filipino globe

4
filipino globe news
July 2007
filipino globe July 2007 5
Racial slur draws fighting words
Mother and daughter take cudgels for all domestic helpers over English skills
Jose Marcelo in Hong Kong
When Theresa Cunanan went
to her daughter’s school
one day and confronted
a teacher who had made remarks
discriminatory to Filipino domestic
helpers, all she ever wanted was to
do the right thing.
Unwittingly, she had picked up the
cudgels for thousands of domestic
helpers – and South Asians in general
– in Hong Kong.
“I’m very conscious of my identity
here in Hong Kong,” said Cunanan, a
full-blooded Filipina born and raised
in the territory. “I’ve always strongly
felt that you mustn’t judge people by
the color of their skin.”
Thanks to the interest their small
story has generated, mother and
daughter have helped raise awareness
of the discrimination South Asians,
especially domestic helpers, continue
to face in a society striving to be a
global city like Hong Kong.
If they had made a difference,
Cunanan said, the credit should go to
her daughter Celeste Joelle, who, at
nine years old, was mature enough to
know something had to be done after
her Hong Kong teacher, addressing
her whole Grade 4 class, said:
“Be careful who you speak English
with, especially those of you with
Filipino domestic helpers. Their
accents are not good, and you may
pick up bad or wrong accents.”
Celeste, who is half-Chinese,
casually brought up the topic over
dinner days later, and told her
mother: “Mom, we can’t let her get
away with it.”
“She wasn’t very happy, and
you can see she was disturbed by
it,” said Cunanan, a lecturer at the
Hong Kong Baptist University in
Kowloon with a bachelor’s degree
in comparative literature from Hong
Kong University and a master’s
degree in literary studies.
“So I owed it to my daughter,
really, for doing what I did.”
The 40-year-old mother of two
soon paid the teacher a visit and let
her know that what she had told the
class was politically incorrect. Better
yet she wrote a stirring letter to the
South China Morning Post that,
subtly but compellingly, reminded
readers of the discrimination that still
exists in a modern society like Hong
Kong.
“I approached the teacher in a
very nice way one day after class,”
Cunanan said. “At first she denied
it. She said, ‘That’s not what I said.’
Then she said, ‘I only meant some
Jose Marcelo in Hong Kong
The consulate has started the process
of repatriating the body of a Filipina
whose death last month remains
shrouded in mystery.
The body of Aurora Capucao,
47, from Naguilian, La Union, was
already in a decomposing state when
it was found by the Hong Kong
police inside her flat in Mong Kok on
June 18.
Except for travel documents
Filipinos’ … I mean, that’s the same
thing. It doesn’t make any difference.
“I didn’t make her apologise for
what she said, but I made sure I let
her know how we felt about the
whole thing.”
Cunanan’s letter to the Post drew
sympathetic reactions from educators
and other migrant workers in the
territory and soon found its way
into blogs and other newspapers in
Manila.
One such reaction came from Dr
Mary Tabarsi Tsang, a professor
at Community College of City
University who said a research she
found inside her
apartment that
enabled police
to establish her
identity, not much
else has been
known about the
Filipina or the
circumstances
surrounding her death.
Police found “nothing suspicious”
about Capucao’s death to pursue a
murder investigation, vice consul Val
Celeste Joelle
and her brother
are being
helped with
their school
work by their
Filipino yaya.
Their mother,
Theresa
Cunanan, won’t
have it any
other way.
made years ago about the influence
of domestic helpers on Hong Kong
Chinese homes revealed, among
other things, that:
One, majority of Hong Kong
parents admitted that Filipina
domestic helpers had taught their
child some English and assisted
with their homework, and, two, that
the parents felt uncomfortable with
this due to the worry about the child
picking up errors or speaking ‘like
the maid.’
Tsang concluded: “I believe that a
domestic helper assuming what are
typically considered parental duties,
such as assisting with school work
and language learning, can cause
unacknowledged feelings of guilt and
anger on the part of busy parents.
“If we add into the brew cultural
stereotypes … and even the parents’
insecurity about their own Englishlanguage
abilities, we are left with a
thick and dangerous potion.
“The results are negative
stereotypes, ethnic slurs and a
hostility so debilitating that it
cripples Hong Kong’s growth and
development.”
Whatever the underlying reasons
for the discriminatory attitude some
locals continue to harbor toward
their maids, Cunanan insists it has no
place in modern society, more so in
Hong Kong.
“You have to fight it, and not be
complacent,” she said.
It was easy for her to empathise.
Born and raised by Filipino parents
who took up residence in Hong Kong
in 1964, Cunanan said she – as successful
and as deeply rooted as she
is in the territory – continues to deal
with the same issue.
“I deal with it every day. Growing
up in Hong Kong, you have to demand
a certain respect. So when that
incident with my daughter’s teacher
happened, I just put myself in my
daughter’s shoes,” she said.
Cunanan said she feels fortunate
to have her Filipina helper, Thelma
Belleza, a former math teacher back
home, helping out her children with
their school work and would not have
it any other way.
“I have a lot of respect for domestic
helpers,” Cunanan said. “They came
here for the same reasons my parents
came here for, which was to give their
families a better life, so I can empathise
with them.”
Pinay in ‘mysterious’ death to be repatriated
Roque (left) said, although they are
still waiting for the final coroner’s
report set to come out in two months.
Police said Capucao was a resident
of the territory.
A Filipina, who said she was
no more than an acquaintance of
Capucao, told consulate officials the
deceased was a single mother with a
21-year-old son back home. But the
information is still being verified,
said Roque.
It also took weeks of appeal
“
You have to fight
it, and not be
complacent ...
Growing up in
Hong Kong, you
have to demand a
certain respect
THERESA CUNANAN
Mother, employer and academic
made by consulate officials through
Filipino radio programs in the
territory before contact was finally
established with Capucao’s family in
La Union. “We’ve finally gotten in
touch with a cousin in La Union who
said she was told about Capucao’s
death by a friend in Hong Kong who
heard about it in the radio,” said
Roque.
Roque said the consulate has
authorised the release of funds for
the repatriation of Capucao’s body.
Negros
President Arroyo met with a
potential ethanol investor in
Negros Occidental.
Presidential assistant for
Western Visayas Rafael
Coscolluela said the investor,
whose identity he did not
disclose, is the fourth interested
party in establishing an ethanol
plant in Negros Occidental.
He said an ethanol plant is
being put up in San Carlos City.
Coscolluela added that the
construction of another ethanol
plant in Negros Occidental
would boost Arroyo’s programs
to use renewable source of
energy.
The additional investment
would in turn place this part
of the country in the “Ethanol
Highway” of the national
government.
This is part of a plan to
accelerate economic
development in the countryside.
Cebu
Cebu governor Gwendolyn
Garcia has urged businessmen
to “make the countryside a
viable investment alternative
to the overburdened and
congested city.”
Garcia made the statement
in her speech on the official
launching of the small and
medium enterprise industrial
park at the New Cebu Township
One special economic zone
area in barangay Cantao-ang,
Naga, a southern Cebu town
which is on its final stages of
conversion into a city.
The first of its kind in the
country, the park is envisioned
to become a center for worldclass
SMEs showcasing the
country’s export products.
With the presence of the
industrial park initiated by
Planters Development Bank,
Garcia said economic growth
is moving “from the city to the
countryside that feeds it.”
Pampanga
ANGBANSA
The clamor for the return of
the Department of Foreign
Affairs Consular office 3
from Clark to San Fernando
continues to mount.
Members of the Rotary Club
of San Fernando asked city
mayor Oscar Rodriguez to
intervene in the request of
various groups for the DFA
to reconsider relocating its
consular office here.
The DFA, like the National
Bureau of Investigation
regional office in Central
Luzon, has been transferred to
the Clark Freeport Zone due
to less ideal location of San
Fernando City.
Rodriguez said he is willing
to be the conduit of requests
for the DFA’s transfer back
to the city where most
government regional offices
are located.