Tsao Mentality Explored

"As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter," wrote Chip Tsao on his HK Magazine article. The bigot columnist apparently has a heavy chip on his shoulders. Whatever grievances he has, he need not take it out on an entire nation nor a powerless group (the domestic helpers). Had Tsao been the egoistic master and I, his humble servant I'd tell the old fart to take my "bread and butter" and shove it up his ass. Oh man, I pity the poor soul working for him -- if he really has one. He probably couldn't afford to hire a local maid if his only bread-and-butter depends on his unprofessional writing. Even if he's filthy rich and offered me a job to clean up his daily filth for, say twice, the amount I'm earning now... I'd still tell him to shove the darn job up his butt. The Filipinos that Tsao speaks lowly of may not all be professionals but we do our job professionally that is why many (for your information, master fool Tsao!) nations seek our services. In case, Tsao misinterprets my piece, I'll make my message clear: There is nothing so sweet in this write up, peahead. Read ahead to enlighten your dark, ancient, narrow, narcissistic mind! I'm an amateur creative writer so pardon my colorful language, old hog.

"As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter"... the Tsao mentality. How else can we Filipinos, or even non-Filipinos, interpret such words other than a racist's remark. Tsao added more insult to injury by saying his words were misinterpreted...
"The article was never intended to be insulting to the Filipino domestic workers," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "English, being a global language, is open to different interpretations by those who come from various cultural backgrounds." Now what? You're suggesting we're morons? Get lost!

Tsao must get off the Spratly Islands issue since he's obviously not in a sane, diplomatic mind to write about such (if anything, he's simply creating a great divide) just as I won't talk about Spratly Islands which I know not much about but I'm here for my people, I speak as an 11-year Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).

Sadly, the Tsao mentality (arrogance, superiority-complex, one-track mind, narrow vision, and snobbery) exists in any part of the world. When I worked for a manpower agency in Taichung City in 1999, one of the agents told me that Taiwanese employers no longer want to hire Filipino workers. When I asked why, a client/employer complained to my agent that "Filipinos are very smart. They know their rights and can sue you to court. Other nationalities won't complain as much, cost cheaper, and got the 'yes-ma'am' attitude." We both laugh at that. The months that followed after that little conversation had proven my agent wrong... The five employers I've been sent to by the agency had all wanted to hire me -- a Filipino -- permanently. Not that I'm an idiot nor will it cost them less... No, senor. It's because I do my job professionally. Filipinos are honest, efficient workers. Period. I worked exclusively for my greedy broker (who's infected with the tsao mentality), working only temporarily for the other employers (Yup, that's illegal. I was at the mercy of my agent -- "Taiwan --Mei Yo Nama Wan" article). When I defiantly challenged the shrewd agency owner, I was more than happy to be sent back home... that's simply "shoving the bread-and-butter" up my agent's ass. Lesson learned: The master sings high praises of you, "selling" you to his clients, family, and friends at every possible opportunity, giving you false hopes of high salary while encouraging you to work your butt off and pushing you harder and closer to workaholic hell, as if your job's the only most important thing in the world that your life depends on it, never mind the damage it's doing to your well-being -- physically, mentally, emotionally, socially. At the slightest sign of defiance (i.e., you're sick you can't work or you want a day-off after a year of non-stop work), you're given a crack of the whip, you could be terminated. Ask why you're not getting the right amount of salary, you're told you have no right to question how you're being paid. It sounds like it's a practice from the dark ages but it's actually happening everywhere. It happened to me in Taiwan. Though the severity was less than Taiwan's, it happened to me in the western world with my previous slave-driver boss who had been shortchanging me. Darn right, she's got the tsao mentality so I shove my bread-and-butter at her throat and quit my job. With my current Canadian bread-and-butter, it's way, way creamier and healthier. ;-D

No matter how big a master you think you are, if you step on my pinky toe or blow on my tribe's face with your stinky breath, you have something coming... and it's definitely not sweet words, cheap old Tsao. Being a master doesn't give one the authority to step on a servant's rights. Creatures with the tsao mentality need a brain overhaul. If Filipinos are such an insignificant, worthless lot to Tsao why then are our services in such high demand in Hong Kong and China (not to mention other nations)? Why can't they just hire local workers which would cost them way cheaper (RMB500/month) than hiring an OFW (HK$3500+/month)? It's the quality of work we do. It's the respect we have of ourselves (OFWs), of our job (bread and butter), of our employers (masters). Tsao doesn't seem to know anything about respect. And if he's afraid his article could be misinterpreted he should stick to his mother tongue and not write in English.

I thank my lucky stars I hadn't been employed by someone of a tsao mentality in Hong Kong. My big-hearted, open-minded Chinese employer encouraged openness, creativeness, and couldn't stand idiocy. It's in my 5-plus years of working for her that I completely understood why people like her prefer to hire Filipinos instead of other nationalities. More than a dozen locals got the sack from my former boss in just a span of 2 years. There are way much more of the enlightened Chinese souls than that of the tsao mentality kind. ChipTsao wasn't speaking for the entire Chinese race. He was speaking for himself. Furthermore, his writing voice was severely out of tune, and he stepped out of line. Tsao's chosen words simply reek of racism. Filipinos will not simply stand back and let him flex his muscles at us!

Author: Joy Marqueses

*Published in TF Newsmag (April 2009 Hong Kong Issue)