Friday, July 3, 2009

Discrimination Incident on Filipinos at Cotton On Singapore

Posted by SwitSexyThing at 8:03 PM
I was surfing some blogs when I came upon the blog of Jiki, an accomplished Filipino TV Producer now based in Hong Kong, as she narrates how she was discriminated in Cotton On Singapore by a Malay and Indian woman. Apparently, they were called "Stupid Filipinos!" before getting thrown out of the store. Here is the whole story as cut and pasted from Jiki's blog narrated in a complaint letter to the store's country manager.

1. I have been based in Hong Kong for a while doing TV production work and am currently in Singapore working on a project. While on a window-shopping date with my friend, Daphne, a banker holding a respectable position at Standard Chartered bank, we entered COTTON ON which was having an underwear sale. I was already queuing to pay when another item caught my eye, so I asked Daphne to hold my place while I checked it out. Behind me, an Indian lady, who seemed to be upper-class (and cranky) let out a sigh of impatience as I left the line to look at the piece.

2. I returned to my place at the line in front of the Indian customer while Daphne stayed on the line with me, which in good faith, I had not considered to be a problem.

3. Things remained normal, though, and when we finally reached the counter after about 5 minutes, the Malay girl behind the cashier nicely reminded me that Sale items could not be refunded. There were actually no reactions until a new counter opened up and Daphne was invited to pay for her purchases there. This must have really upset the Indian customer because this provoked her to prod the Malay girl with a long tirade obviously directed at my friend in strong words saying: "ASK THAT GIRL TO HURRY UP! FIRST SHE DOESN'T LINE UP AND JUST SQUEEZES IN WITH HER FRIEND. NOW SHE'S TAKING FOREVER TO MAKE A SIMPLE PURCHASE! SHE SHOULD HAVE CHECKED THE STUFF BEFORE PAYING!"

4. This has me in complete shock. Daphne asked me in Tagalog what the Indian girl said and when I told her, my friend proceeds to defend herself. What really upset and agitated me was when the Indian customer blurted out a painful remark that is derogatory to Filipino maids in particular and to Filipino women in general, to wit: "FILIPINOS! NO WONDER THEY'RE JUST MAIDS!"

5. While my friend is a banker she could not of course let this insult on Filipino maids pass. As a matter of principle -- whatever one's position in life -- this woman had no right to talk down on people. A heated exchange naturally ensued.

6. Things took an ugly turn, however, when the Malay girl at the counter, prompted by the Indian customer, snapped and told my friend to take it outside. My friend, who was by then fully worked up, proceeded to leave but angrily started tossing the underwear on display along the way.

7. Even as I stared dumbfounded, thinking that it could not get any worse, the Malay girl at the counter chased after my friend and screamed at us: "BLOODY STUPID FILIPINOS! GET OUT!

The story made me so angry! Too bad I can't comment on Jiki's blog because I don't have a Livejournal account. Where the hell did these people, who are also from Asia and is living in countries with almost the same financial situation as our country's (even worse! India is a wasteland! The culture there is sooo backward that they believe it is still okay to douse their wives with acid when they displease their husbands!) to call us stupid? They are so ignorant! I justw ant to whack them! They should have sued those b******!

Anyway, what more dissapointing is the way the country manager of the Cotton On Store responded. He failed to see how the gravity of the ssituation thinking that a few gift certificates and retraining the Malay staff will do the trick. What a shame. So I decided to repost this so that many will know what kind of management that store has. II urge the readers to do the same so many will know about this thing. I also urge the Filipino readers of this blog who live in Singapore to boycott the store. Stay away from it if you don't want to be discriminated. As of press gtime, I think Jiki already wrote to Today for media exposure. This kind of thing shouldn't be taken sitting down after all. We Filipinos have a dignity to maintain!

2 comments on "Discrimination Incident on Filipinos at Cotton On Singapore"

carlamaldita on July 3, 2009 at 10:47 PM said...

nakakataas ng blood pressure naman ito!kainis!
(sis PM kita maya ha...)

carla

SwitSexyThing on July 4, 2009 at 6:45 PM said...

oo. sis repost mo sa blog mo para maspread ang news. para mahumiliate yung mga ignoranteng indian and malay women na yun!

 

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