[BACAH]

A couple of years ago, my adult kids and I met some Filipino inlaws of very modest means for a vacation in Hong Kong. We spent the whole time traveling around with them. They were friends with one of the Filipino domestic workers who worked in the city. She joined us for tourist stuff on her single day off for the week.

We also met and spent time with some other Filipino domestic workers whom we encountered. One of those was an illegal domestic worker. She had to go in and out of the territory on a regular basis to Macau to get re-issued a tourist visitor visa so she could continue to work under the table in HK. No, she was not a sex worker (62 years old).

So, we got to experience HK from an entirely different perspective than most American tourists. It was clear to me, that those HKers exploit and treat their Filipinos like sh*t. Even my in-laws of modest means, who flew up from Manila to meet us the night before our arrival, shared with me they got to experience the “HK hospitality for Filipinos of modest means”. More nuanced racism when they checked in to the hotel under my name. It was only after we arrived the following morning, that my inlaws got treated like visiting tourists ought to expect. I am not an “ugly American” who expects to be catered to and fallen all over; I am aware such behavior is obnoxious. But nor is it right for them to be obnoxious to visiting Filipinos of modest means, nor for them to exploit and treat like sh*t those domestic workers.

So, I find it ironic, they are protesting for civil rights and social justice for themselves, while they deny those to their Filipinos. Kind of like in my country’s history, owners of black slaves who wanted freedom for themselves, but not their black slaves, from the tyrant King George.

Not related, but I am open minded that the violence and property damage of the protests may be perpetrated not by the protestors, but by provocateurs under direction of Mainland China.

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