Tuesday, October 07, 2008

How's this for missing the point? The Phillipine Embassy is denouncing the BBC for a sketch in a recent Harry and Paul show, depicting a middle-class householder trying to mate his neighbour's Filipina maid with his own pet Geordie. This one, in fact, just after the opening titles (embedding's been disabled, so you'll have to click through). Meanwhile, an outfit calling itself the Philippine Foundation is describing the sketch as "tantamount to racism and [the] worst sexual abuse and exploitation of the hapless young Filipina domestic worker employee". Er, no. Context is everything. Regular viewers of this rather good series (streets ahead of last year's Ruddy Hell, It's Harry and Paul) will know that the middle-class white bloke and his neighbour are the figures of ridicule in this sketch. The sort of people who can afford domestic staff and who regard them as mere livestock (I should point out for benefit of the clueless that not everyone who employs domestic staff is like this). If the mob in the Philippine Embassy and their mates in the Foundation took a deep breath before flying off the handle, they might realise that Enfield and Whitehouse are actually on their side.

3 comments:

  1. What a pity we no longer have the likes of Tessa Jowell popping up on "Today" to complain vehemently about the programme, before openly admitting that she never actually saw it. Ah, happy days.

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  2. Was she complaining about Happy Days? The episode where the Fonz jumped a shark while dressed as a school full of paedophiles? As someone whose legs are long, I'd like to complain about a single by Jack Warner. Are you going to write a blog posting about it? Just take it right off the top.

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  3. I would like to thank the BBC show Harry and Paul for inadvertently mirroring back to Philippine society its atrocious short-comings.

    To remind us we are a nation with over 12 million migrants in 193 countries and territories. To remind us that our piss-poor governments of the past three decades have been whoring its people to work as migrants with little rights abroad. To remind us that the billion dollar remittances they send home, the third largest in the world, are earned in quite literally blood, sweat and tears. To remind us that migrant labour deserve rights and protection. To remind us that the few entrenched elites in this country is determined to keep the many poor hopeless and without opportunities that they would brave working in Iraq at the height of the war. To remind us that very young Filipinas are trafficked out of the country by the tens of thousands.

    So, yes. Thank you Harry Enfield. Here's to more laughs.

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