“When I and my family went to Hong Kong last 2007 to enjoy our summer vacation, it only made our summer worst like an acupuncturist pin you with thousand of needles one at a time, slowly but surely. It was a nightmare that until now I can't help but to regret everything I spent to that trip but one thing that really struck me most, it was the number of OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers in Central, Victoria Park.
You can't imagine, the whole park was populated by Filipinos who works as a nurse, domestic helper, drivers and many more. They went there to mingle with co-Filipinos and have their spare time relaxing and picnicking with friends. There are also stores that sold Filipino delicacies and products like our local junk food, canned goods and instant noodle. Even a foreigner or newly worked Filipinos can feel the presence of the spirit of his own culture in Victoria Park. When you are planning to go to Hong Kong don't forget to visit Victoria Park, I'm sure you'll enjoy the view and the chirping voices of everyone, and we're lucky enough that my cousin had a friend there working and she guide us to the park. It was the whole replica of the Philippines in a very small rectangular land of Hong Kong.
How many Filipinos do you think died every year because of maltreatment of their employers? Well, only 600 of OFWs died every year and they were played by their employer like a toy that they didn't even think of a single soul living to the body of the innocent worker. When I heard that my cousin was willing to go to Israel to work as a caregiver I was shocked and I want to force her to stop, fortunately she successfully went to Israel and worked like what she planned and met a Jew family that cared her. Not all of them really have the chance to meet nice people, but what really forced them to work outside the country?
When you tried to search the word OFW or google it, you will see 5,990,000 results are currently been searched by Google in .14 seconds. That must be so impossible for a librarian to look for but the numbers of results have two in common, it was the promised work and money you'll get abroad. How promising, it was like watching a TV commercial that repeats every 10 to 30 minutes that persuade the watchers to buy the product. Money and work, yes, we need them to live but if you are willing to work and gain money you don't need to go outside the country and become a slave. It's because people don't have contentment in life, they want more money they work outside, they want foreign goods they went outside, they want green bucks they went outside and so on. WTH, can we even stop thinking of other countries and tried to work our countries political showbizness?
The event in Jose Dalisay's book, Soledad's Sister, happened in the Philippines but the story mentioned a lot of places around the world like Hong Kong, San Francisco, Jeddah and many more were Filipinos migrated and worked to sustain the needs of their family back to their country.
The story evolves in the three main characters, two still alive and the other died to unknown incident, they have different stories to tell and each have different problem to be solve. Soledad Cabahug corpse delivered to NAIA International Airport to be received by her family, 26, lost and drowned. Before the incident she was dedicated to her work to be a nanny of a King's son to save money for her son and sister's future. Aurora Z. Cabahug or Rory a promising singer and worked as entertainer at Flame Tree, she lives with Sole's son in an expensive subdivision. When SPO2 Walter G. Zamora, a policeman who had been forgotten by his family and wife who worked outside the country, received a letter from NAIA and fall in love to Rory. They went to Manila and received the corpse of Soledad and in a minute the corpse was stolen by an unknown thief. What really happened to the corpse of Soledad? Will Rory find light and peace after the incident? Will Walter find his true love and his family in Marikina?
The characters of the book are unforgettable they are well developed but the writer. But the problem of reading this book is the changing perspective of every set of paragraphs and sometimes the whole chapter, nobody knows whom and nobody knows what really they discuss. The whole book not only relates to the life of OFW but also relates to the problems of the whole society. If I only have the chance to write a journal or an article to our school newspaper, no doubt I'll write articles related to the society's anxieties.
The story end up open to readers, there is no ending and it was like you are still in the beginning of everything. There are still questions that may ask like What really happened to Soledad before she died? I asked myself the question for a week and I understand why, because some OFWs died without any reason or cause because they were guarded by national guards. If I can still remember if you worked in a King's household, the national police are not allowed to investigate the cause of death but to stay the decaying body for three days. It must be so awful for the family of the victim not knowing the killer.
A friend of mine reviewed the book and mentioned lack of identity. It must be but not in the point of lacking her own personality identity but the personal identity that we search for the freedom of the victims. They are unknown, they become shadows and they become lost memories of everyone.
Rating - Soledad's Sister by José Y. Dalisay Jr., 4 Sweets and the tragic events of every OFWs who worked hard abroad and abused like animals. (It's been awhile that I write reviews and I really missed reading books again. Swear, a week of no reading was like living in an island alone. My most loved review. Complimentary copy from Anvil http://www.anvilpublishing.com/ and special thanks to Fanta and Gege of Flips Flipping Pages.)
Challenges:
Book #24 for 2011”
KwesiFriends wrote this review Friday, February 11, 2011.
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