Human Rights for Tomorrow

The Persistence of Discrimination

Discrimination isn’t always obvious, and it’s often explained away as something else. Racial discrimination becomes a matter of ‘unsuitability’, social discrimination becomes a lack of proper ‘skills’, discrimination against people with disabilities becomes an attempt to redefine what’s ‘normal’. There are even situations in which the very possibility of discrimination is rejected because ‘that sort of thing doesn’t happen here’. That’s hardly a logical position, but there’s no real defence against it.

What can you say to someone whose mindset fails to accept the presence of discrimination at all? To give an example mentioned here previously, how do we react to the Hong Kong government’s refusal to even address, in law, acts of racial discrimination outside the workplace? Long-standing claims by the Chief Executive that his government’s policies are “people-based” clearly depend on what sort of person you are – your skin colour, your wealth, whether or not you’re prepared to be critical.

But Hong Kong is just a dot on the map when it comes to the many forms of discrimination, both covert and overt, that deny human rights around the globe. A world that has nourished discrimination based on race, class, sex, perceived ability and any other deviation from a shifting sense of ‘normality’ will always throw up barriers to change, to the natural right to be treated as a fellow human, without fear or favour. Still, even as the struggle for human rights continues there is one area in which discrimination could well be stamped on before it properly takes hold – genetics.

Rallies Send Important Message

Call for Respect, Promise of Scrutiny over Vicenta Flores’ Death

Following my last post on the importance of familiar strangers, which covered the same situation from a wider angle, I am cross-posting this coverage of yesterday’s rallies demanding justice for Vicenta Flores. The original is available on A Death in Hong Kong. Some of the details have been changed here to help readers who live overseas. If you hear of anything like this happening in your country, please publicise it however you can.

Two Rallies, One Message

Rallies held yesterday in Discovery Bay on Lantau island and Admiralty on nearby Hong Kong island combined to send a single message – that anything but a thorough investigation into the disappearance and death of Vicenta, Vicky, Flores will not be tolerated. The very good turnout in Discovery Bay showed the depth of community concern about the issue, and the Admiralty rally allowed us to join with those on Hong Kong side while presenting copies of our petition to the Philippine Consulate and Hong Kong police.

Discovery Bay, Lantau Island

The Discovery Bay rally filled the forecourt of the local International School, with speakers standing on a parked crane to address the crowd. In attendance were Vicenta’s sister Irene, her aunt and her godmother. Speakers included representatives from a Philippine highlander organisation, the Jesus is Lord church, a migrant group from Iloilo in the central Philippines and various migrant worker organisations. Vicenta’s aunt also spoke, and James Rice conducted the proceedings.

James, Discovery Bay resident and author of Take Your Rights Seriously, a legal rights handbook for migrant workers, spoke about the importance of justice, and how it encompassed concern and respect.

Familiar Strangers

One Woman, Two Crowds in Hong Kong

One of the things that quickly become apparent when attending a protest rally is that despite the age-old accusation of rent-a-crowds, most people really don’t know each other. Sure, they might know of each other, which is never terribly difficult when you come from a small community, but they’re not overly familiar, and names are often the first thing exchanged. In my last post I wrote that internal differences are the real strength of a community, but does this lack of familiarity in a protesting crowd zap that strength, wither any resolve? As it happens, quite the opposite is true.

Two rallies were held in Hong Kong today, one in my small community of Discovery Bay on Lantau island and the other in the Admiralty business district, both as a reaction to the less than transparent way the Hong Kong authorities have been investigating the disappearance and death of Vicenta Flores, a Filipino migrant worker. In a sense the attendance of strangers at both rallies – people who, by and large, knew of each other more than they really knew each other – mirrored the Hong Kong life of the woman we were remembering, the woman in whose memory we were demanding justice be done.

Many people in Discovery Bay knew of Vicenta, but not all that many people knew her. Likewise, or perhaps even more so, on Hong Kong side. Such are the work conditions of a domestic helper, with only one day off a week and a full schedule of chores to fill the day and at least part of the night. In these circumstances, friendships aren’t easy to form, and when they happen they’re often held back by the sheer workload. Vicenta had friends who will remember her dignity, her happiness and her compassion. But to most people here, Vicenta was what Eric Paulos and Elizabeth Goodman have called “a familiar stranger”.

Community and Change

Why Difference isn’t Difficult

Community is a difficult concept, meaning so much to so many people, changing with the times, shifting to suit events. There are constants, of course – a core around which notions of home and happiness revolve. But as recent events in my community have made very obvious, it may not be the things we’re most familiar with that bind us together.

What is a community? Is it about place, or people, or what people are doing both separately and together? Here in Hong Kong’s relatively secluded Discovery Bay we’re talking abut the community a great deal lately, about what we can do in response to Vicenta Flores’ disappearance and death. But the great difficulty is defining who ‘we’ really are. How do ‘we’ react, what do ‘we’ think, what can ‘we’ do? These are questions so very difficult to answer.

A community most obviously has a place, a locus – both a physical location and a focus. That’s the point at which we tie ourselves and our families to the earth and say ‘this is our home’. For many people that shifts and changes over time, and even at any one time we can be part of more than one community. People who live near me all belong to at least two communities in that sense – Discovery Bay and Hong Kong, the neighbourhood and the city.

But, of course, some people identify more with the neighbourhood than the city right now, so location is complimented by allegiance. It’s not just a matter of where we live – where we belong – but also of where we feel we belong. For someone to feel a sense of community they must feel welcome.

They must also feel welcomed, invited to be part of something bigger than themselves, something that just can’t be defined as, to give the example of Discovery Bay again, 16,000 people hemmed in by a mountain and the sea. Invitations are a form of communication, a way of saying ‘you are one of us’. And what’s interesting about Discovery Bay is the majority language is not the common language, the invitation for many is issued in a tongue not of their own.

Muddled Words Aren’t Enough

How Newsworthy is a Filipino Death?

As the days pass it’s becoming increasingly difficult to accept the lack of accurate media coverage surrounding the mysterious death of Vicenta Flores here in Hong Kong. The South China Morning Post is still the only news outlet covering the story, today producing an article that suggests police are developing a sense of how Vicenta disappeared. I hope that’s true. But it’s difficult to judge the whether the article is reliable, given that only last week the SCMP reported the case already closed.

An important question to ask is whether all of the informants tapped by reporter Mary Ann Benitez actually know what is happening in the case, and whether she SCMP sub-editors understands exactly what they those sources are saying. In this morning’s article, Benitez first cites un-named “sources” as saying that Vicenta attempted to catch a bus in the Tung Chung district, on the opposite side of Lantau island from where she lived, just an hour before she died. The woman was refused entry for lack of a fare. Benitez then writes that “police said” Vicenta was seen in Tung Chung, and was seen in a bus near the Tung Chung Development Pier.

Eye witness accounts can be confusing, but is this one sighting, two sightings or three sightings?

[Mary Ann Benitez has clarified this point - there was only one sighting and one bus, but multiple sources.]

A Time to Mourn, A Time to Reflect

Sadness and Resolution in Hong Kong

The main body of this post is a modified version of an update published earlier today on A Death in Hong Kong. Anyone reading Greetings Earthlings! who would like to know more about the Discovery Bay community’s response to Vicenta Flores’ death can go there – it’s currently being updated twice a day. I’ve added further personal commentary here.

Memorial Service for Vicenta Flores

Vicenta Flores’ memorial service was held last night, 21 April, at the Discovery Bay International School on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. Led by Father Henry Cabral of the Discovery Bay Catholic church and Sister Aida of the Catholic Centre in Hong Kong’s Central district, the service reflected on Vicenta’s life and the many difficulties faced by Filipino migrant workers in Hong Kong.

Vicenta’s sister Irene spoke briefly in Tagalog, offering her thanks to those in attendance. She also asked anyone with any information about her sister’s disappearance and death to come forward. Her grief was obvious, and she soon broke down crying for the first time since she arrived in Hong Kong.

Here’s a brief video clip from the beginning of the service, as people were still coming in. The crowd eventually spilled out the hall doors.

Error

This video doesn’t exist

error

The South China Morning Post reported on the service this morning, and included Father Henry’s comments on the degrading and dehumanising way domestic helpers are often treated here in Hong Kong. He also expressed his reluctance in saying that, but the necessity that it should be said.

Just One, or More?

Other Unexplained Filipino Deaths in Hong Kong

Not every death is a tragedy alone. Sometimes the passing of one person draws attention to those of others, and the unanswered questions pile on top of each other. One of the most troubling aspects about Vicenta Flores’ death in Hong Kong recently is that she was not the only Filipino domestic helper to die in April. She was the third – another two women, reported as suicides, died on the day Vicky went missing.

Three deaths and so little fuss.

How does this happen with relative ease? Allow me to suggest a reason deeply embedded in the structure of Hong Kong life. The relationship between domestic helpers, mainly Filipinos and Indonesians, and their employers in Hong Kong rests on the sharp edge of suspicion. While this by no means covers all employers, there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence from helpers pointing to constant surveillance, allegations of theft and general disregard for the conditions of labour contracts.

My sister-in-law is expected to work past midnight when she starts at five in the morning, to give one example that I can verify. A family friend was recently accused of stealing her employer’s jewellery and dismissed not long after without any investigation from the Immigration Department, to give another. Dismissal without reasonable cause, incidentally, is a breach of the labour contract – but it seems that any excuse will do.

This situation, added to the almost incidental ethnic segregation I mentioned a while back and obvious differences in social standing, make for constant malcontent. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that some Filipinos are furious about the three deaths. Writing on his blog yesterday, activist Aaron Ceradoy asked “When will these stop? How do we make them stop?” It’s a cry of desperation, a prayer into thin air.

Filipino migrant worker groups are now asking the same questions, and will be holding a rally on Sunday to express their indignation. The presumption is that the greater part of Hong Kong society just doesn’t care.

Remembering Vicky

Task Group and Blog Established

Following my post yesterday on the untimely death of Vicky Flores here in Hong Kong, I have a little more information to share. Discovery Bay residents and representatives of Filipino migrant groups met earlier today to talk about what we could to do encourage a proper investigation of the case, and to make sure that people hear about what’s going on. We’ve established a dedicated blog, A Death in Hong Kong, to cover our activities and to collect and collate information on how and why Vicky disappeared.

Here’s the first post in full.

Vicenta Flores, or Vicky as most people knew her, disappeared from Discovery Bay on Lantau island in Hong Kong on or around 7 April 2008. Her body was found in Tung Chung harbour on the far side of the island on 11 April. Since that time there has been little media coverage of the situation, conflicting reports from the police about how their investigation is being conducted and growing community concern that justice may not prevail.

Following a meeting on 19 April, members of the Discovery Bay community in association with Filipino migrant organisations established this blog to air our concerns about the circumstances surrounding Vicky’s death and the lack of transparency in ongoing investigations. We also plan to collect and collate any relevant information that should be considered in determining how and why Vicky went missing.

A Death in Hong Kong

The Troubling Fate of Vicenta Flores

A death is always a tragedy. Often it hits family and friends bitterly hard, and sometimes even whole societies. Then there are deaths that people want to avoid, that societies don’t really want to know about. Vicenta Flores died in Hong Kong just over a week ago, and according to the coroner’s office the case is closed. Or it might be, we’re not sure. The police have finalised investigations, or they haven’t – that’s uncertain too. The only thing definite is that we’re all supposed to forget about it.

But that’s not going to happen.

Big cities continually offer up their dead, from age, from illness, from misadventure. That’s the cycle of urban life, the wheel on which so many of us spin. In a sense death has become anonymous, but not in this case. Why? Because Vicenta Flores, Vicky to her friends, had lived for 12 years in Discovery Bay on Hong Kong’s Lantau island – a small community of 16,000 people hemmed in by the sea on one side and a mountain range on the other. It’s where I live. People know each other here, and many people knew Vicky.

Here’s a short video that my wife shot of a candle-lit vigil and walk held for Vicky last night. This is not a community that doesn’t mourn its own. But curiously enough, the South China Morning Post claimed in its print edition this morning that only 50 or 60 people attended. Count them as they walk past – I’m sure you’ll see more.

Error

This video doesn’t exist

error

So the shock of finding that Vicky Flores had died last week really has been palpable. And this isn’t an easily troubled community – it might appear laid back, and it is operated by a resort developer, but it’s home to corporate lawyers, bankers, flight crew and a full gamut of other harried professionals. Not the sort of people who jump at shadows.

Lost in Space

A Confusion of Concepts in Commentary on the Outer Space Treaty

Outer space is a huge concept. Its sheer scope eludes our Earth-bound brains, hinting at innumerable unknowns speckled across enormous distance. It is, in a sense, our one great uncertainty, surpassing metaphysical questions with an unfathomable physical presence. That’s why we have the Outer Space Treaty, signed under United Nations auspices in 1967 at the height of Cold War tensions.

The treaty offers a guide to how we can think about outer space and its possibilities, at least from an international relations perspective. But recent commentary on the treaty has become rather slippery, stumbling over notions that are marginally relevant to the final frontier.

Not the Usual Fare

On the Value of Exceeding Expectations

Expectations are what ground us in life. They give us instructions about the things we’re likely to value, or fear, to treat with indifference or just plain disregard. But they also lead us away from perspectives that require a little too much thought in peculiar directions. I mentioned this briefly when I wrote about cartoonist Scott Adams recently – he has always succeeded against other people’s expectations. But what about ideas? Are we too dismissive of ideas that don’t fit our expectations?

That’s what I had in mind when I set out to write a new batch of microreviews this week. The books highlighted in the sidebar aren’t the usual fare. They shift from the surprising delights of comics to the far more dubious social mechanics of drug-dealing gangs, all the while taunting, asking whether you, leisurely reader, will buy their big ideas. And whether I appreciate them or not, that’s a valuable asset in itself.

Probably the most disappointing book of the batch is Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader for a Day. An account of Venkatesh’s unusual approach to sociology forms most of one chapter in Seven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics. But where that version cuts to the bone and reveals society writ small in the economics of drug dealing, Venkatesh’s book wallows in a sort of tough but scared sociologist mode.

And there’s also a sort of repulsiveness about the subject that makes it at once fascinating and almost loathsome. Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution describes the effort as very interesting but “somewhat evil, if I may call upon that old-fashioned concept”. Interesting because it offers a unique view of how close gang dynamics are to more acceptable social norms, but evil because Venkatesh spent years encouraging and supporting the vicious gang leader JT. As a narrative the book fails, but as a surprising affront to middle-class values I truly hope it lingers on the best-seller lists.

Knowledge is Never Finished

The ‘Freeconomics’ of Spreading Ideas

How do ideas shift across society, through time? Brian Aldiss once wrote that we really have no firm understanding of how an intellectual elite passes on difficult concepts to the general public. Sure, education’s a part of it, as are what Antonio Gramsci called organic intellectuals – those who engage their communities, offer what they know and learn from the experience. Social networking and blogs have diminished geographical boundaries in that sense, but if we stay focused on the Internet there’s another vital aspect of the process that not everyone considers: commerce.

You might be thinking of e-learning services or pay-per-visit news sites, but I want to suggest a more traditional medium that’s making itself over. I’ve mentioned before that academic papers are easy to dredge up online, and they’re particularly helpful if you’re interested in what I recently called casual learning with a nod to Ivan Illich. Most of those papers are available on pages maintained by their authors, although some are orphaned on project sites long after the researcher has moved on. It’s not very often that you can drag out full journal issues free of charge, but it’s becoming a little more common.