"Since the regular room is booked out, we will move you into a two-bedroom suite for your stay," the receptionist casually mentioned upon the author's check-in. The author, for his business trip this time in the Philippines, was placed into a gigantic service residence unit. Wowed by the sheet size of the bedrooms, the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom...the author was just giving himself a tour of the place when he noticed a little dark alley on the side of the kitchen, away from the bedrooms and the main door.
Curious about what lies beyond, the author walks down the dark hallway, which, after turning a corner, comes up two doors. Behind one door was a separate bathroom with its own toilet and shower, while the other was a small bedroom, with only a covered mattress on the floor, a little window, and a small clothing rack attached to the wall. Just as the author was amused by the presence of what seems to be the "hidden third bedroom" of the purported two-bedroom suite, he realized that both the bathroom and the bedroom are practically sizes of large walk-in closets, fitting one person and not much more.
Its hidden location on the dark side of the kitchen easily explains that this set of residential quarters are not designed for the paying customers occupying in the main portion of the suite. Instead, they are for the residential maid, who probably would need quick access to the kitchen, and cynical as it may sound, convenient visual disappearance from his/her employers. The author has heard of this arrangement in houses of upper class Filipinos before, but has never heard of it being replicated in a hotel environment, in this country or any other.
The fact that such special quarter for the maid exists in hotels speaks volumes about just how prevalent the idea of hiring domestic help is among the well-off of this society. And it is not something peculiar for Filipinos and foreigners residing in the Philippines. Working as maids in foreign households across the world has provided large numbers of young Filipino and Indonesian females with overseas employment, enabling them to send valuable remittances to relatives and families back home to boost meager provincial incomes.
Yet, the part of rise in number of domestic help across the world can be attributed not simply based on absolute need for their services. With advent of affordable household robots like the Roomba, the absolute amount of menial household work, in terms of hours needed, should have declined. Yet, as incomes for many rose, they have spent more acquiring both the latest household electronics AS WELL AS good-old-fashioned human help. The human help has not become obsolete, they just became more skilled with electronics than with likes of washing boards and buckets.
The phenomenon points to the power of conspicuous consumption among the rising middle class of emerging markets like the Philippines. Just like purchasing nice cars and hand bags, the presence of a maid holding one's young children in public places displays that one has financially "made it." This is well-reflected in household dramas across the Asia-Pacific, where conventionally (especially among the female characters) the powerful is portrayed to preside over the downtrodden through a employer-household help social relationship.
It also helps that domestic help has traditionally been a privilege associated with aristocracy with landed estates. Given the public's continued fascination with hereditary royalty, it is unsurprising that some will be willing to pay a relatively small financial price to give themselves a semblance of that royalty feel. As racist as it is, the fact that domestic help come from foreign lands with darker skinned people and poor records of human development also serve to amplify the employer's self-pride as a dignity assisting the unfortunate.
Either way, given the usefulness of the domestic help in all these aspects not strictly related to doing domestic household work, it should be expected that their numbers will grow, both statistically and visibly observed on the streets, over the next decades as more people become wealthy enough to afford their services. Given the need to flaunt them in public for their social purposes to be satisfied, there will also be a corresponding demand to house them during their employers' overnight trips. Expect more hotels with dinghy little maid rooms to pop up over all the world.
Curious about what lies beyond, the author walks down the dark hallway, which, after turning a corner, comes up two doors. Behind one door was a separate bathroom with its own toilet and shower, while the other was a small bedroom, with only a covered mattress on the floor, a little window, and a small clothing rack attached to the wall. Just as the author was amused by the presence of what seems to be the "hidden third bedroom" of the purported two-bedroom suite, he realized that both the bathroom and the bedroom are practically sizes of large walk-in closets, fitting one person and not much more.
Its hidden location on the dark side of the kitchen easily explains that this set of residential quarters are not designed for the paying customers occupying in the main portion of the suite. Instead, they are for the residential maid, who probably would need quick access to the kitchen, and cynical as it may sound, convenient visual disappearance from his/her employers. The author has heard of this arrangement in houses of upper class Filipinos before, but has never heard of it being replicated in a hotel environment, in this country or any other.
The fact that such special quarter for the maid exists in hotels speaks volumes about just how prevalent the idea of hiring domestic help is among the well-off of this society. And it is not something peculiar for Filipinos and foreigners residing in the Philippines. Working as maids in foreign households across the world has provided large numbers of young Filipino and Indonesian females with overseas employment, enabling them to send valuable remittances to relatives and families back home to boost meager provincial incomes.
Yet, the part of rise in number of domestic help across the world can be attributed not simply based on absolute need for their services. With advent of affordable household robots like the Roomba, the absolute amount of menial household work, in terms of hours needed, should have declined. Yet, as incomes for many rose, they have spent more acquiring both the latest household electronics AS WELL AS good-old-fashioned human help. The human help has not become obsolete, they just became more skilled with electronics than with likes of washing boards and buckets.
The phenomenon points to the power of conspicuous consumption among the rising middle class of emerging markets like the Philippines. Just like purchasing nice cars and hand bags, the presence of a maid holding one's young children in public places displays that one has financially "made it." This is well-reflected in household dramas across the Asia-Pacific, where conventionally (especially among the female characters) the powerful is portrayed to preside over the downtrodden through a employer-household help social relationship.
It also helps that domestic help has traditionally been a privilege associated with aristocracy with landed estates. Given the public's continued fascination with hereditary royalty, it is unsurprising that some will be willing to pay a relatively small financial price to give themselves a semblance of that royalty feel. As racist as it is, the fact that domestic help come from foreign lands with darker skinned people and poor records of human development also serve to amplify the employer's self-pride as a dignity assisting the unfortunate.
Either way, given the usefulness of the domestic help in all these aspects not strictly related to doing domestic household work, it should be expected that their numbers will grow, both statistically and visibly observed on the streets, over the next decades as more people become wealthy enough to afford their services. Given the need to flaunt them in public for their social purposes to be satisfied, there will also be a corresponding demand to house them during their employers' overnight trips. Expect more hotels with dinghy little maid rooms to pop up over all the world.
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