But for some reason-Western feminists pay little or no attention to. Shocked, I tell you-absolutely shocked.
The case of the maids trying to win right of abode in Hong Kong is moving towards its next step:
A spectre is haunting Hong Kong. And it is not communism. It is the sight of undesirable women roaming the streets of this acclaimed world city. First were the Filipino maids. Then came pregnant women from the mainland. Both are making unwanted claims on the good life which Hongkongers seem to feel is their own and look determined to guard jealously.
The demands for residency status by foreign maids who toil day in and day out for this city's rich and middle class alike are held up in court and regulatory tussles. The attacks on pregnant mainland women have just begun. Full-page advertisements can be found in theApple Daily, calling the women "locusts" that must be driven out. The language deployed can only be called hysterical sectarian slurs. Such expressions are hardly acceptable in polite company, let alone when they are printed for Hong Kong's much-touted "civil society".
The government's appeal against the ruling in favor of Evangeline Banao Vallejos will be heard on February 21. The natives are worried:
The issue of granting foreign helpers abode ignited a public outcry over jobs and fears it would further strain the city's medical and public housing systems. A similar furor has erupted in recent weeks over the issue of mainland mothers giving birth in Hong Kong and the behaviour of visitors from the mainland.
Representatives of a maids' group told the forum about being verbally harassed by market vendors after High Court Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon, sitting in the Court of First Instance, ruled in favour of Vallejos in September.
"They yelled at us, saying we were coming to take away their jobs," said Mia, a Nepali helper.
Now if the court rules in favor of the maid and against the government ( which I doubt) that would be a real first. Not some artificial first for women who already have a distinct set of advantages in the system. And will American feminists even bother to notice? Not a chance.