Let me in, I'm an Executive!

As you may have noticed, I find the letter column in the SCMP a great source of amusement.  This letter was published yesterday:

Racial discrimination

It happened again! Last Sunday, I went shopping in Central with a Filipina friend who is a sales and marketing executive for a satellite television service company in Hong Kong.

At the IFC tower, she felt a need to use the toilet and went to the one on level P1. Unfortunately, there was a long queue of people waiting, and she decided to use the one on P3 instead. She was asked by the attendant if she was a Filipina. She confirmed that she was and the attendant then told her rudely that she should not be using the facility.

I was furious when I heard what had happened.

Why can't a Filipina use those toilets? The toilets are there for public use. This is very clearly a case of racial discrimination. Filipinos contribute to our economy, not just as domestic helpers, but also as engineers, managers, accountants and other professionals.

JOEL TRINIDAD CATAGUE, Tsuen Wan

The part I loved was where the letter writer goes to great lengths to stress that his friend is "a sales and marketing executive" (i.e. not a domestic helper).  If he had simply said that his friend was a Filipina wouldn't that have made the point about racial discrimination just as effectively?

I suppose the writer is also Filipino, and I'm sure that the management of the IFC don't stop him using the toilets, so I wonder what sort of discrimination we are talking about here? 

Comments

[shaky]

Indeed, it doesn't matter what the person does for a living, the issue here is simply race. If it is true, the attendant asked if the lady was a Filipina. Has the IFC responded?

[shaky]

Maybe ask them ...I have.

http://www.ifc.com.hk/english/feedback.aspx

[Joel Trinidad Catague]

Yes the point of discrimination here is being a Filipino or Filipina. The people here in Hong Kong always thought that the labels for Filipina is a Domestic Helpers and that is the only reason for discrimination here but although majority of us here are really domestic helpers they never realized that there were also Professional Filipinos in various industries that contributes to the economic prosperity of Hong Kong

[Chris]

Well, yes, but Domestic Helpers also contribute to the economy of Hong Kong by enabling more locals to go out to work.

[shaky]

I've not heard from the IFC yet ....

[Telephoto]

Probably the ""a sales and marketing executive" thing was to let everyone know they were not a domestic.

However I think the person is justified in making a complaint and I wouldn't hold it against them for bringing up the ""a sales and marketing executive" thing for their friend. It's easy to pooh-pooh them for it an have a laugh (and having several Filipino frinds, who wouldn't have a laugh at some of their ai-nako antics) however until someone actually picks on you because of your race or percieved social standing, you don't realise how taken about you will feel. As a well off white man, someone picking on me because of race is "$%!ing rare, but it has happened and I didn't feel particularly good about it at the time. So fair enough for Mr Catague.

[Chris]

I agree that it must be difficult for Filipinos in Hong Kong who are assumed to be domestic helpers, but the point here is that the IFC either have to allow the general public to use their facilities or restrict them to customers only. They can't discriminate against Filipinos (or any other race), and nor can they allow executives in, but refuse domestic helpers.

[shaky]

Got feedback:

"Thank you for your e-mail. We have investigated the case and replied to the patron last week. The incident might be caused by misunderstanding because of language barrier. We are welcome patrons from all over the world and our staffs are trained to provide services to all our patrons. "

[Mr Jam]

So the IFC people reckon that their staff were misunderstood.
I've been sitting here trying to think of what on earth they might have said which could have been mis-heard as "No Filipinas".
"No filling dinners"?
"No fueling sinners"?
"No finning pillocks"?
"No funny penis"?

So come on, IFC people -- what did you say?

[dave]

A response from the IFC Mall in today's SCMP:

No racism at IFC mall

The IFC mall welcomes hundreds and thousands of visitors of all nationalities every day. Racial discrimination of any kind is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by IFC management. After hearing of Joel Trinidad Catague's complaint about a friend who was told Filipinas were not supposed to use an IFC toilet ("Racial discrimination", November 19), an immediate investigation was conducted. It appears that the toilet attendant's basic English skills caused the misunderstanding between the attendant and Mr Catague's friend. The toilet attendant, who sometimes uses body gestures as well as Cantonese to let shoppers know there is a vacant toilet, rather than communicate this in English, has been taken off duty for further training. The management of IFC has also apologised to Mr Catague's friend for any distress and embarrassment caused. To avoid a recurrence, all IFC toilet attendants are to attend refresher courses in English.

I would like to take this opportunity to once again express our sincere apologies to Mr Catague's friend and look forward to welcoming her back to the IFC mall soon.

KARIM AZAR, assistant general manager, retail leasing, IFC Management

[Chris]

Sent off for retraining - sounds ominous.

[Joel Trinidad Catague]

The response of Karim Azar were unfounded. There were no miscommunication occured during the incident. When my friend slip thru the toilet room, "she heard that the toilet attendant prevented other Filipinas to use the toilet" after getting complaints from some "local resident" that Filipinas were occupying most of the toilets during Sundays. So when my friend came out and the toilet attendant saw her, immediately she was confrontedand asked whether she is a Filipna. My friend responded "Yes, Mesei ah?"(she replies in english & cantonese, knowing that the attendant was a local chinese as my friend can speak cantonese fluently), then the attendant spoke to her in cantonese telling her that she is not allowed to use the toilet. Then my friend replied again in cantonese and asked the attendant why?...the attendant did not responded anymore and just look at her while she puts on her make up in front of the mirror (as other locals where also staring at her).

The following day after the incident, I wrote a complaint letter to SCMP as well as to the website of IFC mall. In the afternoon, I got a call from Ms. Paggy Leung, the Customer Relation Manager of the IFC mall asking for the detail of the incident and at the same time apologizing on what had happened to my friend.

So I don't know what kind of retraining does Karim Azar were talking. They should trained the attendant the "good manner" in dealing with customers or visitors.

[Chris]

Well, I never quite believed IFC Management when they said this was a misunderstanding based on poor English of a toilet attendant - it's just a convenient excuse to blame a junior employee.

[simon francis]

I firmly believe that ifc would never discriminate against anyone especially over a race issue. I have personally worked with them and know that they hire many nationalities and would never accept anything racist happening in their mall.
best.
Si.

[Chris]

Well, the problem is that the IFC tried to blame this on the poor English of the toilet attendant.

[Filipina of Needless Identification]

It so sad that people should say this when we have already agreed to make discrimination "a thing of the past." The days of slavery are over; and we're supposed to be living in peace. Anyhow, this would be a great example of racial discrimination to cite in my social science homework; may I have your permission to use this story for that purpose? In that case I would be very glad and fulfilled. Thank you very much.

[Chris]

Please go ahead.

[fumier]

You could be in there, old chap.