A Hong Kong columnist who has been the target of Filipino fury since describing the country as a “nation of servants” said on Wednesday he was sorry if his satirical article caused offense.
Chip Tsao (曹捷)’s apology comes after Hong Kong’s Filipino community said it planned to hold a rally to protest his column, which appeared in a local magazine last week.
“The article was never intended to be insulting to the Filipino domestic workers,” he said.
“English, being a global language, is open to different interpretations by those who come from various cultural backgrounds,” Tsao said. “Has anyone been deeply upset, it was never my intention and I feel sorry.”
Tsao raised hackles by writing in HK Magazine that Manila’s claims to the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea were ridiculous in the face of Beijing’s rival territorial claims.
“As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter,” he wrote.
More than 100,000 Filipinos work in Hong Kong.
Tsao wrote in his column that he had warned his own maid that if she wanted a pay rise next year she should tell her compatriots the Spratlys belong to China.
Manila has since barred Tsao from entering the Philippines, despite the magazine issuing an apology, and local Filipinos have said they will hold a rally on Sunday.
“We are very, very angry at this article,” Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said before Tsao’s apology.
She said she expected thousands of marchers to turn out.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS