This is to call attention to discrimination, social and economic stratification, abuse of the caste system. Exploitation, in this day and age, is an explosive situation. Victims must find a civil alternative immediately. Don’t enjoy/suffer exploitation. It is bound explode. Exploiter and exploitee will be losers. Two prominent cases of late:

A Filipino housemaid in California put her Filipino mistress in jail for four years because she "had to eat three-day old food from the ref" and made to sleep in a dog-bed usually a semi-circle basket. Nothing wrong with my delicious home-cooked spaghetti sauce in my ref. I eat out of it and it gets more delicious on the third day. Did the maid tell the truth, that she slept in a fetal position in a curved dog bed for years?

Today, it is about a Filipino diplomat against his servant’s claim of no-salary. The Filipino diplomat says that he has all the receipts to show that the servant was paid in full. I believe he won’t say this if he didn’t have the receipts. It may be a case of the exploiter (servant) exploiting the diplomat. Why did the servant wait this long before she came after her alleged unpaid wages? Were they getting ready to deport her from the USA, and having a court case is her best route to staying? Filipinos see discrimination and exploitation in a different light than westerners.

In the Filipino caste system, a domestic helper is second-class citizen, no ifs or buts about that. They do the dirtiest, most boring work, on call for the longest hours, for the lowest pay. The typical Filipino master/servant relationship is called exploitative by the westerners. Why does a court in the western world define "maltreatment" and "abuse" differently than a court in the Philippines?

When a maid who has been awake and working for 15 hours and finally gets to sleep, and the mistress calls her out for a cup of tea, "Yaya, please naman, make me a cup of tea, masakit lang ang tiyan ko. Sorry nagising kita." In the Philippine culture, such an imposition (in a tone untranslatable into English) is not abuse, not exploitation. In the western culture, such imposition is abuse and exploitation.

Shoo Li’s lecture should be addressed to exploiters who happen to be compatriots of his. Shoo Li, a Filipino comedian Manuel Conde Jr. aka Jun Urbano using a Chinese nom d’guerre, openly faults the Filipino. On radio, he lustily lectures on the ills of the Filipino: graft and corruption, bribery and illegal ways. Shoo Li demands better behavior from Filipinos. Incidentally, Shoo Li’s Chinese-style pronunciation murders the Filipino language. His lecture is disgraceful, ununderstandable.

Is Shoo Li saying that the Chinese are better and holier than the Filipinos? Why are sponsors paying Shoo Li to lecture to the Filipinos on good manners and right conduct?

On the front pages are names linked to illegalities, offenses big and small; names that are monosyllabic, definitely not Filipino names. Sly, faceless people with one syllable names are exploiting the Philippines with their "baka makalusot" activities. So, okay, corrupt Filipino partners help these aliens do their illegalities. Shoo Li, your ungrateful compatriots are exploiters, and the Philippines is the exploitee. Save your lectures for your compatriots which exploit the Philippines.

Now, when it comes to genetic risks, Filipinos, as brown as they are, practice an intense kind of discrimination. Not racial. But social/economic discrimination.

One insignificant, run of the mill Chinese, Indian or African—one who’s economically struggling, undereducated, lacking of social graces. "Not good enough for my daughter." But the same "alien": Well-groomed, well-connected, a graduate of Harvard, drives a BMW, living in one of the spiffy villages. But of course! He is most welcome into our Filipino family. The suitor now becomes the exploitee, and the Filipino family, the exploiter.

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