"Wonderful Counselor" is one of the names given to the king to be of Israel as prophesied by Isaiah. This is of inseparable from other names like "Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). It is quite an approriate name or characterization of the one who will govern a nation given the socio-historical context of the 8th century Israel. I have chosen for our Christmas meditation the title "Wonderful Counselor" for it captures what God's incarnation in Christ intends for humanity.
Guidance counselors or whatever kind of counselors we have in our community and society have special responsibilities as trained professionals. But one can be just an ordinary person who has skills in counseling and employ them to help others. There are special characterisitics in counseling that other people may not have due to their professional training. Let me reflect on these characteristics.
First, a counselor is one who is able to listen. Listening for a coounselor is not just hearing words and sentences. It is listening to the words and the meaning that flows out of a person's heart and mind. This includes verbal and non-verbal expressions or actions a person utters and shows which allow interpretion. More importantly listening has to do with understanding the deepest longing and hopes of what the person wants to become.
In the Gospel of Luke the angels announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus saying "be not afraid, for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which will be to all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:11). The birth,life and ministry of Jesus shows us that he is a wonderful counselor because he lived like anyone of us in this world. Remember those moments he had with his disciples when he intently interacted with them and listened carefully to their hopes, aspirations as well as to their struggles and inner contradictions. He is even now our wonderful counselor who is alive in us and we can communicate with God through him.
Second, a counselor is able to intervene in our thoughts and behavior. Through psychotherapy a person may get healed through the intervention of the counselor. The counselor guides a client in overcoming oppressive thoughts or other distrubances that render the person unproductive. It is so with God in Jesus Christ, through the consistent devotion and reflection of God's word, we can be guided in our thoughts and actions. Individuals have their own perceptions of reality and at times these brings despair or hopelessness. God's intervention in our lives is through the Spirit of Christ that convinces us that life is larger than our jobs, our health, our families.
Third, the counselor exercises leadership as in the experience of one who is being led to a pasture--to peace and harmony. This leadership function enables a client to change behavior that will improve his or her relations with himself/herself and with other people. There are many great leaders in our world today who have good intentions to make life worthwhile, but many of them have been lost in fame, wealth and greed. They have lost touch with the very reasons of their leadership. God in Christ is our wonderful counselor because he is able to lead us to where we wanted to be and to what we may want to become.
Merry Christmas
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
GFMD a sell-out of the souls of migrant workers
THE CHALLENGE TO THE GLOBAL FORUM ON MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT AND OTHER ISSUES OF MIGRANT WORKERS
October 19, 2008
Seoul, South Korea
KASAMMAKO believes that GFMD is a device to sell neoliberal anti-poverty and financing strategy. It thrives on the poverty of Third World countries, directs them to institutionalize migration policies as a mechanism for development and development cooperation.
The GFMD as localized in the migration policies in South Korea, the government under President Lee Myung Bak has institutionalized labour migration as a means of off-setting the lack of labour resources due to its ageing work force. Although there is so much publicity about better working arrangements for migrant workers and other foreigners employed in the country, the government is up to flush out undocumented migrant workers to less than 100,000 out of over 200,000 in 2010. This has resulted to insurmountable anxiety, loss of income to thousands of migrant workers who were forcibly deported. Both the South Korean government and the Philippine government did not respond to the need to provide amnesty and eventual legalization of undocumented migrant workers. The rampant violations of human rights of migrant workers have not been addressed by both the sending and receiving governments of migrant labour.
Furthermore, the recent surreptitious agreement on the National Pension System and the Social Security System between the two governments intends to divest migrant workers of their hard-earned retirement benefits when finally approved by the Philippine Senate and the Office of the President of the Philippines. The NPS-SSS equalization scheme would eventually deprive migrant workers who contributed to the NPS a lump-sum refund of their contributions at the end of their contract. This is a scheme that would increase the funds of the NPS and the SSS but not benefitting directly the migrant workers. This should not be ratified in any way.
Moreover on the broader scale the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) which is ensuing in Manila this week is a lip service to the situation of the migrant workers worldwide. KASAMMAKO believes that the GFMD is characteristically against the interests of the migrant workers, on the following grounds:
• It hides under the cloak of universally-accepted concepts and principles such as the right to migrate, the “right to development”, “responsibility of government to manage” but peddles on “remittance as a survival mechanism for poor countries” and “temporary labor migration” as a “flexible way of meeting labor surplus and shortage across countries”.
• It avoids the notion that migration is an “alternative to development” because it will expose the undeniable fact that “neoliberal” globalization has failed miserably on its promise to usher development, especially in poor countries that has a vast pool of unemployed. It also unmasks the real intent of the current drive of First World countries and their institutions to exploit the migration phenomenon, the lucrative labor export programs and migrant remittances for the purpose of salvaging or propping up the collapsing economies, especially of semi-colonies and dependent countries.
• GFMD sells neoliberal anti-poverty and financing strategies by promoting the concept that “migration promotes development” and that the remittances of migrants helps the economy and therefore serves as a “tool for development”. It directs its efforts towards capturing the remittances of migrants to: a) ensure super profits of bank monopolies, and b) ensure that debt-ridden economies have a large currency reserve to pay off debts.
The underlying agenda however is to do away with capital pump-priming and ODA which donor countries and IFIs have so far been unable to meet for the past several decades. This exposes the fact that neoliberal globalization currently has not brought Third World countries any closer to the eradication of global poverty and unemployment.
• It promotes the concept of government responsibility to “manage migration” in order to augment state revenues and help cover deficits in foreign payments. Managing migration meant institutionalizing migration policies, adopting “policy coherence” in all its related branches of government, and by “aligning” migration policies with development policies domestically and internationally. This concept exposes that the underlying neoliberal agenda is for Third World countries to continue to tow the line of neoliberal policies (liberalization, privatization, deregulation, etc), policies that bred a vast pool of unemployed and underemployed, the very same policies that brought Third World countries heavily indebted and in a state of abject poverty.
• It employs post post-Washington strategy of “transparency” and “shared responsibility” thru “inter-partnership” with all “stakeholders” in the name of development but marginalizes the role of the most important stakeholder on this issue – the migrants themselves. Consultations and representation of migrant organizations in HLF are nil. Even in dialogues wih civil society organizations, migrant representation is merely a token.
While there is some truth that remittances temporarily alleviates the financial woes of families of migrants, this perverse notion signifies greater commodification of migrants and the perpetuation of conditions for cheap labor, not to mention the social costs of migration, especially on children and families.
KASAMMAKO exposes the so-called “development” through migration and reliance on remittances as development tool are neoliberal anti-poverty and financing concepts and strategy that thrives on people’s exploitation and miseries of migrants, enhances labor flexibilization and therefore, greater commodification of labor, and only brings Third World countries into the quagmire of poverty because these do not address the root causes of underdevelopment and the massive migration of peoples from poor countries. We call on governments, NGOs and all migrant workers to work for a just economic development and unconditional respect for the rights of migrant workers.
October 19, 2008
Seoul, South Korea
KASAMMAKO believes that GFMD is a device to sell neoliberal anti-poverty and financing strategy. It thrives on the poverty of Third World countries, directs them to institutionalize migration policies as a mechanism for development and development cooperation.
The GFMD as localized in the migration policies in South Korea, the government under President Lee Myung Bak has institutionalized labour migration as a means of off-setting the lack of labour resources due to its ageing work force. Although there is so much publicity about better working arrangements for migrant workers and other foreigners employed in the country, the government is up to flush out undocumented migrant workers to less than 100,000 out of over 200,000 in 2010. This has resulted to insurmountable anxiety, loss of income to thousands of migrant workers who were forcibly deported. Both the South Korean government and the Philippine government did not respond to the need to provide amnesty and eventual legalization of undocumented migrant workers. The rampant violations of human rights of migrant workers have not been addressed by both the sending and receiving governments of migrant labour.
Furthermore, the recent surreptitious agreement on the National Pension System and the Social Security System between the two governments intends to divest migrant workers of their hard-earned retirement benefits when finally approved by the Philippine Senate and the Office of the President of the Philippines. The NPS-SSS equalization scheme would eventually deprive migrant workers who contributed to the NPS a lump-sum refund of their contributions at the end of their contract. This is a scheme that would increase the funds of the NPS and the SSS but not benefitting directly the migrant workers. This should not be ratified in any way.
Moreover on the broader scale the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) which is ensuing in Manila this week is a lip service to the situation of the migrant workers worldwide. KASAMMAKO believes that the GFMD is characteristically against the interests of the migrant workers, on the following grounds:
• It hides under the cloak of universally-accepted concepts and principles such as the right to migrate, the “right to development”, “responsibility of government to manage” but peddles on “remittance as a survival mechanism for poor countries” and “temporary labor migration” as a “flexible way of meeting labor surplus and shortage across countries”.
• It avoids the notion that migration is an “alternative to development” because it will expose the undeniable fact that “neoliberal” globalization has failed miserably on its promise to usher development, especially in poor countries that has a vast pool of unemployed. It also unmasks the real intent of the current drive of First World countries and their institutions to exploit the migration phenomenon, the lucrative labor export programs and migrant remittances for the purpose of salvaging or propping up the collapsing economies, especially of semi-colonies and dependent countries.
• GFMD sells neoliberal anti-poverty and financing strategies by promoting the concept that “migration promotes development” and that the remittances of migrants helps the economy and therefore serves as a “tool for development”. It directs its efforts towards capturing the remittances of migrants to: a) ensure super profits of bank monopolies, and b) ensure that debt-ridden economies have a large currency reserve to pay off debts.
The underlying agenda however is to do away with capital pump-priming and ODA which donor countries and IFIs have so far been unable to meet for the past several decades. This exposes the fact that neoliberal globalization currently has not brought Third World countries any closer to the eradication of global poverty and unemployment.
• It promotes the concept of government responsibility to “manage migration” in order to augment state revenues and help cover deficits in foreign payments. Managing migration meant institutionalizing migration policies, adopting “policy coherence” in all its related branches of government, and by “aligning” migration policies with development policies domestically and internationally. This concept exposes that the underlying neoliberal agenda is for Third World countries to continue to tow the line of neoliberal policies (liberalization, privatization, deregulation, etc), policies that bred a vast pool of unemployed and underemployed, the very same policies that brought Third World countries heavily indebted and in a state of abject poverty.
• It employs post post-Washington strategy of “transparency” and “shared responsibility” thru “inter-partnership” with all “stakeholders” in the name of development but marginalizes the role of the most important stakeholder on this issue – the migrants themselves. Consultations and representation of migrant organizations in HLF are nil. Even in dialogues wih civil society organizations, migrant representation is merely a token.
While there is some truth that remittances temporarily alleviates the financial woes of families of migrants, this perverse notion signifies greater commodification of migrants and the perpetuation of conditions for cheap labor, not to mention the social costs of migration, especially on children and families.
KASAMMAKO exposes the so-called “development” through migration and reliance on remittances as development tool are neoliberal anti-poverty and financing concepts and strategy that thrives on people’s exploitation and miseries of migrants, enhances labor flexibilization and therefore, greater commodification of labor, and only brings Third World countries into the quagmire of poverty because these do not address the root causes of underdevelopment and the massive migration of peoples from poor countries. We call on governments, NGOs and all migrant workers to work for a just economic development and unconditional respect for the rights of migrant workers.
How it's like locally--Global Forum on Migration and Development
KASAMMAKO STATEMENT ON FORCED DEPORTATION OF FILIPINO WOMEN MIGRANT WORKERS IN SOUTH KOREA AND ITS IMPACT ON THEIR MINOR CHILDREN
While many state representatives and participants from non-government organizations are gathering in Manila for the United Nations sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) many migrant workers are forcibly deported, especially in South Korea where recently two Filipino women migrant workers have been arrested without considering the safety and welfare of their minor children. The ongoing clampdown on migrant workers in South Korea has remained unabated. We member organizations of KASAMMA-KO or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea expose and deplore these ongoing violations of human rights of migrant workers and their family members.
On October 23, 2008 at around 2:00 p.m. Bernadette Bourbon of legal age and a Filipino migrant worker was arrested by the Korean immigration police in Caribi, Yangju City while she was on her way to pick up her nine years old daughter named Princess from an Elementary School in that city. She was brought to the immigration detention Center in Uijungbu City and is being processed for deportation. Despite the intervention of social workers and a minister from a Methodist Church to free Bernadette Bourbon for the main reason that she has a daughter who is schooling, the request was not granted unless she either post a bail of ten million won or not less than 8,000 US dollars and the temporary release that will last for only three months or both she and her daughter be immediately deported to the Philippines. While she is in detention her daughter Princess is under the care of the Methodist minister.
At around six o’clock on the 24th day of October another Filipino woman migrant worker was nabbed by the Korean immigration police in Tongdocheon city, north of Seoul. She is Mercy Silvano, of legal age and has a year and two months old baby boy named Freddie Cartel. Both were arbitrarily arrested and are being processed for deportation. With the sudden arrest, Mercy Silvano cuddling her baby was dragged by the immigration police to the car and was not allowed to bring any baby food such as milk and others. Inside the detention center, baby Freddie is being fed by food served to detainees. The Korean immigration office in Uijungbu refused to release the mother and child even with the knowledge of how to protect the rights of minor children and of migrant workers. The office hurriedly processed them for deportation to avoid criticism and protests from social workers and migrant workers organizations in Korea.
It is preposterous on the part of both the Korean and Philippine governments to allow the deportation of migrant workers with little regard of their human rights and their abdication to protect minor children of migrant workers. Not too long ago South Korea’s Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations has reported to the 44th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development that the government will realize programs to respect rights of children through its Child Protection and Development Plan and Comprehensive Measures for Children’s Safety, but it seems this is just a lip service to children.
Let everyone know that the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families ensures the protection of rights of migrant workers and members of their families. We reiterate the provisions of this convention to remind the Korean and Philippine governments of their ethical responsibility to protect and respect the rights of children especially:
Article 29
Each child of a migrant worker shall have the right to a name, to registration of birth and to a nationality.
Article 30
Each child of a migrant worker shall have the basic right of access to education on the basis of equality of treatment with nationals of the State concerned. Access to public pre-school educational institutions or schools shall not be refused or limited by reason of the irregular situation with respect to stay or employment of either parent or by reason of the irregularity of the child's stay in the State of employment.
These articles in the UN International convention for the Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers and their Family Members will only be meaningful when participating governments should truly STOP CRACKDOWN and legalized all migrant workers. Also, the disregard for the rights and welfare of migrant workers and members of their families is the reason for migrant workers to unite for ZERO REMITTANCE DAY tomorrow October 29. The GFMD can only have its impact when labor sending countries can institute just distribution of national wealth and develop national economies so as to provide decent livelihood for the majority of its people.
While many state representatives and participants from non-government organizations are gathering in Manila for the United Nations sponsored Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) many migrant workers are forcibly deported, especially in South Korea where recently two Filipino women migrant workers have been arrested without considering the safety and welfare of their minor children. The ongoing clampdown on migrant workers in South Korea has remained unabated. We member organizations of KASAMMA-KO or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea expose and deplore these ongoing violations of human rights of migrant workers and their family members.
On October 23, 2008 at around 2:00 p.m. Bernadette Bourbon of legal age and a Filipino migrant worker was arrested by the Korean immigration police in Caribi, Yangju City while she was on her way to pick up her nine years old daughter named Princess from an Elementary School in that city. She was brought to the immigration detention Center in Uijungbu City and is being processed for deportation. Despite the intervention of social workers and a minister from a Methodist Church to free Bernadette Bourbon for the main reason that she has a daughter who is schooling, the request was not granted unless she either post a bail of ten million won or not less than 8,000 US dollars and the temporary release that will last for only three months or both she and her daughter be immediately deported to the Philippines. While she is in detention her daughter Princess is under the care of the Methodist minister.
At around six o’clock on the 24th day of October another Filipino woman migrant worker was nabbed by the Korean immigration police in Tongdocheon city, north of Seoul. She is Mercy Silvano, of legal age and has a year and two months old baby boy named Freddie Cartel. Both were arbitrarily arrested and are being processed for deportation. With the sudden arrest, Mercy Silvano cuddling her baby was dragged by the immigration police to the car and was not allowed to bring any baby food such as milk and others. Inside the detention center, baby Freddie is being fed by food served to detainees. The Korean immigration office in Uijungbu refused to release the mother and child even with the knowledge of how to protect the rights of minor children and of migrant workers. The office hurriedly processed them for deportation to avoid criticism and protests from social workers and migrant workers organizations in Korea.
It is preposterous on the part of both the Korean and Philippine governments to allow the deportation of migrant workers with little regard of their human rights and their abdication to protect minor children of migrant workers. Not too long ago South Korea’s Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations has reported to the 44th Session of the UN Commission for Social Development that the government will realize programs to respect rights of children through its Child Protection and Development Plan and Comprehensive Measures for Children’s Safety, but it seems this is just a lip service to children.
Let everyone know that the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families ensures the protection of rights of migrant workers and members of their families. We reiterate the provisions of this convention to remind the Korean and Philippine governments of their ethical responsibility to protect and respect the rights of children especially:
Article 29
Each child of a migrant worker shall have the right to a name, to registration of birth and to a nationality.
Article 30
Each child of a migrant worker shall have the basic right of access to education on the basis of equality of treatment with nationals of the State concerned. Access to public pre-school educational institutions or schools shall not be refused or limited by reason of the irregular situation with respect to stay or employment of either parent or by reason of the irregularity of the child's stay in the State of employment.
These articles in the UN International convention for the Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers and their Family Members will only be meaningful when participating governments should truly STOP CRACKDOWN and legalized all migrant workers. Also, the disregard for the rights and welfare of migrant workers and members of their families is the reason for migrant workers to unite for ZERO REMITTANCE DAY tomorrow October 29. The GFMD can only have its impact when labor sending countries can institute just distribution of national wealth and develop national economies so as to provide decent livelihood for the majority of its people.
Monday, July 07, 2008
They're still cracking migrants down!
STATEMENT ON MASSIVE CRACKDOWN OF MIGRANT WORKERS
IN SOUTH KOREA
July 07, 2008
We member organizations of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea (KASAMMAKO) or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, with clenched fists calls for a stop to the massive crackdown on migrant workers in South Korea especially Filipino migrant workers, respect and protect their human rights.
The Korean government under President Lee Myung Bak has intensified the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers for the last few months and remains unabated up to this day. This systematic and calculated crackdown under a conservative government is a contradiction between its neo-liberal capitalist priorities and the need for cheap labour force. This is also a contradiction to the well publicized notion that South Korean society is becoming a humane multi-cultural society. This intensive crackdown has forcibly deported thousands of migrant workers in spite of their health and family conditions just to accomplish the immigration quota of arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. There are migrant pregnant women even bleeding badly and men who are so ill yet arrested, incarcerated and consequently deported. Recently, immigration police are tucked with tasers or electric stand guns in arresting migrant workers, a threatening method which can be used in case of resistance to arrest. We vehemently condemn this treacherous crackdown.
The economic slowdown due to various capitalist market schemes and the looming economic recession in the U.S. which affects other economies has been used as justification for flushing out undocumented migrant workers in many countries particularly in South Korea. This should never be an alibi for the inability of the government to design mechanisms that will integrate migrant workers into the regular work force. The government has been stuck in recycled and obsolete means of labour outsourcing that exploits and maims the lives of migrant workers. Migrant workers have contributed to the industrialization and wealth of South Korea and should not be blamed for the economic downturn.
Migrant workers’ basic labour rights are protected in the South Korean constitution, including the right to freedom of association. The South Korea’s 1948 Constitution mentions in its preamble that the state is ‘determined to consolidate national unity with justice, humanitarianism and brotherly love and to destroy all social vices and injustice’. More so in Article 6 under Treaties, Foreigners, it stipulates that: (1) Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and the generally recognized rule of international law have the same effect as the domestic laws of the Republic of Korea. (2) The status of foreigners is guaranteed as prescribed by international law and treaties.
It is unthinkable that for several decades South Korean society has benefited from the labours of migrant workers that have supplied cheap labour for the small and medium scale industries, but the human rights of migrant workers are violated. While only a handful of Korean citizens would take on the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers spend their lives in these jobs, but often ill-treated and maligned by their employers and worse still, not paying the salaries and suffer many other sub-human conditions in their work places. Many have languished in detention centers waiting for their unpaid salaries to be paid by their delinquent employers. Worst of all many migrant workers have to endure the anxiety of the continuing crackdown some have even died or were hurt escaping arrest and deportation.
Finally, labour exporting or sending countries like the Philippines ought to develop its economy based on agriculture and move towards national industrialization which when realized will put a halt to forced migration which at present Filipinos working abroad has reached up to nine million. We reiterate our vision for the Filipinos and all migrant workers that we look forward to the day when families are no longer separated, that they don’t have to migrate in order to find decent jobs, that each person and family are able to provide adequately for their basic needs and each person will have meaningful life—a life lived in justice and peace. Once again in one voice, we call: STOP CRACKDOWN! LEGALIZE UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS!
CALLS FOR ACTION:
For the Philippine government:a) Make immediate diplomatic and legal intervention on the plight of not less than 30,000 migrant workers in South Korea who face imminent deportation due to intensified crackdown.
b) The Philippine Labor Office (POLO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in South Korea should inform and make written recommendations to the Philippine Senate and Office of the President how to avert intensive crackdown, and how Filipino undocumented /irregular migrant workers can become legal, regular, or integrated into the regular work force, that is, outside of the framework of deportation and the Employment Permit System (EPS).
For South Korean government:
a) Stop crackdown and protect human rights and migrant workers;
b) Legalize and integrate all migrant workers regardless of visa status into the regular work force
c) Ratify the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
For other governments:
a) All labour sending and labour receiving countries should devise and work out means and strategies to protect human rights of migrant workers;
b) Evolve just and sustainable economic system that will eliminate forced migration and enhance international solidarity and peace among nations.
For all migrant workers and the general public:a)
All migrant workers should unite against the commodification of human labour in the neo-liberal market globalization;
b) Condemn and put a stop to crackdown as a strategy to flush out migrant workers from labour receiving countries.
c) Know that crackdown is being used not just in South Korea but also in other parts of the world and therefore unite against it.
d) All people should help protect human rights of migrant workers because in terms of peoples’ economic survival and more importantly in having a just economic order in the world, nobody is “illegal” or “undocumented”.
IN SOUTH KOREA
July 07, 2008
We member organizations of the Katipunan ng mga Samahan ng Migranteng Manggagawa sa Korea (KASAMMAKO) or the Unity of Filipino Migrant Workers Associations in Korea, with clenched fists calls for a stop to the massive crackdown on migrant workers in South Korea especially Filipino migrant workers, respect and protect their human rights.
The Korean government under President Lee Myung Bak has intensified the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers for the last few months and remains unabated up to this day. This systematic and calculated crackdown under a conservative government is a contradiction between its neo-liberal capitalist priorities and the need for cheap labour force. This is also a contradiction to the well publicized notion that South Korean society is becoming a humane multi-cultural society. This intensive crackdown has forcibly deported thousands of migrant workers in spite of their health and family conditions just to accomplish the immigration quota of arrest and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. There are migrant pregnant women even bleeding badly and men who are so ill yet arrested, incarcerated and consequently deported. Recently, immigration police are tucked with tasers or electric stand guns in arresting migrant workers, a threatening method which can be used in case of resistance to arrest. We vehemently condemn this treacherous crackdown.
The economic slowdown due to various capitalist market schemes and the looming economic recession in the U.S. which affects other economies has been used as justification for flushing out undocumented migrant workers in many countries particularly in South Korea. This should never be an alibi for the inability of the government to design mechanisms that will integrate migrant workers into the regular work force. The government has been stuck in recycled and obsolete means of labour outsourcing that exploits and maims the lives of migrant workers. Migrant workers have contributed to the industrialization and wealth of South Korea and should not be blamed for the economic downturn.
Migrant workers’ basic labour rights are protected in the South Korean constitution, including the right to freedom of association. The South Korea’s 1948 Constitution mentions in its preamble that the state is ‘determined to consolidate national unity with justice, humanitarianism and brotherly love and to destroy all social vices and injustice’. More so in Article 6 under Treaties, Foreigners, it stipulates that: (1) Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and the generally recognized rule of international law have the same effect as the domestic laws of the Republic of Korea. (2) The status of foreigners is guaranteed as prescribed by international law and treaties.
It is unthinkable that for several decades South Korean society has benefited from the labours of migrant workers that have supplied cheap labour for the small and medium scale industries, but the human rights of migrant workers are violated. While only a handful of Korean citizens would take on the difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers spend their lives in these jobs, but often ill-treated and maligned by their employers and worse still, not paying the salaries and suffer many other sub-human conditions in their work places. Many have languished in detention centers waiting for their unpaid salaries to be paid by their delinquent employers. Worst of all many migrant workers have to endure the anxiety of the continuing crackdown some have even died or were hurt escaping arrest and deportation.
Finally, labour exporting or sending countries like the Philippines ought to develop its economy based on agriculture and move towards national industrialization which when realized will put a halt to forced migration which at present Filipinos working abroad has reached up to nine million. We reiterate our vision for the Filipinos and all migrant workers that we look forward to the day when families are no longer separated, that they don’t have to migrate in order to find decent jobs, that each person and family are able to provide adequately for their basic needs and each person will have meaningful life—a life lived in justice and peace. Once again in one voice, we call: STOP CRACKDOWN! LEGALIZE UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS!
CALLS FOR ACTION:
For the Philippine government:a) Make immediate diplomatic and legal intervention on the plight of not less than 30,000 migrant workers in South Korea who face imminent deportation due to intensified crackdown.
b) The Philippine Labor Office (POLO) and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in South Korea should inform and make written recommendations to the Philippine Senate and Office of the President how to avert intensive crackdown, and how Filipino undocumented /irregular migrant workers can become legal, regular, or integrated into the regular work force, that is, outside of the framework of deportation and the Employment Permit System (EPS).
For South Korean government:
a) Stop crackdown and protect human rights and migrant workers;
b) Legalize and integrate all migrant workers regardless of visa status into the regular work force
c) Ratify the United Nations International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
For other governments:
a) All labour sending and labour receiving countries should devise and work out means and strategies to protect human rights of migrant workers;
b) Evolve just and sustainable economic system that will eliminate forced migration and enhance international solidarity and peace among nations.
For all migrant workers and the general public:a)
All migrant workers should unite against the commodification of human labour in the neo-liberal market globalization;
b) Condemn and put a stop to crackdown as a strategy to flush out migrant workers from labour receiving countries.
c) Know that crackdown is being used not just in South Korea but also in other parts of the world and therefore unite against it.
d) All people should help protect human rights of migrant workers because in terms of peoples’ economic survival and more importantly in having a just economic order in the world, nobody is “illegal” or “undocumented”.
Monday, June 30, 2008
The Typhoon named Frank
Hundreds of people died in the Philippines because of the wrath of a super typhoon named Frank or Fengshen as its international name. I have seen how sturdy trees knocked down, billboards fell from buildings, flood waters drowning rooftops and destroyed thousands of hectares of rice lands and a ship en route from Manila to Cebu capsized because it was swallowed up by mountain like waves. When you are caught in treacherous storms like this, there's nothing you can think of but destruction, hunger, death.
With typhoon Frank, I would guess that many people who knew me in the Philippines and other parts of the world have associated my name with the typhoon, and if ever they have forgotten my name, they were once again reminded of me. Well, human persons are part of nature and human nature can at times be likened to typhoons. The typhoon's fury was unleashed unexpectedly or perhaps its strength underestimated. Living in the panay island where our local community faces the smaller island of guimaras does make you accustomed to storms, or learned to like to storm. The strong winds test the strength of your house, the big waves wound unearth the lost coins in the sand and the mussels and other sea creatures good for food are washed to the shore.
For us who live in the shores of Panay Island would welcome the coming of southwest moonsoon in the months of June to August. The months when the southwest moonsoon would bring income to the fisherfolks. It's the time when milkfish fry are drawn to the shore by the currents and fisherfolks has something to catch and sell. In the last few decades much have change in milkfish fry catching. Less and less fry are caught because of pollution and environmental degradation. Typhoons are seen as destruction rather than bringing rain to rainfed rice paddies and income for fisherfolks.
Similarly when I saw on tv the destruction brought by storms or hurricanes and tornados in continental US that made houses like cardboard boxes. The sights of totally destroyed houses in the US causes me to think that regardless where you live, whether you are in an upper middle class society or in the developing country like Burma or the Philippines houses are nothing in the eye of the storm. So what kind of houses do we need that can stand the storm? Or what kind of food production technology do we need that can stand the storm? And what kind of society should we have that can anticipate if not is prepared to face the fiercest of storms and earthquakes?
Come to think about these!
With typhoon Frank, I would guess that many people who knew me in the Philippines and other parts of the world have associated my name with the typhoon, and if ever they have forgotten my name, they were once again reminded of me. Well, human persons are part of nature and human nature can at times be likened to typhoons. The typhoon's fury was unleashed unexpectedly or perhaps its strength underestimated. Living in the panay island where our local community faces the smaller island of guimaras does make you accustomed to storms, or learned to like to storm. The strong winds test the strength of your house, the big waves wound unearth the lost coins in the sand and the mussels and other sea creatures good for food are washed to the shore.
For us who live in the shores of Panay Island would welcome the coming of southwest moonsoon in the months of June to August. The months when the southwest moonsoon would bring income to the fisherfolks. It's the time when milkfish fry are drawn to the shore by the currents and fisherfolks has something to catch and sell. In the last few decades much have change in milkfish fry catching. Less and less fry are caught because of pollution and environmental degradation. Typhoons are seen as destruction rather than bringing rain to rainfed rice paddies and income for fisherfolks.
Similarly when I saw on tv the destruction brought by storms or hurricanes and tornados in continental US that made houses like cardboard boxes. The sights of totally destroyed houses in the US causes me to think that regardless where you live, whether you are in an upper middle class society or in the developing country like Burma or the Philippines houses are nothing in the eye of the storm. So what kind of houses do we need that can stand the storm? Or what kind of food production technology do we need that can stand the storm? And what kind of society should we have that can anticipate if not is prepared to face the fiercest of storms and earthquakes?
Come to think about these!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Candlelight vigils in Seoul
The hundreds or thousands of unquenchable light from burning candles seem like an ocean of yellow dots arranged in organic artisty can be seen from the birds eye view on the main thoroughfares of downtown Seoul. Burn, burn burn! oh tiny candlelights that can shed light to the darkened souls of the South Korean political leaders who choose to take the side of the profiteers and in the name of economic globalization.
The first candlelight vigil started on May 2 by students airing their concerns on the safety of U.S. beef and it became a continuing protest action even to this day, June the 24th. The main motive of the candlelight vigils was to call for the renegotiation of the beef import deal, but various groups joined the nightly vigils and rallies which started to criticize other policies of President Lee Myung-bak such as privatization of public firms, the inland canal project and many others.
From a small group of students the nightly vigils swelled to hundreds of thousands especially on the night of June 10 that commemorated the historic democracy movement massive protest actions. The big swell in number of protesters on June 10 estimated at 500,000 included church people from the member churches of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK). In a night long vigil pastors and lay leaders from the Protestant churches gave speeches on various social issues that affect the life of society such as the privatization of the national health insurance and other social services. Church leaders who came to the gathering remembered the dark days of military dictatorship. They challenged church people to continue to raise its prophetic witness in the present time now that there is a resurgence of conservative right.
People from all walks of life from students to workers and former activists who fought for democracy 21 years ago joined the rallies, demanding the government to renegotiate the beef deal with the United States made under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Because of this the clarion call for renegotiation the government sent emissaries to the US in an attempt to renegotiate the trade deal on beef importation. The South Korean government will urge the US trade negotiator that only beef from cows less than 30 months old can be imported to the country. Health experts believe that mad cow disease which affected the cattle in the US few years ago may be transmitted to humans through beef from cows older than 30 months.The US negotiator hopefully will reconsider the deal.
Moreover, the candlelight vigils also affected the credibility of the cabinet members of President Lee Myung-bak, where all of the ministers resigned from their post and the president has appointment their replacements. The president's popularity rating has plummeted since his first 100 days in office due credibility issues surrounding ministerial appointees.
The candlelight vigil will go on as long as the government will only serve the its own political and economic interests and the interests of the powers that it serves. In the context of globalization, more and more people will be disadvantaged due to the widening economic gap among people with varying economic capacities and the global economic recession.
Burn, burn burn! Oh candlelights of Seoul.
The first candlelight vigil started on May 2 by students airing their concerns on the safety of U.S. beef and it became a continuing protest action even to this day, June the 24th. The main motive of the candlelight vigils was to call for the renegotiation of the beef import deal, but various groups joined the nightly vigils and rallies which started to criticize other policies of President Lee Myung-bak such as privatization of public firms, the inland canal project and many others.
From a small group of students the nightly vigils swelled to hundreds of thousands especially on the night of June 10 that commemorated the historic democracy movement massive protest actions. The big swell in number of protesters on June 10 estimated at 500,000 included church people from the member churches of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK). In a night long vigil pastors and lay leaders from the Protestant churches gave speeches on various social issues that affect the life of society such as the privatization of the national health insurance and other social services. Church leaders who came to the gathering remembered the dark days of military dictatorship. They challenged church people to continue to raise its prophetic witness in the present time now that there is a resurgence of conservative right.
People from all walks of life from students to workers and former activists who fought for democracy 21 years ago joined the rallies, demanding the government to renegotiate the beef deal with the United States made under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. Because of this the clarion call for renegotiation the government sent emissaries to the US in an attempt to renegotiate the trade deal on beef importation. The South Korean government will urge the US trade negotiator that only beef from cows less than 30 months old can be imported to the country. Health experts believe that mad cow disease which affected the cattle in the US few years ago may be transmitted to humans through beef from cows older than 30 months.The US negotiator hopefully will reconsider the deal.
Moreover, the candlelight vigils also affected the credibility of the cabinet members of President Lee Myung-bak, where all of the ministers resigned from their post and the president has appointment their replacements. The president's popularity rating has plummeted since his first 100 days in office due credibility issues surrounding ministerial appointees.
The candlelight vigil will go on as long as the government will only serve the its own political and economic interests and the interests of the powers that it serves. In the context of globalization, more and more people will be disadvantaged due to the widening economic gap among people with varying economic capacities and the global economic recession.
Burn, burn burn! Oh candlelights of Seoul.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Beef and mad cow disease
Today June 10 is the anniversary of the pro-democracy demonstration in Seoul, South Korea. It was a huge mobilization of South Koreans that challenged the military dictatorship of Chun Do-Hwan. For the last tow weeks hundreds of thousands of people have been staging protests actions against the importation of U.S. beef to Korea. This has been the bone of contention of political wranglings in the parliament and on the streets. For the last few years the U.S. and South Korea governments have negotiated under the Free Trade Agreement to increase importation of beef.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Living good enough! Tribute to Bae Gwang-Jin
It seems like fleeting moments. The last time I saw him physically present on his desk was Thursday afternoon, the 27th of March. Few days earlier he was busy phoning people in Myanmar checking whether the flight to Mandalay was booked and the car to be used to travel to Tahan was arranged. And on that Thursday afternoon before leaving the office for my English class, I checked his departure date and he said he and his two companion will leave on Monday the 31st of March and they will be Myanmar or Burma for a week. I bid him a safe travel and goodbye. That was the last time I saw him animated with friendly smile and gleaming eyes.
Last Friday, the 11th of April was his funeral service. My dear friend and colleague Bae Gwang Jin has joined his Creator. He died in Burma few days ago. Just like all his colleagues, friends and most especially his only daugther and family members were shocked at his demise at 41 years old. Four years ago, he came to our welcome party in Kang Nam Church in the Southwest part of Seoul and two years after when I joined the staff in the PROK General Assembly, he is one of those I closely work with. As a member of staff, he invited me for two consecutive years to give a talk on doing Christian mission in the East Asian context. The world Christian Academy of the PROK is the annual program he coordinates.
As ecumenical workers in Korea for four years, me and Gloria are indeed grateful for the friendship of Bae Gwang-Jin. When we moved in to our new house in Mapo-gu, he took time to facilitate some of the basic amenities in the house, such as the internet and telephone connections. He accompanied me to a second hand furniture shop to buy refrigerator and sofa. He is such a generous person, that somehow we feel orphaned by his departure to eternal life.
I can't help myself recalling the last few months when we interacted in the office, we are seated across each other with the glass divider separating our desks. Mary Collins sits on the desk to his right and diagonal to me. One lighter moments I recalled Gwang-jin was responding to Mary's queries, he said, "I've live long enough at 41." I'm not very keen on premonition, but with the events that followed I'd guess that what he said was a kind of anticipation. Well, we normally say to ourselves, you can die anytime, anywhere. We have to accept the fact that all of us will die. However the time between now and the time of death is very crucial to all people, especially to adult persons who have established matured relationships.
I believe in what Gwang-jin said that he lived long enough at 41. More so I'm convinced that he lived good enough as a person of faith. I might be in the stage of denial that he is no longer here with us, but there is that kind of confidence in my heart and in my mind that he is alive somewhere. Thanks a lot dear friend for living good enough!
Last Friday, the 11th of April was his funeral service. My dear friend and colleague Bae Gwang Jin has joined his Creator. He died in Burma few days ago. Just like all his colleagues, friends and most especially his only daugther and family members were shocked at his demise at 41 years old. Four years ago, he came to our welcome party in Kang Nam Church in the Southwest part of Seoul and two years after when I joined the staff in the PROK General Assembly, he is one of those I closely work with. As a member of staff, he invited me for two consecutive years to give a talk on doing Christian mission in the East Asian context. The world Christian Academy of the PROK is the annual program he coordinates.
As ecumenical workers in Korea for four years, me and Gloria are indeed grateful for the friendship of Bae Gwang-Jin. When we moved in to our new house in Mapo-gu, he took time to facilitate some of the basic amenities in the house, such as the internet and telephone connections. He accompanied me to a second hand furniture shop to buy refrigerator and sofa. He is such a generous person, that somehow we feel orphaned by his departure to eternal life.
I can't help myself recalling the last few months when we interacted in the office, we are seated across each other with the glass divider separating our desks. Mary Collins sits on the desk to his right and diagonal to me. One lighter moments I recalled Gwang-jin was responding to Mary's queries, he said, "I've live long enough at 41." I'm not very keen on premonition, but with the events that followed I'd guess that what he said was a kind of anticipation. Well, we normally say to ourselves, you can die anytime, anywhere. We have to accept the fact that all of us will die. However the time between now and the time of death is very crucial to all people, especially to adult persons who have established matured relationships.
I believe in what Gwang-jin said that he lived long enough at 41. More so I'm convinced that he lived good enough as a person of faith. I might be in the stage of denial that he is no longer here with us, but there is that kind of confidence in my heart and in my mind that he is alive somewhere. Thanks a lot dear friend for living good enough!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
2008 A New Year Full of Promise
The new year 2008 for the skeptics can be just like any year in one's life time. I dare to disagree because I know that every day there are new things that can happen to any person. As a person of faith, I know that this new year has a lot to offer and I have to make the best out of this short life-span.
I'm quite inspired by what the prophet Isaiah said during the recovery years in Israel after captivity in Babylon:
"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up;
do you not perceive it?
I am doing a new way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland..."
(Isaiah 43: 18-19)
The prophet is not suggesting a voluntary historical amnesia. He admonished his people to forget about the past which they can no longer undo. Instead they should focus on the future that is full of promise and hope. The dawning of another year is an opportunity for us to learn from the past and give ourselves a chance to purge ourselves of unbecoming behavior. Also we have to think of better ways to be of service to those in need.
It is important to make a mental review of the past year and weigh the positive aspects of life against the negative ones. This will help us see who we are as human beings in relationships. Oftentimes the negative things we have done predominates in our minds and forgetting the good and the best things that we have done and have been doing. Don't get paranoid with the things you consider unworthy. Nobody is perfect.
"A new way in the desert," is a metaphor of the great possibilities not just for this new year but in life as a whole. I hadn't imagine myself and my wife working abroad, living in a strange land and at the same time guiding and helping migrant workers in their problems and needs. A new way out of the difficult economic situation for migrant workers emerged. But leaving one's home and country is not at all easy. Working in foreign land is not easy. There is always contempt and discrimination of those who does not belong there. Working abroad is a new way in the desert. The desert however is everywhere. The desert like social situation in one's own country pushes people to move out and find a better way to live as human beings. The desert will remain a desert unless human and divine intervention is made. Human society has to create a new way in the desert of deprivation and oppression. Transforming deserts to oasis --an arable land that produces food and provides sustainance to its inhabitants.
I have great hopes for the 2008 not because it is a new year, but rather in God's grace I can be of service to others and use my life, skills and abilities to the utmost so that our world will be better with me and with you around.
Welcome the New Year as you would be welcomed in a friendly home.
I'm quite inspired by what the prophet Isaiah said during the recovery years in Israel after captivity in Babylon:
"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up;
do you not perceive it?
I am doing a new way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland..."
(Isaiah 43: 18-19)
The prophet is not suggesting a voluntary historical amnesia. He admonished his people to forget about the past which they can no longer undo. Instead they should focus on the future that is full of promise and hope. The dawning of another year is an opportunity for us to learn from the past and give ourselves a chance to purge ourselves of unbecoming behavior. Also we have to think of better ways to be of service to those in need.
It is important to make a mental review of the past year and weigh the positive aspects of life against the negative ones. This will help us see who we are as human beings in relationships. Oftentimes the negative things we have done predominates in our minds and forgetting the good and the best things that we have done and have been doing. Don't get paranoid with the things you consider unworthy. Nobody is perfect.
"A new way in the desert," is a metaphor of the great possibilities not just for this new year but in life as a whole. I hadn't imagine myself and my wife working abroad, living in a strange land and at the same time guiding and helping migrant workers in their problems and needs. A new way out of the difficult economic situation for migrant workers emerged. But leaving one's home and country is not at all easy. Working in foreign land is not easy. There is always contempt and discrimination of those who does not belong there. Working abroad is a new way in the desert. The desert however is everywhere. The desert like social situation in one's own country pushes people to move out and find a better way to live as human beings. The desert will remain a desert unless human and divine intervention is made. Human society has to create a new way in the desert of deprivation and oppression. Transforming deserts to oasis --an arable land that produces food and provides sustainance to its inhabitants.
I have great hopes for the 2008 not because it is a new year, but rather in God's grace I can be of service to others and use my life, skills and abilities to the utmost so that our world will be better with me and with you around.
Welcome the New Year as you would be welcomed in a friendly home.
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