Of Usefulness

#249: And The Hefty Cost of Uselessness

Oh the joy of hearing the vacuum going... without actually touching it.

We have a cleaner who comes in fortnightly to quickly do a two-hour bit on our place. We don't live in a huge space so the idea of having a third person come in to "help" us out with our chores can be quite uncomfortable for some. What my husband values in privacy, I value in efficiency. Surely, we're flushing some money down the drain. I just can't be bothered to calculate it now.

As a Filipina who has had help around the house all her life, I feel that I need to go through a weaning phase. I think I am entitled to it. You can't undo 28 years of your life in one moment. (Or maybe you could - as the recent Financial Crisis had proven). I digress. Sometimes, when our place is messy (thanks to me), I call out, "Carmen" and imagine her stepping out of one of the cupboards to help me out. Andrew shakes his head. I give him a happy nod.

I've been comparing notes with some of my Filipino friends who will be coming home this Christmas and the things we look forward to are eerily similar - being treated like princes and princesses in our homes and being fed like we're on death row. Note the passive nature of these concepts. It gives a sense of being purely useless, yet at the receiving end of beautiful benefits. (Makes you wonder how many corporations embrace this thinking in filling upper management positions.) Scarier still is pondering on the proportion of the Philippine population living with this mentality.

Ah, entitlement. The poisonous delusion that we deserve the fruits of someone else's labour. Bill and Melinda Gates had announced that most of their $85 billion wealth will be donated to charity - never to be seen by their 3 children. That would be a crime in the Philippines. Inherited wealth is the foundation of our political and commercial dynasties. Perish the thought of letting our children create value from their hands and sweat. The rich do not need to have their precious fingers come into contact with work. The poor have come to accept that value through usefulness is beyond the reach of their hands. And so in glorious uselessness, they wait for it outside the gates of Eat Bulaga, Wowowee or Western Union.

Life in an economically progressive society has its own set of injustices and inequities. However, it seems that it is not so deep as the injustice experienced by a Filipino housemaid who does everything from washing your clothes to cleaning your house & cooking your food for a measly $100/month, while her Western counterpart earns that in just 3 hours of half-hearted vacuuming.

There you go. I've just calculated the cost of my shameful sense of entitlement.