Hong Kong has a major space issue. It is majorly expensive. Families in this city pay sky-high rents for little square footage. Add this to the immigration laws of HK which read that if you hire a foreign domestic worker to assist in your household duties, that worker must live in your home. So not a lot of space plus additional body in your home equals 1: human rights issues as close quarters make it easy to abuse the migrant worker either physically, sexually, emotionally, etc. and 2: the migrant workers has no private space as it has been cited that these workers share bedrooms with members of the family, sleep in the den, on the kitchen floor, or in cabinets…I’m not kidding – the issue of space is real.
This video clip shows Hong Kong’s city scene- the areas of Chater Garden (Central Stop, exit J) is completely empty Mondays through Saturdays, with only commuters and tourists passing through. But on any given Sunday that all changes as the Foreign domestic workers use their one day off per week to enjoy their private lives and space. Where do they create their private space, you ask? In the public spaces of Hong Kong.
Who cares about such issues, you ask. Businesses, for one. they see the migrant workers hanging out in front of their businesses as a deterrent for customers who want to go in and shop.
Hong Kong cares. Well, if you consider how it wants its image portrayed. Thousands of foreign domestic workers sitting on the street eating lunch and painting toenails isn’t exactly the perfect picture of progress, now is it?
And of course- the domestic workers care. Why should they hide, when they are quite obviously trapped indoors, swept out of sight of the public eye for the rest of the week? why should they get shafted and be forced to hang out…in underground parking garages…?!@#%^&% YES – that was ACTUALLY a recommendation of how to handle the “space issue” with FDws.
This is the twist. If Hong Kong raised the income level necessary to hire a domestic worker so that the workers would only be employed by people who could afford more space so the issue of private space didnt exist – guess what…there would be a heck of a lot less domestic workers. If HK actually made the workers collect in underground areas…how many human rights violations would they be infringing on? If families decided to simply not give their workers one day off per week so that they wouldnt have those Sundays free to hang in Chater Garden or other public areas of HK– how many Human Rights issues would THAT infringe on???
So there is no other answer, my friends. As long as there are migrant workers in HK, they will be there to crowd your spaces on Sunday.
And thank God. Because those people who sit there “in your way” are some of my good friends. And if you’re too blind to realize how warm and open they are and conclude that they have no business taking up public space like that…
then stay home on sundays.
what’s that saying? if you cant take the heat – then stay out of the kitchen.
peace.
