Ano nga kaya kung walang Pinoy sa mundo ano? Pusta ko hindi masaya. Madami ang malulungkot. Parang may kulang. Siguro masyado akong assumtionista sa sinasabi ko. Siyempre may self-serving bias ako sa lahi ko. Ganun talaga. Pero kung iisipin nating mabuti, hindi man kasing dami ng mga Intsik ang mga Pinoy, eh damang-dama naman ng mundo ang ating kolektib na presensiya. Kahit na negatibo o positibo mang presensiya yan, dama ng mundo kapag Pinoy na ang bumira.
Gusto kong ibahagi sa inyo itong article na nahanap ko sa internet na sinulat ng isang taga gitnang silangan tungkol sa kahalagahan ng mga Pinoy sa kanyang buhay.
Heto:
Imagine a world without Filipinos
Abdullah Al-Maghlooth | Al-Watan, almaghlooth@alwatan.com.sa
Muhammad Al-Maghrabi became handicapped and shut down his flower and gifts shop business in Jeddah after his Filipino workers insisted on leaving and returning home. He says: “When they left, I felt as if I had lost my arms. I was so sad that I lost my appetite.”
Al-Maghrabi then flew to Manila to look for two other Filipino workers to replace the ones who had left. Previously, he had tried workers of different nationalities but they did not impress him. “There is no comparison between Filipinos and others,” he says. Whenever I see Filipinos working in the Kingdom, I wonder what our life would be without them.
Saudi Arabia has the largest number of Filipino workers – 1,019,577 – outside the Philippines. In 2006 alone, the Kingdom recruited more than 223,000 workers from the Philippines and their numbers are still increasing. Filipinos not only play an important and effective role in the Kingdom, they also perform different jobs in countries across the world, including working as sailors. They are known for their professionalism and the quality of their work.
Nobody here can think of a life without Filipinos, who make up around 20 percent of the world’s seafarers. There are 1.2 million Filipino sailors.
So if Filipinos decided one day to stop working or go on strike for any reason, who would transport oil, food and heavy equipment across the world? We can only imagine the disaster that would happen.
What makes Filipinos unique is their ability to speak very good English and the technical training they receive in the early stages of their education. There are several specialized training institutes in the Philippines, including those specializing in engineering and road maintenance. This training background makes them highly competent in these vital areas.
When speaking about the Philippines, we should not forget Filipino nurses. They are some 23 percent of the world’s total number of nurses. The Philippines is home to over 190 accredited nursing colleges and institutes, from which some 9,000 nurses graduate each year. Many of them work abroad in countries such as the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Singapore.
Cathy Ann, a 35-year-old Filipino nurse who has been working in the Kingdom for the last five years and before that in Singapore, said she does not feel homesick abroad because “I am surrounded by my compatriots everywhere.” Ann thinks that early training allows Filipinos to excel in nursing and other vocations. She started learning this profession at the age of four as her aunt, a nurse, used to take her to hospital and ask her to watch the work. “She used to kiss me whenever I learned a new thing. At the age of 11, I could do a lot. I began doing things like measuring my grandfather’s blood pressure and giving my mother her insulin injections,” she said.
This type of early education system is lacking in the Kingdom. Many of our children reach the university stage without learning anything except boredom.
The Philippines, which you can barely see on the map, is a very effective country thanks to its people. It has the ability to influence the entire world economy.
We should pay respect to Filipino workers, not only by employing them but also by learning from their valuable experiences.
We should learn and educate our children on how to operate and maintain ships and oil tankers, as well as planning and nursing and how to achieve perfection in our work. This is a must so that we do not become like Muhammad Al-Maghrabi who lost his interest and appetite when Filipino workers left his flower shop.
We have to remember that we are very much dependent on the Filipinos around us. We could die a slow death if they chose to leave us.
*** mula sa arabnews.com
i feel so proud…sana ganyan din ang tingin ng ibang pilipino sa lahat ng pilipino
Ang galing diba?!
nicey, nicey article. hihi. pinoy pride. i didnt know that we make up 20% of all sailors in the world. now i know. hihi.
Asteg talaga mga Pinoy! hehe!
sorry for spoiling your day guys, but maybe because i’m quite familiar about the place where the author of the article was speaking from thus this unsettling feeling.
Whoever is having the notion that we pinoy OFWs will one day stage a mass exodus back to our homeland must be stretching his imagination too far. The most this verbalizing of misplaced fears can achieve is to sound uncomfortably patronizing to the point of being a hypocrite. Why? Because: if they sincerely stand by their high regard for pinoys…
1. why we are not being remunerated fairly well? our salary brackets fall within the range of ‘other asian’ nationalities. We can’t even compete with those from Arabic speaking countries despite our ‘excellent’ performance at work.
2. why the prejudice when it comes to promotions?
why the physical abuse and inhuman treatment among our domestic workforce?
3. why the numerous cases of local employers reneging from their obligations that of not paying the correct dues/benefits as stated in the contract?
4.why the arbitrary decision not to follow the employment contract?
Our bargaining power, market value, and real worth is dependent on our status in our own country, how we are being treated by our own government as a citizen and as a people and the respect that we earn from other countries. Which unfortunately we don’t have much to speak of. We are being pimped to any takers by our very own president in exchange of dollar remittances in her darnest effort to window dress the economy. Truth is, we are still a mendicant, corrupt, third-world county in Asia. What a shame? Well, we should not be, because this is all of our own doing, the silent majority, our parochial mentality.
Reading the article gave me an ambivalent feeling: one moment convinced, another skeptical, but mostly incredulous. Thanks but no thanks for the sugar-coated article. Whoever says that this kind makes his/her day should learn how to read beyond the lines.
After we are being scr*wed royally we gather ourselves and say ‘thank you’. tsk, tsk, tsk…
Sigh…
Ooops, di ko pala blog ito…sorry.
Naku, maraming maraming salamt sa mga sinabi mo kabayan g tagabukid.
At dahil diyan, binasa kong muli ang article at tama ka sa iyong mga punto.
Marahil ay natuwa lang ako, maging ang karamihan sa mga kababayan nating natuwa din sa article at nakaramdam ng onting pride sa sarili at nakapagsabi ng “thank you” in one way or another.
SIguro kabilang kami sa mga uhaw sa mga ganitong pagkakataon. Ang makaramdam ng Pinoy Pride. Nakaka-umay na din kasi ang estado ng bansa lalo pa’t ang mga nakaupo sa pamahalaan ay mga nagpapalaki lang ng kanilang pwet gamit ang pera ng mga mamamayan.
Salamat sa iyong kuro-kuro kabayan.
i agree with taga-bukid. being an OFW myself, i feel overworked and underpaid. totoo yon, bilib sila sa pinoy pagdating sa trabaho, pero hanggang dun na lang yun.
sorry sa negatibo kong POV. ang tingin sa pinoy abroad,isang mapagkakatiwalan at masipag na manggagawa. Read: manggagawa. sa madaling salita, utusan.
haaay. masyado lang siguro mainit ang klima dito kaya pati utak ko nakukulta na rin.
naisip ko lang, pera o sweldo lang ba and basehan natin ng appreciation?
Magand ayang punto mo kabayang bisita
late na tong reply ko kase ngayon ko lang naman nakita tong blog spot mo. matagal ko na ring natangap tong article nito. dito rin ako sa Saudi. oks naman ang appreciation nila sa mga pinoy, and im proud sa article na yan. yun nga lang it all boils down sa pasahod natin. im still thankful dahil me trabaho ako, pero dito sa middle east, ang salary mo eh base sa nationality mo.
example sa isang company, me mga admin assistants, 1 pinoy, 1 canadian, 1 british, 1 middle eastern. madaling hulaan kung sino pinakamaliit ang sahod. 3 to 4x na mas maliit ang sahod natin. pare parehas lang naman ang trabaho niyang mga yan, at usually pinakamasipag pa ang pinoy. darn….
im proud to be a Filipino though some people mistook us for being slave why payag tayo kahit maliit ang sweldo makaalis lang ng bansa to work abroad dahil sa mga agencies nagrerecruit sa mga kababayan natin without giving any protection pagdating doon the contract issued ay mapapalitan, kailangan lang overseas contract worker have a tough decision and principles of life. Sana naman po me maasahan tayo sa mga agencies dahil ang TRABAHO SA ABROAD BINABAYARAN DI FOR FREE mag ingat sa illegal recruiters.