I have often marveled at friends the scenes in Central Hong Kong on Sundays. The thousands and thousands of aiyee's (amah's as they are called in HK) sitting around the sidewalks and streets chatting and carrying on with each other. It is a cultural event that you truly have to see and hear to believe.
That said...domestic help in HK is treated like garbage in some households. Simon has a great post about some of this abuse...and worse...the reaction of the government to these claims of abuse.
You would think the Labour Department's job is to intervene in cases like this to protect employees. You'd be wrong. Is it because of the undercurrent of racism in this city, where helpers are often considered slaves and sub-human? Is it because this city is based on protecting the big over the little in commerce? Is it because a poor city rapidly became a rich one? Is it simply incompetence from Hong Kong's "underpaid" civil servants?
Indeed. Our aiyee's are local...it makes no sense to hire in from Indonesia or Philippines for this job here. They are both local. If they didn't like working with us...they would just not show up. Our biggest fear is finding someone that is reliable and honest enough, that they won't rip us off. We only ask for 8 hours a day...and one of them insists on working Saturdays for us (the other is our old aiyee from when we lived here before and she insists on working for us on Sundays...because she loves the kids so much).
I hear the stories from Hong Kong and am I stunned that the people that abuse their aiyees in such a way are human beings. These ladies work extremely hard for what they earn...the deserve a little respect.
Hug your aiyee (amah) today.
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