Carousel

Sponsored Links
SEARCH THIS SITE
JBSOLIS is a site for all about health and insurances, SSSOWWAPAG-IBIGPhilhealthbank loans and cash loansforeclosed propertiessmall house designs, local and overseas job listings.

Advertisement

Thursday, February 05, 2009

CAN YOU IMAGINE THE DAY A WORLD WITHOUT OFW'S?


A Day Without Filipinos
"Let’s imagine then, not just California, but the entire world, waking up one day to discover Filipinos have disappeared. I’m talking here about more than 10 million Filipinos currently working overseas in countries with names that run the entire alphabet, from Angola to Zimbabwe .
Let’s not worry first about why or how the Filipinos disappeared; in fact, it becomes academic whether it’s a day or a week. Just imagine a world without Filipinos.
Think of the homes that are dependent on Filipino housekeepers, nannies, caregivers. The homes would be chaotic as kids cry out for their nannies. Hong Kong and Singaporean and Taiwanese yuppie couples are now forced to stay home and realizing, goodness, there’s so much of housework that has to be handled and how demanding their kids can be and hey, what’s this strange language they’re babbling in?
It’s not just the children that are affected. The problems are even more serious with the elderly in homes and nursing institutions, because Filipino caregivers have provided so much of the critical services they need. When temporary contractual workers are brought in from among non-Filipinos, the elderly complain. They want their Filipino caregivers back because they have that special touch, that extra patience and willingness to stay an hour more when needed.
Hospitals, too, are adversely affected because so many of the disappeared Filipinos were physicians, nurses and other health professionals. All appointments for rehabilitation services, from children with speech problems to stroke survivors, are indefinitely postponed because of disappeared speech pathologists, occupational and physical therapists!
Eventually, the hospital administrators announce they won’t take in any more patients unless the conditions are serious. Patients are told to follow their doctors’ written orders and, if they have questions, to seek advice on several Internet medical sites. But within two days, the hospitals are swamped with new complaints. The web sites aren’t working because of missing Filipino web designers and web site managers.
Service establishments throughout the world — restaurants, supermarkets, hotels — all close down because of their missing key staff involved in management and maintenance. In Asia , hotels complain about the missing bands and singers.
In the United States , many commercial establishments have to close shop, not just because of the missing Filipino sales staff but because their suppliers have all been sending in notices about delays in shipments. Yup, the shipping industry has gone into a crisis because of missing Filipino seafarers.
The shipping firms begin to look into the emergency recruitment of non-Filipino seafarers but then declare another crisis: They’re running out of supplies of oil for their ships because the Middle Eastern countries have come to a standstill without their Filipino workers, including quite a few working for the oil industry.
Frantic presidents and prime ministers call on the United Nations to convene a special session of the Security Council but Kofi Annan says he can’t do that because the UN system itself is on the edge, with so many of their secretarial and clerical staff, as well as translators, having disappeared from their main headquarters in New York and Geneva, as well as their regional offices throughout the world. Quite a number of UN services, especially refugee camps, are also in danger of closing down because of missing Filipino health professionals and teachers.
Annan also explains that he can’t convene UN meetings because the airports in New York , Washington and other major US cities have been shut down. The reason? The disappeared Filipinos included quite a few airport security personnel who used to check passengers and their baggage.
Annan calls on the World Bank and international private foundations for assistance but they’re crippled, too, because their Filipino consultants and staff are nowhere to be seen. Funds can’t be remitted and projects can’t run without the technical assistance provided for by Filipinos.
An exasperated Annan calls on religious leaders to pray, and pray hard. But when he phones the Pope, he is told the Catholic Church, too, is in crisis because the disappeared include the many Filipino priests and nuns in Rome who help run day-to-day activities, as well as missionaries in the front lines of remote posts, often the only ones providing basic social services.
As they converse, Annan and the Pope agree on one thing: the world has become a quieter place since the Filipinos disappeared. It isn’t just the silencing of work and office equipment formerly handled by Filipinos; no, it seems there’s much less laughter now that the Filipinos aren’t around, both the laughter of the Filipinos and those they served."
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.



©2008 THOUGHTSKOTO

5 comments:

NJ Abad said...

The write ups about the Pinoys all over the world are even understatements(though others say that the Middle East version was actually written by a Pinoy himself)
Anyhow, bahala sila basta ako, I'm proud to be a Pinoy!
Mabuhay ka Pilipinas!

RJ said...

AUSTRALIAN VERSION (an excerpt)


Storms and flooding in Queensland, plus the heatwave in Victoria, South and Western Australia has been surprisingly considered neglible by the Australian government because today all Filipinos in the dairy, piggery and poultry farms have decided to leave this Land Down Under! Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced in the national television news this morning that the nation is currently in the state of calamity.

Hundreds of dairy cattle have never been milked, thousands of pigs have been left unattended, and millions of chickens have never been dressed since 1 am this morning because of the unexpected decision made by the Filipino farm workers in Australia.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry had already declared a shortage of meat, milk and egg products in all Australian states and territories at half past eight AEST this morning! It has been predicted that two or three days from now the country will surely starve if the shortage of farm attendants will persist until tomorrow. (NOTE: this is just a product of the chook-minder's imagination.)

------------
Maganda po ang mga articles na ito. At may dalawang versions pa kayo.

Thanks for sharing this! o",)

NJ Abad said...

RJ totoo ang sinasabi mo parte sa mga Pinoy sa Australia (kahit na ang article mo ay isang imahinasyon lang). Dalawa ba namang staff ko dito sa disyerto ni-recruit nila last year. Kung dito US$1k ang kita nila eh doon AUS$3.5k naman. Eh bahala nang magpapakain lang ng baboy, magpipisil-pisil ng dede ng baka at magtrabaho sa mga palaisdaan at sugpuan...laki naman ng kita di ba? Iba talaga ang kaleda ng Pinoy!

Ken said...

DA, Thanks a lot for the comment!

Actually copy and paste ko lang yan, magaganda kasi at nakakainspire. I am a proud Filipino too!

Ken said...

Doc RJ!

haha, ganda ng composition ah. Kokopyahin ko yan, American, Middle East at Australian Version, gawin kong Newsletter pamimigay ko dito sa mga kababayan para mauplift kahit paano. Sometimes kasi nasa confidence natin nakasalalay ang success.