I read your article about the government ban on Filipino laborers. I feel something should be done by the Taiwan government to help these workers. I believe the main reason so many (2.47 percent, wow!) run away is because they are so badly treated.
This is a typical scenario: The Filipino worker must borrow money from relatives to pay for an agency here to handle their paperwork to come to Taiwan. They usually make NT$15,000 per month. Out of that they must pay for insurance and other fees that amount to NT$5,000 per month, leaving them with about NT$10,000.
But they must work six to seven months to repay the money it cost to come here in the first place. So now they are making NT$4,000 to NT$5,000NT per month. Since most have to work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, they are earning about NT$7 per hour! Even the poor workers at MacDonald's make about 10 times that.
There was a recent stink about child laborers in China, but Taiwan has some of its own "Hello Kitties." I wish to tell you that most of the workers are willing to put up with the low wages, but when they are ill treated as well, they are forced into acts of desperation.
A Filipino lady who lives just a block away from us cannot come to visit for an hour and a half on Sunday. Her employers, a doctor and his dentist wife, gave her NT$100 as a New Year gift (instead of the one month's salary that Chinese expect from their employers). It is not enough to enable her even to buy an overseas phone card! That is a slap in the face! They disconnect the phone when they leave the house so that the lady cannot make calls home to the Philippines, even though she pays for all her calls. If someone comes to the house to see her, they pretend that she is not there. To make matters worse, she has had to leave her family with two small children to try to boost her family's finances.
You would be surprised how many workers are married and living here in Taiwan away from their husbands and children, stuck with a contract for two years that the employers do not honor in full (like the break time to which the workers are contractually entitled, though they are never allowed to leave the premise). This is a very widespread problem and it is very unjust.
There is no department here in Taiwan that will help the workers to seek redress. The government basically tells the workers: "If you don't like it, you can leave."
Let me address this issue with two verses from the Bible: Proverbs 12:10 -- A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Malachi 3:5 -- And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
Rodger LeNoue
Taipei
Soong shows his true colors
When commenting on movements in the KMT's registered membership, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) blamed former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) for not supporting the KMT's candidate in the fiasco of the March election defeat and encouraged those who reregistered to vote for the PFP anyway in future elections.
Obviously, the hypocritical comment exposed the true color of the shrewd Soong, who outfoxed the KMT, made a good run in the campaign and might have stolen a win from A-bian (阿扁) if it had not been for his personal problems over KMT funds and Nobel laureate, Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲).
Soong would make a good leader for the Taiwanese people and a good competitor with Chinese leaders. His naming of his party the 'People First Party' shows how much he appreciates that government should work for the people and its power comes from the people.
Ironically, the name is reminiscent of the name 'Peoples Republic of China,' a coincidence implying that a government may not in fact always work for the people. Unfortunately Soong is himself disingenuous for he is himself a part of Taiwan's "black gold" politics.
Still, one should give Soong credit for winning 36 percent of the popular vote. With less organization and financial support than his rivals, Soong proved he is a very good campaigner and strategist. His PFP will be always a factor in Taiwan's politics.
John Yang
USA
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