Chip Tsao says sorry... who's next?

Earlier, the HK Magazine issued an apology for Chip Tsao

Chip Tsao and 'The War at Home'

When Chip Tsao's article went out last March 27, a war of words blasted as if a bomb was thrown in the Philippine archipelago. Senator Pia Cayetano, probably not because she is seeking reelection, joined calls to demand a public apology from a top Hong Kong publication and one of its columnists while the Palace is now thinking of possible options on how to deal with the issue.

Well, this is just expected. For intelligent people like them, Tsao's article is like rubbing a salt to a wound. But who's fault is it anyway? Tsao's? Or the people in the government headed by Gloria Arroyo who would rather encourage the Filipinos to go abroad and work as servants than generate employment and high-earning jobs in the country?

Dapat nga pasalamat pa sila at mahiya kay Tsao. What Tsao says is true and the truth will set us free... yun nga lang, me kasabihan: There is no such thing as free lunch. And the cost here is the bitterness of truth.

Below is Tsao's article for your brains to "chow".

The War At Home
March 27th, 2009

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.

A sitting President can be arrested

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has a new reason to be nervous -- sitting presidents are not immune from arrests for committing criminal offenses. This is the legal milestone set by the International Criminal Court (ICC) when it ordered the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in a concerted government campaign against civilians.

International Herald Tribune reports:

The criminal court judges took more than seven months to examine the evidence on Bashir before charging him with five counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape. The two counts of war crimes were for attacks against a civilian population and for pillaging.

In their statement, the judges said the court did not recognize immunity for a head of state and called for the cooperation of all countries - not just the 108 nations that are members of the court - to bring Bashir to justice.

Under the rules of the UN charter and Security Council, Sudan is legally obliged to arrest Bashir, the judges said - but that appears unlikely. The court has no police force or military of its own, and the 24,000 or so UN peacekeepers operating in Sudan have no mandate to detain war crimes suspects.

If this is the case, and human rights groups are able to substantiate the claims against Gloria Arroyo for human rights violations and for suppression of press freedom, then she might find her feet treading the path to jail.

Yun nga lang, medyo malabo na. First, elections are near, barely one year. Kung hindi siya ma-impeach, hindi na rin siya presidente in case ICC issues a warrant of arrest against her. Second, Lorelei Fajardo will surely fire verbal ammunitions against ICC calling the act the work of opposition and the issuance of the warrant of arrest politically motivated. (Un)Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales will also let loose his unbridled tongue to delay the proceedings while FG Mike Arroyo will gather another crowd in EDSA to be airlifted to The Hague to show protests.

Pero sabi, ang protests na gagawin ni FG ay pagtutol sa proceedings ng ICC regarding the criminal cases of his wife. Ang gusto niya daw kasi na talakayin ng ICC ay annulment case dahil wala na rin siyang pakinabang sa asawa niya kung mawawala na ito sa pagiging presidente. Isa pa, wala nga daw na nagawa si Gloria sa ZTE-broadband issue eh pumayag na nga siya na pumunta si Gloria sa Boao kahit pa nasa emergency room siya at may sakit.