Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

In some Asian societies, the idea of the foreign maid has become a social norm.  Even among the not so wealthy Hong Kongers, Singaporeans, and the Taiwanese, hiring domestic help from the Philippines, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian countries have become commonplace given the busy work schedules that prevent the young and the elderly to be taken care of within the family.  Certain Southeast Asian government have only been too happy to see their maids working hard outside the country because the governments benefit enormously from lowered unemployment and higher remittance income.

This week saw a renewed fear of illegal immigration in Japan when more than 700 registered students from the Tokyo University of Social Welfare simply disappeared.  Presumably, the students, from poor countries throughout Asia, thought that becoming illegal workers to earn more money would be a better way to use their time in Japan than wasting time and money listening to lectures in school.  Opinion pieces in Japanese media justifiably sound the alarm.  Many attacked the halfhearted attempt by the Abe administration to bring in more "foreign technical staff," arguing that such measures would only lead to Japan becoming a land of illegal immigrants.

It certainly has not been a good week for Boeing.  After one of its planes was blamed for the fatal crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, renewed allegations that the model, Boeing 737 MAX, is technically flawed resurfaced, leading to a worldwide grounding of the model.  While airlines and national governments quickly halted the use of the model, Boeing itself and American authorities were slow to react to the Ethiopian disaster, only grounding the planes after more than 60 countries made the move.  The slow reaction has led to a global backlash against the company.