Global Pinoy

Photo from online pinoy

Read: There are some one million Filipinos working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia alone. This is according to a local Saudi writer named Abdullah Al-Maghlooth. I received an e-mail of an article he wrote titled, “Imagine a World Without Filipinos” and I was very enlightened. According to him, in 2006 alone, the Kingdom recruited some 223,000 workers from the Philippines while we comprise about 20 percent of the total sailors around the world. He said there are about 1.2 million sailors working in various places.

Al-Maghlooth said that it is hard to imagine a world without the efficient, reliable and hardworking Filipino workers. He attributed the Filipinos’ “uniqueness” as global workers to our ability to speak the English language fluently and the technical trainings incorporated in our education system. Honestly, this is the first time I read praises for our educational system, much more coming from a foreigner.

The writer’s article is focused on the role of Filipinos as workers enabling the success of the day-to-day business of other nations. So he is putting much weight on the thought that if Filipinos suddenly and simultaneously stopped working around the world, there will be great disaster.

And I was really touched to read the lines of the writer encouraging all people around the globe to thank the Filipinos because they take part in building and influencing the world economy. And saying that “they” are dependent on us, he asked his readers to “pay respect” to Filipinos and “learn” from our experiences.

I want to believe that the article supposedly published in Saudi Arabia is real. It makes me proud of what we contribute to the world. Seeing our nation’s strength and meaning in the eyes of a foreigner is a consolation to our misery as a democratic state.

But taking the writer’s point of view, it is indeed liberating to think that all over the world, industries, schools, hospitals, clinics, studios, entertainment and amusement parks, casinos, hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, and even in government offices like The White House, there are Filipino workers.

The global Pinoy virtually controlling the world economy. He may not be the powerful voice that dictates the rules, but the global Pinoy is the muscle that moves the world economy. He is part of the means of production. He has the power to create a paradigm that would eventually change global economy.

Even the Giants Cry

The current situation in the Philippines is not an isolated case. As we continually call on President Arroyo and her administration to do something about the massive lay-offs in major industrial areas and economic zones in the country, constituents of the biggest superpowers in the world are doing the same thing.

No less than the most powerful man in the world, US President Barack Obama has been appealing to his fellow leaders at the US Senate to act now and fast if only to save their country from further devastation.

In the recent news, he announced that unemployment for the last week was already recorded at 626,000. “Tomorrow, we're expecting another dismal jobs report on top of the 2.6 million jobs that we lost last year. We've lost 500,000 jobs each month for the last two months," he was quoted by the international press as saying. The new report of US Labor Department is believed to be the highest since October 1982, when their economy was in a steep recession.

Even Obama and his people cry. Even the mightiest of the highly industrialized world are looking into drastic measures to save their economy. The ongoing talk between the White House and the Republican Senates seems to be taking longer than it should be. Obama’s stimulus bill that is focused on higher tax cuts, lower expenditures for the government and relief measures for homeowners is seen to be slashed from $987 billion to $800 billion.

This is fair enough for Obama while other Republican senators are still giving a fight on other cuts on the bill.

Whatever happens to Obama’s stimulus bill will be an indicator of how his administration will fair in negotiating with the US Congress. This will be a reference of the political trends that would eventually dictate the future of US’s economy. Whether US could recover or not will depend on how good Obama could persuade everyone in the US Congress that indeed the time of politicking is over and the Republicans must help him revive their economy fast.

6,247 Workers Hit by Crisis

It is very sad to learn that some 6,247 workers in Central Luzon, Philippines already lost their jobs because of the growing economic crisis. In a recent briefing among the locators inside Clark Freeport Zone, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) CL Dir.
Nathaniel Lacambra urged investors “to face the realities of our times.”

The challenge came in the face of the same growing concern inside Clark which had so far retrenched 2,075 workers since November.

When everyone thought that Philippines would be spared from the global crisis, we are experiencing the most depressing period of the country in the 21st century. To hear about people losing their jobs despite the unabated increase in prices of basic commodities is truly depressing.

And while others are losing jobs, several workers experience rotations with lesser working days and lesser take home pay due to their companies’ cost-cutting measures.

These scenarios are precisely the reason why more and more Filipinos choose to work abroad rather than stay here in the country. I just hope that the Philippine government will exert more effort in curbing corruption and instead pouring its resources to generate jobs for the people.