Real Hong Kong

Thanks to my friends at Focus on the Global South--an NGO based in Asia that deals with trade, policy and development issues-- I was invited to participate in a tour for organized by the for journalists.

The goal of the trip was to show the journalists who are in Hong Kong for the WTO ministerial, the real face of the most liberalized city of the world, glitzy,clean, and perfect on the outside, which are as serious as we all know in our countries but tourist here are very unaware of.

I mentioned the first day that in Hong Kong there are thousands of domestic workers who come mainly from Philippines and Indonesia, through employment agencies who operate thanks to famous Mode 4 of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), in simple terms how the WTO plans on privitazing all the public services and including people. Mode 4 focuses on giving work permits to natural persons abroad, mainly to high-skilled workers, but everyday developping countries pressure the developped countries to expand their quotas for low to mid skilled workers as well. WHy? Because of export subsidies and dumping from the so-called First World, economies traditionally dependent on agriculture empoverishes and unemployment raises, so these governments, in order to maintain a certain level of prosperity want to export workers outside, who will send remittances in foreign currency to support their families and create money flow without real production (HEY HEY, I know, since the blog/me is being reporting from Hong Kong the language has changed. I really never ment to put these kind of stuff in my page but I am here and want to write about it, but at the end everything that is happening here have to do with global trade and development.I wish I could have time to go see something wild to report back as well, but so far, no time for fun.)

Anyways: The tour was called the Real HK, and our first stop was a shelter for the indonesian domestic workers who have been abused at their workspace. These women, come to work in rich HK homes, 24/6 (they have sunday off), for about $400 a month. They do everything we hear from the girls sitting in front of us, and are not treated nicely. One of them told us the story of a friend, who was prisoned by her employer to the house for 7 months, they did not even let her make a phone call and finally she jumped out of 7th floor window of the building where she was, luckily did not die and after recieving treatment went back home recently. I dont want to give to many tear-jerking stories, basically they are being exploited harshly in HK and have few places to go when they need to defend themselves.

Second stop was Hong Kong Women's Worker's Union, whose members are mostly those who work 10-12 hours a day making our clothes,shoes, and bags, but since all the garment factories moved to Mainland China a couple of years ago, some are unemployed, and some work in diffrent fields, also trying to survive.

The last stop, and I think it was the most difficult one to bare, was what they call the "Cage people." These men, live in an apartments around the city, but there are so many in one place that they live in their bunk beads, which look like cages, all their lives. We meet with two, who were cooking lunch, again unemployed due to the fatc that their factories were moved to Mainland (ironically they came to HK in 1966 to work in these factories, once were the main source of income for many Hongkongese) and they are too old to switch jobs.

Next time when you are in Gucci, or Max Mara, or any store really, think about these people who live on 1% of what we spend on a pair of shoe (sometimes) for a month.

You all know that one of the reasons I pursue the life I pursue is partly due to this urge I have (I dont know what is wrong with me!--jk) to do something about these inequalities I see around me, as a journalist, so at least by letting my closest friends, all around the world, know about what is happening in the world, I hope to achieve it slowly but surely.

I started to believe more and more that ignorance is a very comfortable pillow for humans, the less you know, better you sleep.....or shop!


PS: The men in the picture has been living in HK since 1966, he is shown in his "house" (1 mt square approx.)where he shares with 20 or so others. His cage is considered "one of the best" in Hong Kong, in termns of conditions.