1,400. Still, I was lucky. I went to Singapore with a “live-in” partner in tow – the talented Mr ManF.
The company hired us at about the same time and gave us a relocation allowance of S$10,000 each. Between us, we had S$20,000 to spend on finding a flat, furnishing it and generally finding a place to park our assess in after a hard day at the office.
So, we wound up getting a pretty decent five-room flat for S$1,700 a month in Woodlands.
