 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| ||
|
← "Wars online" |
Return to Main Page
| "007" →
August 02, 2004
You are on the invidual archive page of Searching for signs. Click Simon World weblog for the main page.
|
|
Searching for signs
We are currently looking for a new domestic helper. We have found one we are happy with in terms of experience and personality and wanted her to come in for a trial run. So yesterday Mrs M delegated to me the task of ringing her to give her the news. Let's call her R. She was unsure if she was interested in working with us as her experience is only with Chinese families. After we had intereviewed her we told her to think about it, as would we, and we would get back to her. The conversation went something like this: Me: "Hi, we've been talking about it and have decided that you are a very good candidate for the job." If Hong Kong is overtaken by a plague of locusts or the rivers turn to blood in the next few days, I'm sorry. Mrs M and I have asked R to come in for a day anyway to help her make her decision. We're tempted to help her search for signs. The bathroom mirror reading "TAKE THE JOB" might do it. I was tempted to ask her when does she think God might be getting back to her, but blasmephy never goes down well. It leads me to another question. After interviewing many Filipinas over the past few weeks it seems that most of them here in HK are not Catholic, as I would suppose, but rather born-again Christians belonging to a plethora of evangelical churches. I don't know if this pattern is the same in the Philippines but clearly here in HK the Catholic Church is struggling against the evangelicals. It seems a key requirement of these newer churches is for members to wear brightly coloured t-shirts to interviews to prove they are good, faithful folk rather than the hedonistic type. Clearly fashion isn't always heavenly. posted by Simon on 08.02.04 at 11:36 AM in the
Trackbacks:
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blog.mu.nu/cgi/trackback.cgi/39367 Send a manual trackback ping to this post. sgylvma Excerpt: eiutakri Weblog: pguodouuuti Tracked: January 5, 2005 05:37 PM
Comments:
I once went with my maid to her church on Sunday. No idea what to expect but it turned out she was part of the Christ is Lord, United Filipina Church or something like that. At one point in the ceremony, one of her friends noted my bemused look at all the shouting and evangelical trappings of the service. She said it probably wasn't what I was used from a Catholic or European point of view. She joked that this style of worship going down better with the Filipinas because it would be close to impossible to keep Filipinas quiet for more than fifteen minutes. I suspect however, that most Western interpretations of Christianity have a strong bias to the concept of humanity having sinned and our own unworthy souls need to be redeemed or some such dogma. I guess the working conditions for many Filipinas is enough hardship in life without the burden of religion adding to that. Hence the need to celebrate something more joyous and happy comes through and why the evangelical style is more popular amongst Filipina workers in Hong Kong. posted by: Eshin on 08.02.04 at 12:42 PM [permalink]"The only really respectable Protestants are the Fundamentalists. Unfortunately, they are also palpable idiots." H.L. Mencken LOL, very funny. Gosh, more memories flooding back. From what I remember from living in Manila, there was a real struggle as both, the Catholic Church and schools, were losing people in droves. The church was agressively pursuing people, and my arrival netted me 3 visits from various priests inviting me to their services. I think it was the fact that I might have been flusher with cash, than a more spiritual motivation. posted by: Michele on 08.03.04 at 01:22 PM [permalink] |
|