Great news, right? Except they’re not for Lebanese:
Thousands of jobs in Lebanon are already awaiting Filipino professional workers.
The leader of a Philippine-Lebanese group said their country is now in need of Filipino workers to fill up vacancies on hotel, construction and other sectors.
Are we really in need? Do we not have enough skilled workers? The speed at which the financial crisis “engulfed the Arabian Gulf” really surprised me but this revelation that we have jobs that are being left empty due to a lack of people to fill in these positions has seriously knocked me off my chair.
Kader Al Jadid, Filipino-Lebanese Friendship Community president, called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to allow the deployment of other types of Filipino workers to Lebanon.
“Thousands of waiters, carpenters, technicians and other highly skilled workers are needed in Lebanon with the projected surge of foreign tourists there,” Al Jadid said.
Excuse me? If I wanted to be served dinner by a Filipino, I’d live in Dubai (which is where I currently live). I’ve read in a local paper here how a Lebanese who used to work at a bank in Abu Dhabi was laid off and is now serving food at a Beirut restaurant. Do we honestly need foreign workers? I think we are “highly skilled” enough to work as waiters, carpenters and technicians.
But all is not lost. The Filipino labor flood may not be so imminent:
…Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said the Philippine government will not resume the deployment of workers to Lebanon until the Lebanese government complies with the new hiring policy.
…
Among these conditions, Roque said, is that Filipino household workers in Lebanon should receive a minimum monthly salary of US$400.
That’s more than minimum wage in Lebanon! I’d love to see the government pass that proposal. So it appears these workers who have come to ‘rescue our job surplus economy’ have priced themselves out of the market.
To my fellow Lebanese, your jobs are saved.
(Though you may need to get in touch with the Filipino-Lebanese Friendship Community, as they seem to know where all the jobs are.)
Update – March 29, 2009: Manila to lift ban on domestic workers to Lebanon
Someone needs to shut this guy up and take a few buses up to Bekaa, the South, and the North, and show him the hundreds of thousands of young people willing to work in any kind of job for any compensation.
Sir, would you like some prence pries wid your K-Epp-C order?
@ Purple Monkey: i don’t think the way a person from another culture/ethnicity pronounces a certain word is the basis for getting himself a job. if a filipino does not speak english well, is because english is not our first language. we learn english by going to school. do you even know that filipinos are one of the best english speaking people in asia? you come visit philippines and talk to the street children and the beggars. they may not answer you in straight english but they can still give you a sensible answer.
you come here and try speaking in filipino language..we’ll see what your reaction be if people start to laugh and make fun of you. that’s so insensitive of you!
@Tarek: filipinos go abroad and work as domestic helpers not because it’s the only job they know. most of those domestic helpers are professionals who left the country because the salary they are receiving are not enough to support their family. and since the professions they were in are not available abroad, they end up working as domestic helpers. and i don’t think being a domestic helper make them lesser people. just imagine, they left their husbands and children to take care of other families other than their own. while people from foreign countries are too busy to take care of their children and their home, filipino domestic helpers take their place. and sometimes, these domestic helpers do not come home to the philippines well and alive because they were abused by their foreign employers.
i just hope people will try to be more sensitive and have heart towards other people. maybe you all have good and stable jobs that’s why you can speak like that to us. we can all say something about other cultures — good or bad. but i just hope that before we cast the first stone, we first evaluate ourselves. if i will be born again, i will still choose to become a filipino. if i don’t get a job and the only way for me to feed my family is to become a domestic helper, i will choose to be one.
hehe… Yeah I dont think Filipinos with all due respect will be working anything other than house maids… Carpenters? Constructions workers? We’ve got much cheaper alternatives that can go home for $6 instead of $600 ticket…
i totally agree, these jobs should be open for the lebanese. and i’m sure if you give them decent wages the’ll work anything. the whole idea that some lebanese will not work these jobs because they are ashamed is ridiculous. you pay them enough, the’ll do anything.
Filipino workers can work anywhere..they are recognized worldwide as hardworking and efficient.
I’m sure they can. But the question is why does Lebanon need to import workers? What would be the reaction in the Philippines if the government got Lebanese workers to take over jobs in the tourism or service sector?
I don’t think the Philippines needs foreign workers and neither does Lebanon.